The Daily Gamecock

Issue date: 11/2/05 Section: Sports

Media Credit: Juan Blas / The Gamecock Members of the USC wrestling club practice at the Strom Thurmond Wellness and Fitness Center on Tuesday. The club formed in 2002.

They are comprised of some of the best athletes at USC. They compete in a well-known Olympic sport that saw Oklahoma State claim the 2005 national championship. They even take on Clemson in a November battle.

Yet they aren't a member of the NCAA, and as a club team, they don't receive any support from the athletics department.

Fourth-year political science student Doug Gainey, president of the USC wrestling club, oversaw the creation of the team in fall 2002. A former state champion at Lugoff-Elgin High School, Gainey continued where another student left off in establishing the club team through Student Government. With support from more than 50 members, he hopes to soon turn the club into an NCAA team.

"One of the reasons I started this club was to bring wrestling to the South," Gainey said. "Title IX has really destroyed a lot of college programs, including Clemson's back in the early nineties. The National Collegiate Wrestling Association provides schools a chance to rebuild their program in hopes it will eventually become a registered NCAA sport."

With the club team established, the next step for Carolina's wrestlers is to become registered with the NCWA, whose mission is "to provide a spawning ground for new wrestling programs at the college level." After three years of contract issues, Gainey expects to be admitted to the Mid-Atlantic Conference of the NCWA soon. Twenty-one teams from Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia make-up the Mid-Atlantic Conference, including what will soon be Carolina's main rival - Clemson.

The Apprentice School (Virginia) won the conference title for two straight seasons, with Newberry College finishing No. 3 in 2005, the highest placement for a South Carolina team. The conference includes Tennessee and Vanderbilt from the SEC and Wake Forest, Duke, Virginia Tech and Clemson from the ACC.

Until the club gains membership, they will be relying on open tournaments for competition. Five tournaments are being considered, including The Citadel Open and the Carolina-Rubbermaid Open in Chapel Hill, N.C. A meeting with Clemson is scheduled for Nov. 9 with the time and location to be announced.

Continued...

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