This is an open letter to Scott Woodward, Athletic Director at LSU. Being born and raised in Baton Rouge, LSU is in my blood. I was born into a family that arraigned our week around LSU football. My dad made it a point to collect every newspaper from the Skip Bertman era. I remember vividly in my head reading the headlines: "Champions!" "Again!" "And Again!" "Dynasty!"
As I grew up a baseball fan, I watched Paul Byrd pitch at Turner Field for the Atlanta Braves. I've watched NFL star after NFL star come through LSU, from Kevin Faulk to Jayden Daniels. I suffered through the Gerry DiNardo era, basked in the glory of Nick Saban, celebrated Les Miles and Coach O as they won their championships. I bleed purple and gold.
As I've gone through life, I've found myself enthralled by the sport of wrestling.
To Mr. Scott Woodward…
This is an open letter Mr. Scott Woodward, the current Athletic Director at Louisiana State University. Mr. Woodward took over the role of athletic director for our beloved Tigers in 2019.
Since taking the helm, Mr. Scott Woodward has seen LSU win National Championships in football, baseball, gymnastics, men's track, and women's basketball. LSU has been prolific in athletics.
During its time with a wrestling program, LSU was just as impressive and successful. From two Olympic medalists, Kevin Jackson (gold, 1992) and Joey Atiyeh (silver, 1984), LSU alumni thrived.
This letter is to Mr. Woodward and will attempt to make a strong case for the return of LSU wrestling through the angle of several people that are invested in the situation. The list of people are as follows:
- Mike Clevenger, LSU All-American, 1984
- Grant Leeth, Tarleton State head wrestling coach
- Skylar Whiddon and David George, LSU wrestling club co-captains
- Rodrigo Diaz, Missouri wrestling alumni, Louisiana native
- Jimmy Bible, head coach at Brusly High
- Kevin Jackson, 3x LSU All-American, 1992 Olympic gold medalist in freestyle wrestling
Mike Clevenger: The All-American
In 1984, Mike Clevenger was the starter for LSU at 118 pounds. He entered the NCAA D1 tournament alongside his teammates, Kevin Jackson, Rob Johnson, Jim Edwards, Mark Terrill, Lex Roy, Monte Wilcox, Rocco Llace, and Jamie Webber. The team would finish eighth in the country that year led by Jackson and Clevenger's high placing finishes.
Coach Clevenger ended up in Catoosa, Oklahoma coaching wrestling at Catoosa high after stints at Oklahoma A&M and Jenks High School. Coach Clevenger talked with us about what makes wrestling so important and about his time down in Baton Rouge at LSU.
Mike Clevenger didn't start his career at LSU, but it surely ended here in a spectacular fashion. His senior year in 1984, Clevenger tore through Joe Spinazzola of Missouri, Brad Anderson of Brigham Young, and Wayne Jackson of Michigan State, and ended up in third place to earn him All-American honors.
Instead, Clevenger started his career at Colorado University with his ties to the program being from Oklahoma. When he was out for the season with a thumb injury, Colorado cut the program and Mike Clevenger was forced to look elsewhere to wrestler. he found LSU with some familiar faces and it was a no-brainer.
"I had a lot of offers. I actually went to Colorado University first. That was because there was a guy from Tulsa named Mike Sager that was actually the coach up there. My true freshman year, I went to Colorado and was doing good, but had hurt my thumb. Then Colorado dropped that very year." Clevenger continues, "When I went down there, I was sold. I enjoyed it and knew a couple of people that was there. You know what I mean? I knew that we would be pretty good."
Wrestling at LSU brought its success that we've all become accustomed to with modern LSU athletics which have been brought on by Scott Woodward in recent years. But then, Clevenger talks about how getting those quality wrestlers in the 70's and 80's produced some great athletes that were proud to wear the LSU singlet.
"I want to say we were six or eight my last couple of years at the NCAA wrestling tournament. You can look those up. There were three or four All-Americans when I took third, Kevin took third, I want to say Jimmy Edwards placed. There were a few people that were there and winning, but most of the SEC wrestled back then, too. So we were well represented. We didn't have to travel far to get good matches."
