Moving forward with women's wrestling at YVCC?

It seems that coaches and supporters of men's wrestling at Yakima Valley Community College are moving ahead with plans to add women to their team in the hopes of saving the men's program which was slated to be cut. [Click on the YVCC tag for past posts on this situation.] The goals of co-head coach Mike Schmitt are to raise money to support women initially as part of the men's team and then create a separate team for them. But even as he and others are planning, the administration continues to pull on the reins of reality.
And here is some of the reality:
Despite the popularity of women's wrestling in Washington, and its growing popularity elsewhere it has not become a sanctioned or emerging sport. YVCC is a member of NJCAA (National Junior College Athletic Association) which does not sanction women's wrestling. The women can compete with the men, though (not because of Title IX, which has a contact sport exemption--but because of an equal protection argument).
Another reality is that YVCC has a Title IX problem in the form of an ongoing, unresolved complaint from 2002. Sixty-seven percent of its undergrads are women and according to the VP for Instruction and Student Services Tomas Ybarra this makes it impossible to comply with prong one. I take a little bit of exception with the impossibility of the situation, but given YVCC's budget woes--which include the inability to fund a women's wrestling program, another reality check--it does not seem like proportionality is short-term option for the school. Ybarra and other administrators are working with OCR to try to come into compliance with either prong 2 or 3 at this point.
So while Ybarra is saying things like this:
"We haven't decided whether we are in a position to go ahead with the concept of accepting women as a part of the men's team," he said. "We're not in a position to make that decision yet, nor are our resources sufficient to support another team. We're not ready to make a decision quite yet. But we're working on it."
Schmitt and other supporters are talking like this:
"We're fundraising like crazy. I think it's going to be huge because of the growth of girls [sic]wrestling, not only within the state but throughout the country. We've received six verbal commitments so far, and none happen to be from Washington."
I imagine there will be future posts about this struggle.

Wrestling at Washington community college saved--for now

Last month the board of trustees at Yakima Valley Community College delayed a vote on the potential elimination of the school's wrestling team. At that time, wrestling coach Mike Schmitt asked the board to consider adding a women's wrestling team to help move the college toward proportionality (currently the athletic opportunities for female student-athletes do not come near their 64% representation in the undergraduate population and YVCC apparently has a history with compliance that they are still trying to resolve). The former wrestling coach has agreed to donate $5,000 to start a women's club team with the hope that it will get elevated to varsity status.

Unfortunately none of the issues were addresses at the meeting yesterday because a motion to eliminate the wrestling team was never seconded leaving the whole affair unresolved.

Some are concerned about the costs of adding another team and of course the current lack of resolution of previous Title IX complaints is also weighing heavy on the school.

But there was a very curious statement made by someone at the school regarding the role of OCR in adding sports. College president Linda Kaminsky said that OCR decides what sports to add; that her talks with OCR lawyers has lead her to belief that YVCC cannot just add any sport it wants to; i.e. they might not be able to add women's wrestling even if they wanted to. She said that when the school added women's soccer in 2006 it was OCR's idea not the school's. I have never ever heard of OCR going into a school and dictating which sports a school should add. OCR has always been very hands off in such decisions. They go in and tell a school what is wrong but it is always the school's responsibility to find a solution. Either Kaminsky is confused or she is trying to deflect blame off herself and other administrators for the forthcoming (maybe?? no word on when this issue is going to be taken up next) decisions.

Using women to "save" the men

In Washington state some members of the Yakima Valley Community College athletic department are proposing the addition of women's wrestling--in order to save men's wrestling from being cut. Though this is not how those supporting the proposal would likely phrase it, it seems to me that this is the ultimate purpose behind a potential women's team.

Proportionality is currently a problem at YVCC (64 percent of the student population are women but just 47 percent of the athletic opportunities go to women). Other 2-year institutions in the area have similar problems with providing opportunities according to one school official--a lousy excuse for not being out of compliance if you ask me--but YVCC is under more scrutiny because of a Title IX complaint in 2002 that has yet to be resolved.

There has been some discussion about eliminating men's wrestling after next year's season. Those wishing to save it have suggested that adding a women's team might be a better fix. I am glad women's wrestling is growing and that those supporting the addition have cited such growth and seem to believe that a women's wrestling program would draw some of the many girls now wrestling in high school.

But I am a little worried about the motives. Also, there has been no discussion of finances. Can the school adequately support another team? Or will the women, as the newest addition and one that is seemingly meant to be a stop gap measure of sorts, be short shrifted.