They Don’t Like Title IX’s Hold

Arturo Basulto is the reigning state high school heavyweight wrestling champion, a title he will defend today and Saturday in competition at the University of the Pacific in Stockton. Nationally, he is ranked No. 7.

If the Arroyo Grande High senior was as highly rated in basketball or football, recruiters would be lined up outside his door, full scholarship offers in hand.

But Basulto wrestles, and that explains the number of offers he has received.

One.

He received a partial scholarship from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo -- which he quickly accepted.

Basulto knows he was lucky to get that.

Of more than 24,000 high school wrestlers in California this year, only about a dozen will earn college scholarships, experts say. And that estimate, if anything, might be high.

Of the 462 participants in the state championships, 262 are seniors -- nearly all competing for the last time after four years of pre-dawn runs, weightlifting and endless sit-ups, plus the sacrifice of passing on typical teen-age fast-food fare in the seemingly endless struggle to maintain weight.

“It’s extremely frustrating,” Basulto said. “You see guys in other sports that work half as much as we do and they’re getting a full ride.”

Wrestlers, however, have far fewer options.

There are 243 four-year college wrestling programs nationwide and only 85 compete at the NCAA Division I level.

By comparison, there are 1,270 men’s basketball programs. In Division I there are 321, many of them offering the maximum of 13 scholarships.

The wrestling maximum is just under 10 scholarships and, at least locally, programs aren’t anywhere near topping out.

Cal State Fullerton divides three scholarships among its wrestlers. Cal State Bakersfield has 3.72 scholarships.

While the National Federation of State High School Assns. reports that wrestling ranks sixth among boys’ sports with nearly a quarter-million participants, several states -- Florida and Texas among them -- don’t have a single college program.

In California, there are nine.

“Forget trying to get a scholarship,” said Mike Moyer, executive director of the National Wrestling Coaches Assn. “These kids are lucky just to find a school that has a program.”

In recent years, wrestling has often been the victim of colleges shifting funding to women’s sports.

Since 1972, when Title IX became law prohibiting discrimination based on gender in academics and athletics, 434 college wrestling programs have been dropped.

The sport has been hit so hard, the national coaches association filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Education, which enforces Title IX. Most significantly, the NWCA wants to do away with proportionality requirements, which say male and female athletes must receive funding and participation opportunities consistent with enrollment.

For example, if enrollment at a university is 55% female -- the national average -- then roughly 55% of athletic funding should go to women and 55% of its athletes should be women.

Wrestling advocates complain that even the college programs that have survived are unjustly limited.

Universities, trying to meet participation ratios, set firm roster limits for men’s teams which prevent many wrestlers from participating without a scholarship.

“You have to tell them no,” said Tom Caspari, a former assistant coach at Cal State Bakersfield. “The people who suffer are the kids because they spent all of high school wrestling and now they don’t have anyplace else to do it.”

Title IX proponents say the law isn’t the problem; blame the universities, many which decide to field expensive football programs with large rosters of male athletes.

“There is absolutely nothing in that law that says men’s sports have to be cut to make room for women,” said actress Geena Davis, an accomplished archer and a trustee of the Women’s Sports Foundation. “It’s totally the school’s choice how they want to divide up the budget.

“I’m sympathetic with anyone who doesn’t have the opportunity. It’s sad that any sport is suffering like [wrestling].”

College administrators say they can’t afford to add women’s sports to meet gender-equity requirements, so they have been forced to cut men’s sports.

Wrestling is a logical target because there is not a female counterpart. If a school eliminates a wrestling team of 30 men, it is spared the challenge of finding 30 women to offset the number.

In that respect, said Moyer of the wrestling association, Title IX is not working.

“The spirit and intent of the law is to provide opportunities,” he said, “but in wrestling we’re losing opportunities.”

Top wrestlers feel the fallout.

Daniel Contreras of El Modena, the Southern Section Masters champion at 160 pounds, has received a few letters and phone calls from colleges but doesn’t have a scholarship offer.

His resume: Four-time league champion, two-time Southern Section Divisional champion, two-time state qualifier.

Similar accomplishments in almost every other sport would make him a blue-chip prospect. In wrestling, he is on the bubble.

Even with all those titles to Contreras’ credit, his chances to wrestle in college may rest with his performance this one weekend in Stockton.

“The pressure is always there, you just gotta deal with it,” he said. “You try not to think of it that way, but it’s always in the back of your head.”

*

Wrestling

What: State championships.

Where: Spanos Center, University of the Pacific, Stockton.

When: Today and Saturday. Championship matches begin at 7:30 p.m. Saturday.

Fast facts: Poway is the top-ranked team in the state, but Santa Ana Calvary Chapel, winner of seven championships in the last 11 years, should be in the title hunt. The Eagles are led by senior Joe Williams, who won the title at 171 pounds last year and is wrestling at 189. Senior Arturo Basulto of Arroyo Grande is the defending heavyweight champion.