Clevenger went on to talk about how wrestling in his area, the less fortunate, benefit from wrestling and how it's helped them have better lives down the road by instilling discipline and forcing on academics.
"I'm in an area that we get some marginal kids that live with grandma or need some help. And it really just teaches them the discipline and what they need to learn that's going to help them down the road. That they have to maintain this. They've got to keep their grades. They've got to perform. And the majority is up to them. I mean, you have good teams, but there's not a bunch of the people out there for you to lean on. You've got to be the guy that watches your weight, that trains right, and does all the rest of the things. But I think that's the biggest one. It just makes better people out of them."
Mike Clevenger talks about how teaching your kids to be better through an individual sport also helps build accountability.
"It's more about the discipline and more about just teaching your kids to be better people because of what they have to be able to do. I've always been an individual sport guy. I like the team. We have a strong team, but it's made up of, you know, you're doing your own weight by yourself. There's nowhere to hide. That's kind of what we've kind of preached and we've had some success."
Now Clevenger is back in Oklahoma and wrapping up his full-time coaching career at Catoosa. He says that remembering his teammates back in Louisiana has been his fondest memories by far.
"I still remember the guys, like we're talking about Kevin Jackson and Jamie Webber, like I said, was just at my house the other day and I run into these guys. It's just the connections that you made. I mean, you know, we had some good guys and getting to compete with some of those guys."
An All-American at LSU may seem like a common occurrence, but do not let that take away from what Mike Clevenger did in college at LSU. LSU just puts out the highest level of athletes across all sports in the country. Mike Clevenger is just a testament that LSU can produce that high caliber of a wrestler as well.
Grant Leeth: Building a program from scratch
Grant Leeth may seem like an odd addition here. He has no real ties with Louisiana. He's a Missouri alumni, wrestling there from 2015 to 2020. Why is he here?
Coach Leeth is the head coach at Tarleton State, a program that recently opened up a NCWA wrestling team. What makes Leeth so important in this mission, to bring back LSU wrestling, is his framework for getting Tarleton State from NCWA to a D1 wrestling program. He spoke with me about the way in which he and his team are going about this. All things seem to point to a positive direction too. Leeth and Tarleton State have recently secured a 10,000-square-foot facility for a new wrestling room. Completely paid for.
Grant Leeth believes that his framework for building a D1 wrestling program out of an NCWA team, which LSU already has (see section with Skylar Whiddon and David George), can build quality D1 wrestling programs from the ground up. In fact, University of New Orleans has been the first college to contact Leeth and his team asking about how they got their wrestling program started and how they can. UNO has started their own club team and anticipates their transition to D1 for the 2028-29 season, just five years away.
If you've never heard of Tarleton State, don't worry. Not many have. Nestled west of Dallas in Stephenville, Texas, Tarleton State is a Division II school making big moves to become a D1 program.
"So, Tarleton, I didn't know what it was either. I was coaching at Stanford at the time when the opportunity came up, and, like, I have never heard of that school. They are transitioning from Division II Athletics to Division I as a school, and with that transition, they wanted to grow their athletic department, and wrestling was one of the things that they essentially wanted to add."
Of course, building a program from the ground up doesn't come without a little help. Grant Leeth talks of some very enthusiastic help he's received from a group in Texas. "The Texas Collegiate Wrestling Foundation. It's local wrestlers, businessmen, businesswomen that are passionate about growing the sport, wanted to bring college wrestling to Texas."
Leeth continues, "So, what they did was hosted events, started fundraising to bring a Division I program to Texas, and got approached by Tarleton, and they said, hey, you know, we're growing. We're transitioning to D1. We potentially want to be the school to support this."
Leeth's approach is novel and new, this he knows. But with Leeth's plethora of experience not only wrestling but also coaching at high level programs such as Stanford and Missouri, he's certainly the right person for the job.
