Too often, the sport of wrestling is pushed to the margins at the Division III level. With tight budgets and a lack of understanding from some administrators, wrestling finds itself hanging by a thin thread. This is evidently the case at Muskingum College. As reported previously, Muskingum College has hired Joe Montgomery as Head Wrestling Coach. Montgomery is a graduate of Mount Union College where he wrestled for a single season, compiling a 1-5 record at 141 pounds for then-coach Marcus Lambdin. Montgomery was not a state qualifier in high school, nor does he have any experience as a wrestling coach (head or assistant) at any level, yet he is now the head coach of a college program. He does, however, have experience as the defensive backs coach at Emory & Henry College, and his new position at Muskingum also involves assisting with the football team. Clearly, his position with wrestling is secondary to his position as a football assistant. Muskingum has all but announced that wrestling is not important at the school, and their hiring choices reflect that. The published operating (non-salary) budget for wrestling according to the EADA Disclosure web site was $15,606 for the 2005-2006 season. This is toward the bottom of Division III schools, but there are more than a few schools below this amount, so the potential is there to attempt to field a competitive team, but it appears the school does not have the desire to do so. Montgomery may turn out to be a fine coach who is able to recruit, train, and motivate his team to high performance, and I hope he is able to do so. However, the deck is stacked against Muskingum Wrestling and it is disheartening to see a program marginalized by turning the team over to a coach who:
– wrestled part of one season in college
– has no wrestling coaching experience at any level
– is the youngest head coach in NCAA wrestling
Let me reiterate that I hope Montgomery learns quickly on the job and beats the odds to become an excellent wrestling coach. I just wanted to point out how wrestling can be pushed aside at smaller schools, and that choosing your wrestling coach based on how he helps the football team does not bode well for the future of the sport.
Andy,
I read your commentary with interest. My response isn’t meant for public display…just wanted to comment to you. You hit the nail on the head. I am a 1979 graduate of Muskingum and wrestled for all 4 years ( and was a successful HS coach for 21 years after that in Ohio). MC has always hired for Football first, and then wrestling. Every once in a while they do hire someone who has wrestling experience, but more importantly, can coach football. During my first 3 years there, we had a young coach by the name of Dave McMichael, who did a great job, but had little wrestling experience. (Dave moved up the football ladder and did coach at WVU for a long time until Nehlen retired). Dave left us my senior year for a football job at Southern Illinois I believe (moving up the coaching ladder), and they replaced him with the college chaplain, Cliff Cain, as no one else wanted the job (it was during winter break). I give all of the credit to Cliff for having the courage to help us out and it ended in a Cinderella story as we won the first OAC wrestling title (1979) in school history…and the only one for about 20 more years (MC has won 1 other OAC wrestling title…around 1999). But over the years, I honestly think there were only 2 or 3 guys who had legitimate wrestling backgrounds.
I had this conversation with Al Logan this winter about my concerns with the wrestling program there. Al was just named the head football coach there, and is a MC alumni, and was a member of the 1979 team with me and ended his career at MC as an All American wrestler. He assured me he wanted to get the program back to being competitive.
He informed me of the hire of Joe Montgomery this summer. Joe’s father is Dan Montgomery, who was the wrestling coach at Mt. Union for I think 25 years and did a wonderful job. I am optimisic that Joe will do a good job. They just need to recruit better. I also am a little concerned with his background, but I trust in Al Logan and Larry Shank, the AD, who also was a long time OAC wrestling coach at Capital.
For a long while in the OAC, many programs hired for football first and then gave him a second sport to coach with little regard to the coaches experience, or lack of, in the second sport. Many schools in the OAC dropped wrestling. Marietta, Wittenberg, Ohio Wesleyan, Oberlin are some schools that come to mind that were in the OAC during my time that had wrestling and that no longer do.
Anyway, I enjoyed your commentary, and I do believe that has been the case at Muskingum over the years, but I think Joe deserves a chance and I am excited about the possibilities. Again, I put faith in Al and Larry becuase I know that they want to get the program back to where it once was. Many of the men who coached the teams over the past 20-25 years have worked hard at it regardless of their lack of experience. I commend them. Here’s wishing Joe M the best of luck!
Congrats on a good website!
KP
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