Student athlete, college, coaches benefit from dismissal of Californian athletic program
When Division I schools run out of scholarship money, junior colleges, like North Idaho College, benefit from picking up the abandoned student athletes.
Just take NIC wrestler Ryan Zumwalt. Last year, Zumwalt wrestled at California State University Fullerton but transferred to NIC after the school terminated the wrestling program.
The Fullerton wrestling program had been struggling financially for about six years. Although the coaches helped raised enough money last year for wrestling, the gymnastics program failed to support itself.
All the sports programs at Fullerton are self-funded except for basketball and the school would cut a program if it lacked funding. Since wrestling and gymnastics were tied together, both programs were terminated.
“So when they got cut, our program got cut,” Zumwalt said. “And the thing that sucked most about it was the gymnastics coach and the wrestling coach were married, so they both lost their jobs.”
This wrestling season Zumwalt suffered three injuries, one of them being a shoulder injury, that forced him to sit out a tournament. Early this season, Zumwalt also tore his lateral cruciate ligament (LCL).
“For about a week, I thought I was going to have surgery, and if I had surgery, I wouldn’t be able to keep wrestling,” Zumwalt said.
He was told later the injury would heal in about five weeks, if he rested it.
“It didn’t heal in five weeks, but it’s feeling pretty solid now,” he said.
His shoulder and ankle injuries are starting to heal as the national tournament in Rochester, Minn. is right around the corner.
“I’m probably the healthiest I’ve been all year right now,” Zumwalt said.
Zumwalt, 20, Spokane Valley, attended University High School, the same school that teammate Jake Mason attended.
He won an individual and team state championship his senior year in the 152-pound weight class. Before graduating from University, he broke the school’s individual career win record.
As a freshman, he received a letter from the University of Oregon, but the school cut their wrestling program that same year. California State University Fullerton offered him a scholarship and he chose to enroll there.
Zumwalt felt the difference between high school wrestling and Division I wrestling.
“In college, just about everyone is a state champion or state placer,” Zumwalt said. “I kind of felt it was like wrestling the state championship every single match in practice.”
The Division I school proved to be more intense than high school wrestling.
“I think we had about 65,000 people, and finding classes and stuff wasn’t very easy,” he said. “Focusing on school was a bit harder, because the beach was right around the corner. It was hard to be focused in California.”
Zumwalt, ranked second nationally in the 157-pound weight class, is 18-4 this season. His four losses are all to Division I opponents.
The team is 7-3 after Friday’s win. They lost to five-time National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics national champions Montana State Northern, last year’s NJCAA champions Clackamas Community College and last year’s third place finisher in Region 18, Highline Community College.
“I think we can probably win [nationals]. It can happen if everyone does what they’re supposed to do.”