"We're a little bit of a guinea pig for this blueprint, but because the foundation had already fundraised a certain amount of money, they had a budget to hire two coaches, that being me and Jimmy Overhiser, and they wanted us to come in, finish the fundraising, but also build an NCAA club team in the meantime, so that when we do finish the fundraising, we've already got a full team, we transition, and we're ready to compete right away. And so, with that, we've recruited 58 student athletes to come in next year."
The prestige for incoming college students is to wrestle at the Division I level. That's a mountain to climb for an NCWA program. Leeth's Tarleton program knows how to overcome that mountain.
"They all understand that they're coming in to be a part of the club team, and that we're working and fundraising to transition to D1, but what's great is most of those kids being freshmen, they're going to use this year as a red shirt while competing a full NCAA season. And so, your typical red shirt in D1 or D2, you get five competitions, and then you're done for the year. With us, they're going to get to wrestle full season, then they'll have a conference tournament, and then a national tournament at the end of the year."
Continuing on his process, Grant Leeth mentions that a program close to home, the University of New Orleans, has reached out and adopted this same approach. UNO started their wrestling club and is aiming to have a D1 program in the 2028-2029 season.
"That's kind of the structure or blueprint of what we're doing, and you said you're in Louisiana. The University of New Orleans saw what we were doing. They reached out to our foundation president, and now they're planning on adding a Division I team in 2028."
While this sounds nice and fine, Leeth does understand what goes into starting a huge program. It's a massive undertaking that requires coordination from the donors, coaches and administration.
"I'm sure you could use it for other sports, but you have to have boots on the ground within the state, at least for what we're doing. It gets the fundraising, gets the excitement going to the point where you can hire out coaches to start building the team, finish off the fundraising, and the idea behind that was it makes it real. So, you officially have a face of a program with the coaches. Their sole job is to fundraise and recruit, and it just makes it more real for potential donors and people that can support the program and things like that."
Leeth also says that Tarleton was sought out after and the Texas Collegiate Wrestling Foundation was actively seeking out a program to start a Division I wrestling program. Of course, the blue chip programs were looked at, Texas and TCU specifically. But the type of money they wanted was basically a left-handed turn down.
"As the Texas Collegiate Wrestling Foundation was trying to find a school willing to hear us out and be a part of this, most of the time, you get a pretty outlandish number from the university for what they need to launch a program. I want to say University of Texas said, like, $16 million. TCU said, like, $20 million, and that's just a clear sign that these guys aren't serious. They don't want the program."
Leeth's saving grace came from the small college in Stephenville with ambitious goals. Leeth was part of Stanford's program when the athletic department cut wrestling among others and Shane Griffith, a wrestling out of Stanford, went on to win the national championship and save the program.
"Tarleton came to us with $2 million as the fundraising goal. That's as low as I've seen. It took us $13 million just to bring back Stanford Wrestling when they already had a room. They already had athletes. And so $2 million is actually a very reasonable ask to launch a varsity program."
Don't let Title IX scare you away, either. With women's wrestling being the fastest growing sport in America, Leeth is committed to starting a women's program and the $2 million budget will consist of that as well. "We're not just launching a men's program, actually," says Leeth. "We are also launching a women's program to stay Title IX compliant. And so that $2 million goes towards launching both a men's and women's team."
While the focus will be in state on Texas kids, those that haven't had a local program to compete in at the next level, Grant Leeth is finding opportunities to kids out of state as well that are finding Tarleton State as an opportunity to not only compete in wrestling past the high school level, but also continue their education.
"I will say we've got eight out-of-state kids. Nevada, Georgia, New York, Missouri, obviously Texas, Arizona. So we are doing some national recruiting, but it is a little tougher because, again, we don't have a recruiting budget. So these kids are coming out on their own dime to visit the school."
The LSU Wrestling Club: Skylar Whiddon and David George
As you probably already know, LSU already has a wrestling club that is part of the NCWA. The bedrock of Grant Leeth's program, a wrestling club was established at LSU just last year. With the foundation set, the mission now becomes moving from NCWA to the NCAA and Division 1. Founded by Skylar Whiddon and David George, two student-athletes at LSU, the program had a successful first year and eyes an even more successful second with goals even larger than that.
