Cleveland State CSU logo

Cleveland State officials met Wednesday to discuss whether to continue with a plan to defund the wrestling team and add men's lacrosse.

(CSU)

CLEVELAND, Ohio - Cleveland State saved its wrestling team Wednesday. The university announced it will restore and fund wrestling, reversing an earlier decision to defund the program. The school still plans to add men's lacrosse in 2016.

CSU is to raise student fees $1 per credit hour, or about $15 a semester, to assure wrestling's future.

"I can't overstate how excited we are,'' junior co-captain Riley Shaw said. "This obviously was pretty stressful. Me and my teammates, there was a lot of, 'What are we going to do?' This weight has been lifted off a lot of guys' shoulders.''

CSU chief marketing officer Rob Spademan said the decision to restore wrestling was reached at a senior staff meeting Wednesday afternoon. He said university took note of reaction to the March 30 announcement the team was to be defunded following the 2015-16 season to make room for men's lacrosse.

That announcement was met with swift reaction at the school and across Northeast Ohio, a wrestling hotbed for decades, as well as within the national wrestling community.

Last week, CSU students voted, 975-650, in favor of a non-binding referendum to raise student fees $4-6 per credit hour to pay for wrestling and a women's sport.

"The key thing is we, as an administration, listened to the students, and we figured out a way to do it without a major (fee) increase to the students,'' Spademan said. "This started with us adding lacrosse with lots of good reasons, but not wanting to raise fees.''

Spademan said CSU will look at adding or expanding a women's sport once men's lacrosse is up and running.

The wrestling team received the good news while attending a volunteer appreciation dinner at Crossroads Hospice in Valley View, where the team frequently visits and helps patients and staff.

"This is awesome,'' freshman Nick DeRosa said. "I was thinking about my options and now I'm glad I don't have to. I'm here, and I'm here to stay.''

Initially, CSU planned to add men's lacrosse and an undetermined women's sport. When funding wasn't available, Athletic Director John Parry said he chose to defund wrestling. Parry is a former lacrosse coach who pushed the fast-growing sport at the school to help attract students from out-ring suburbs.

"I think they weren't as in touch with the community in Northeast Ohio and especially at Cleveland State as they should be,'' Shaw said. "I think the analysis John Parry did was biased and I think it was a mistake.''

Wrestling coach Ben Stehura said that while recruiting was paused for about three weeks, none of the four recruits already committed has changed his mind. He said the attention and the support the team received could be a positive in the long run.

"This has united a lot of people behind us,'' Stehura said.

Parry recently said he set the the lacrosse budget at $475,000 compared to wrestling's $384,000, with both offering about 10 scholarships.

On March 30, CSU gave the wrestling team and its supporters one year to raise $800,000 to fund wrestling for the 2016-17 and 2017-18 seasons, at the end of which it was required to have a $5 million endowment to continue, which many wrestling observers considered a death sentence and a bad precedent for the sport.

Officials from the National Wrestling Coaches Association and Cleveland-based Wrestlers in Business Network met with Parry and made the case to keep the program alive with a partnership that included both external and university funding.

Spademan said the university will continue to seek a partnership.

Cleveland State is coming off its best wrestling season in about 10 years. It was 7-3 overall and 4-2 in the highly regarded Eastern Wrestling League, and had two national qualifiers. The bulk of the lineup is to return next season. CSU also is among the league's best wrestling teams academically. One of the national qualifiers, senior Ben Willieford, recently received CSU's highest student-athlete honor, the John McLendon Award for integrity, honor, and leadership with a commitment to civility and service.

The wrestling team operates a USA Wrestling regional training center geared toward youth wrestlers, which the wrestling community considers a valuable asset for the sport's success locally.

Cleveland and the Mid-American Conference is to host the 2018 NCAA Division I wrestling championships. The city hosted the Division II championships in 2014.