10/13/2009 4:29:13 PM
Wayland Baptist University a member of the Sooner Athletic Conference and a Division I member of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), has announced today, October 13, 2009, that they are starting the first two collegiate wrestling teams in the state of Texas in 26 years.
By adding both Men’s and Women’s wrestling Wayland Baptist will be pioneering the way and bringing their total athletic team count to 14 varsity athletic teams, split evenly at 7 men’s and 7 women’s teams.
Wayland Baptist was founded in 1908, located in Plainview, Texas between Lubbock and Amarillo.
“Adding wrestling was something that I had researched for the past two years. There is a heavy concentration of high school wrestlers here in Texas (both men’s and women’s teams). This to us is a win-win situation. We will bring two additional sports to our university. These young athletes can chose to stay in the state of Texas now and compete collegiately. At Wayland we are interested in structured growth. This is also an opportunity to bring additional students onto campus,” said Greg Feris Wayland Baptist Director of Athletics. “When researching I was surprised to find that there were no competitive college programs in the state of Texas. That was something that definitely tweaked the decision for us.”
Wayland Baptist has a total of 15 campuses, with the main/traditional campus in Plainview, Texas. The Pioneers will begin their competition at the start of the 2010-2011 season.
“The precedent that Wayland Baptist has set today by adding both men’s and women’s wrestling in the state of Texas, is a great accomplishment for the sport as a whole. There are now eleven states that do not have NCAA or NAIA schools sponsoring wrestling. In a state like Texas that had approximately 8,000 high school wrestlers this past year, this now gives some of them the opportunity to stay in state and compete after they graduate from high school. We can only hope that more enrollment driven institutions will follow suit and begin adding wrestling at all levels,” said Mike Moyer, NWCA Executive Director.
Tammy Tedesco
Texas College Wrestling Greg Feris Wayland Baptist University