David George is from Rayne, Louisiana, just outside of Lafayette. With no wrestling at the next level, George couldn't fathom not wrestling. He'd done it for so long and fell in love with the sport. Instead of going out of state, George went to LSU, as many of his peers has. Instead of dropping wrestling, he started his own club there.
David George speaks on how and why wrestling was such an important sport for him to continue after high school. He says, "Wrestling is important to me because it helped me out a lot in high school. I needed an outlet to get my frustration and I needed something to do after school just to stay away from home for a little bit longer, and that's what it was for me. And now that I'm out of high school, for a while I was like a referee just giving back to the sport and starting the club was a way of giving back."
On the other half of the interview, Skylar Whiddon talks coming back home. His family was a military family that was from Covington. After settling down in Virginia, Whiddon spoke on coming back to the state that captured him very young. "I am from Virginia Beach, Virginia. We've got a pretty large wrestling community out here. We hold the nationals and whatnot in my city and so it was a huge culture out here to be a part of. And, for me, moving down to Louisiana, seeing that it wasn't as big, the compelling factor for me was giving high schoolers the same opportunities we had in Virginia down there because we have three different D-1 programs and a slew of D-2 and D-3 programs out here, but there's nothing in Louisiana. So I wanted to offer something of a resemblance of that same culture down there."
Oddly enough, both Skylar Whiddon and David George started separate wrestling clubs independent of each other. They didn't know each other, nor the goal of the other. The two clubs were started in the same week and when Whiddon and George caught wind of each other, Whiddon says they instantly knew they had to team up.
"We both started our clubs in like the exact same week in the year before we actually formed. And then we also started advertising our own separate clubs the exact same week as well. And we found out about each other and we were like, 'Wait, you're not part of us?' We realized we weren't so we met up one day."
Whiddon continues, speaking of the growth of the program in it's first year. The team has had a good amount of consistent members and this incoming class promises more growth, something the young LSU wrestling club needs to see.
"I would say 15 consistent members. That's definitely going to grow with the incoming freshman class. We got a lot of guys who are interested, not just from Louisiana. We have some guys from Florida, from California. I think we got one from Pennsylvania that's coming also."
The growth has been faster than both Whiddon and George expected. It can be intoxicating to think about transitioning to D1 this early, but David George knows that there's a lot of work to be done on the athletic side of things and the administrative side as well.
"It's further along because the process is just getting to the point where we're talking about it right now. And then once we're big enough, then we can start; as in we are our own like separate sports club entity and we have enough money to be self-sustainable and we have good wrestlers coming out of our club program. And then at that point we'll be in kind of talking about being D-1 situation, just like a lot of club programs do through the same organization that we're in."
And there's been interest in the club as well. There are new kids coming to LSU every year. Even in the state of Louisiana, where wrestling is not yet a major sport, many are looking to stay in state and wrestle at the next level. Whiddon talks about the interest of the upcoming classes that have their eyes on wrestling at LSU as a possibility. With the addition of a wrestling club, the optimism is even bigger than before.
"Just on our Instagram DM's, we have guys asking all the time, 'Hey, are we an official program yet? Are you'll an official program yet?' Guys hit their sophomore year of high school and that's when they really start looking for what they're going to do with their college career. So a lot of guys around that age group who've been asking if we have a timeline on that." Whiddon continues, "We definitely need to make sure that we've secured that funding as a club program first so we can go out and make that difference."
George circles back, citing the administrative requirements that are crucial to starting and sustaining a wrestling program at LSU. "It's just an application process. We just have to show the university that we can operate independently, with fundraising and with our members and member dues. We have to be a sports or a club for a year. So we'll be hitting that mark here soon and we'll be able to be our own sports club."
Living in Louisiana all his life, David George never imagined he would be in a purple and gold singlet. LSU wrestling seemed like a permanently bygone era. But with the opportunity to start up the LSU wrestling club, that dream was realized for George. While not Division 1, it is the start of something new, and hopefully large.
