Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1276571
With season in limbo, fall sports viewed as bellwether | W R E S T L I N G I f only the answers were as prevalent as the questions surrounding the 2020-21 college wrestling season. Fans of all sports from the amateur level to the highly paid professionals don't know what to expect because of the COVID-19 pandemic that since mid- March has wreaked havoc on not just the sports world but civilization in general. There will be no hype for any collegiate sports this year without first having hope, and Penn State wrestling fans are hoping the Nittany Lions will be able to compete. That means completing either a full season or a possibly abbreviated one de- pending on when the university and Big Ten Conference allow the season to begin. Penn State was 12-2 last season but was a decided underdog to Iowa in the NCAA championships at Minneapolis. But be- cause the NCAA canceled that event (and all other collegiate tournaments and spring sports schedules), the Lions are still the defending national champions, having won four in a row from 2016-19. The Ivy League and Patriot League have canceled all fall sports. Some Division III conferences have done the same, and their cancellations have included winter sports that begin in the fall. The Big Ten and Pac-12 instructed their universities in July to play only conference games in all fall sports. Mike Moyer, the executive director of the National Wrestling Coaches Associa- tion – just like practically everyone else – is watching closely what happens with college football. "I think how that goes will to a large ex- tent determine what happens to winter sports," he said. College sports adminis- trators are "probably a few more weeks away from really seeing what's going to happen with football." Moyer added that it would be "very, very challenging" to move the NCAA Wrestling Championships off of their current mid- March dates in St. Louis. "Just know that every week that it gets delayed, the season is going to be shortened by that much," Moyer said. "Clearly, I sense in hearing from the NCAA they are trying to do everything they can to get the seasons in. Right now, they're really focused on the fall sports and seeing how that goes." Penn State's wrestling schedule has not been announced, and typically isn't until mid-September. But two of the noncon- ference matches scheduled would be the longstanding rivalry with Lehigh, at Rec Hall this year, and a home match against Iowa State, according to Cyclones coach Kevin Dresser on Twitter in April. Those are matches that people would want to see, but one of the unknowns, similar to football, is whether fans will be permitted to attend. Moyer noted that a number of colleges, including Penn State, are not allowing their students to return to campus after Thanksgiving and wondered aloud if ath- letes will be permitted on campus. "There are two schools of thought," he said. "One is that they won't want the regular stu- dent body there, and administrators might not want the student-athletes there. The other is that without the reg- ular student body there, they could make it safer for the athletes." In years past, Moyer said, there was a movement to construct a one-semester season in which wrestling would take place from January to May in order to give first-year athletes the first semester to get acclimated to college without the gru- eling routine of the sport. "It's just sort of in a vetting process right now and trying to figure out how the intercollegiate season can fit the best with our international season," he said. "Try- ing to figure out how those two schedules would coincide is another part of the sit- uation. Wrestling is a grueling, demand- ing sport, and the coaches who are supportive of this believe that shortening that season could reduce a lot of the wear and tear on the athletes." ■ NO SUMMER ACTIVITY Penn State assistant coach Casey Cunningham in an open letter to Penn State Wrestling Club members said that all wrestling camps at Penn State this summer have been canceled. The staff typi- cally hosts about 1,000 kids over a four-week span, and it's a consistent moneymaker for the program. It also affects recruiting, as Class of 2021 prospects can only be contacted electronically or by mail. But the Class of 2020 is set, and it includes lightweights Beau Bartlett of Wyoming Seminary in northeastern Pennsylvania and Robert Howard of Bergen Catholic in New Jersey, and middleweights Austin Boone of Low- ell, Mich., Aurelius Dunbar of Green- castle, Pa., and Matt Lee of Evansville, Ind. Lee is the brother of current Nittany Lions Nick Lee and Joe Lee. Heavyweight transfer (from Ohio State) Greg Kerkvliet also is in- cluded in this class, which is ranked fourth overall by FloWrestling.org be- hind Oklahoma State, Iowa and Mis- souri. Alex Facundo (174) of Davison, Mich., is a key recruit in the Class of 2021, and the staff is in pursuit of other current high school stars. DECISIONS, DECISIONS It will be most interesting to see what Penn State coach Cael Sanderson does with his lineup this season. Depending on the length of the season, it's possible that redshirting could be at a pre- mium. … National prep champion Jack Davis (133/Class of 2018) has transferred to Lock Haven. –J.C. N O T E B O O K