On July 13, 2007, the University of Oregon announced it would cut the wrestling program, and add baseball and competitive cheer. That effectively gave members of the doomed program one year to figure out their futures. For most, that meant staying in Oregon and not wrestling.
For former wrestlers Kyle Bounds and Charlie Alexander, quitting wasn’t an option. Both were members of the last team to compete at Oregon in the 2007-08 season, and they wanted to keep participating in the sport they loved. Bounds and Alexander felt that although the University gave them a raw deal, they couldn’t let that stop them from moving on.
“I wanted to wrestle, so I knew I was going to have to go somewhere,” Alexander said. “But it sucked having to leave my teammates and friends.”
The redshirt sophomore transferred to Western State College of Colorado, where he played football this fall. Alexander is now in the middle of wrestling, and through his first nine matches in the heavyweight class he’s 7-2.
“It’s a good place to be,” Alexander said. “I was looking for a place where I could be successful and be comfortable. They recruited me out of high school and I liked it, so it was a pretty easy decision.”
Alexander, who was a four-time state champion at Crater High School in Oregon, was one of two Ducks to qualify for the NCAA Championships last season, the other being junior Ryan Dunn.
Unlike Alexander, who moved to Division-II, Bounds decided to stay in Division-I. He transferred to Michigan State University, a school in the Big Ten Conference that prides itself on its wrestling heritage.
“I felt the trend in the Pac-10 was upsetting and I needed to get out of it,” Bounds said this summer. “I didn’t want to finish out my last two years somewhere else then have my alma mater drop wrestling. I wanted to go somewhere where wrestling had a strong tradition.”
With teams like Iowa, Illinois and Ohio State consistently ranked in top 10, the conference has made a name for itself on the mats. And Bounds has fit right in so far this year, He’s 9-8 in the 157-pound division heading into conference meets, while splitting time with another wrestler for starts.
“I’m really excited for this season,” Bounds said. “It gives me a chance to wrestle against the best wrestlers in the country every week, and gives me the opportunity to establish myself as ‘the guy’ in my weight class. It’s all going good; I’m still getting to wrestle.”
That attitude epitomizes Bounds’ mentality. The politics behind the decision to cut wrestling upset him at first, but wrestling has always been his main priority. He is concerned for the Northwest, where wrestling is becoming less and less popular.
“I’m afraid that the state of Oregon is going to become like Washington,” Bounds said.
“Washington doesn’t have a Division-I wrestling program. It’s a sad situation for the Northwest. Wrestling is a tradition in the Midwest, and it should be back home, too.”
Bounds even lost faith in the judicial system, saying that October’s decision by a Marion County judge to rule against the program’s attempts for reinstatement came as no surprise to him.
“I knew we had a case, but we didn’t have enough guys coming back to make it a legitimate one,” he said. “I was hoping, but it felt like a Hail Mary to me. It all seemed pretty final to me last winter when I wrestled my last match in Oregon.”
Alexander and Bounds have both moved on. Neither hold much of a grudge against the school that cut their sport.
“It’s all pretty much settled for me,” Alexander said. “I’ve come to terms with it all.”
Their new schools represent a second chance to fulfill their goals as wrestlers. In fact, the hardest thing for the two wasn’t the transition in school or competition – it was the weather. Alexander said the dry-cold is a new experience for him; he’s used to the wetness of Oregon. Bounds agreed, saying the bitter winds sap the strength out of him.
“The cold weather is brutal. I’m not used to the snow, I like the rain,” Bounds said. “Right now there’s like six inches of snow, but it’s weird waking up one day to over a foot of snow and having to still go to class. The average temperature is probably around five degrees, but with the wind chill it’s more like negative five or 10 degrees. Walking to class sucks.”
But the weather could be 50 degrees and raining, or negative five degrees and snowing and it wouldn’t make a difference. For now, the two transfers are focused on their first season outside the state of Oregon: Alexander as a Mountaineer, Bounds as a Spartan. For them, it doesn’t matter where they wrestle, as long as they get to compete.
“It’s the same thing, different place,” Bounds said. “It’s still just two guys on that mat, wrestling one another.”
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