"Oh, it's so awesome. I'm so proud and a fortunate feeling to be able to do that. I mean, I can't say it was like a dream come true because it really wasn't a dream of mine growing up because there wasn't really wasn't wrestling and I didn't think it was a real possibility. But now that I'm here doing it feels awesome."
Skylar Whiddon's situation was a bit different. With his familial ties to Louisiana, coming to LSU had always been destiny for him. After his family settled down in Virginia Beach, Whiddon's love for wrestling grew. The state of Virginia produces some of the best student-athletes in the country. Skylar Whiddon grew up seeing all that and competing in it. Coming home to Louisiana was just the next stop in his life, something that he was always meant to do.
"Man, I'm not going to lie, it wasn't too much of a culture shock. My dad went to Bel Air High School in Covington and my mom went to Live Oak in Walker. My dad just enlisted in the Navy, so we kind of moved all over the place and then settling down in Virginia Beach. So I still grew up eating jambalaya and gumbo once a week. But, I think the biggest thing about moving down there was the weather, man. The weather's so much hotter down there than it is in Virginia."
You can take the man out of LSU, but you can never take LSU out of the man. As long as his parents traveled, moving farther and farther away from LSU, their roots never left them. As an infant, Whiddon was draped in purple and gold. He grew up watching LSU athletics. Coming here was never not on the table.
"As long as I can remember, I had a baby picture of me with an LSU backdrop wearing all LSU clothing, so it's kind of been the only choice for me really. I applied to a couple of D-2 colleges that were looking at me but I didn't want to go anywhere else except for LSU. So to be able to put on a singlet at LSU, like David said, it's not a dream come true because I never grew up dreaming about it because there was never a program. But it's something that I'm proud to be one of the founding members of."
Skylar Whiddon and David George are just two of the members of the LSU wrestling club. They all hope to have LSU return to the world of wrestling and produce the top athletes in the sport like they did in times past. The co-captains are enthusiastic about wrestling returning to LSU, but also realistic. They know the logistical red tape to cross. They know they have to prove the sustainability of the program, as not to be a leech on the school. They are focused on building the future of the program one brick at a time. The foundation is being laid for the next generation of Louisiana wrestlers to come through and build upon what they've built.
Rodrigo Diaz: In-state talent
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There is talent within Louisiana proper. Getting elite athletes will always involve recruiting out of state. But the backbone of a great wrestling program is cultivating and finding in-state talent. Rodrigo Diaz is just that. He wrestled just 60 miles down I-10 at Lafayette High.
A Lafayette native, Rodrigo Diaz wrestled at the University of Missouri from 2017 to 2022. Coincidentally, Diaz wrestled with Grant Leeth, who we will be talking with later, while at Missouri.
Louisiana's wrestling program for high schools isn't as robust as other states, like Iowa and Pennsylvania, who are known for wrestling. Diaz recalls finding wrestling his freshman year in college.
"I think my freshman year there was five guys on the team, six guys on the team. And, yeah, I had a wrestling coach that took it over. It was a football coach, so he got me and a bunch of friends off the football team to come try it."
In all of combat sports, be it wrestling, boxing, or Jiu Jitsu, there's a moment of humbling that is near universal. Diaz found that moment as he joined the wrestling team with a friend from his childhood.
"And there was just like a 182-pounder. Whoever wants to step in the middle with me, like, come on. And I was, like, 210. I was like, hey, what's up, man? Because we used to wrestle on the trampoline and in the backyard. Dude, he just bodied me, like, body slammed me, like, whooped my ass. I loved it."
Diaz loved sports growing up but didn't find success anywhere until he found wrestling.
"I wasn't very good at sports before I started wrestling, and it kind of changed everything for me. I loved it. It made me better at everything else. I was fortunate enough to have stuff work out for me and keep doing it."
After he graduated high school, Rodrigo Diaz was looking for somewhere to continue the sport he loved. Missouri, the same Missouri that LSU beat 49-39 last football season, held a camp in Lafayette, in LSU's own back yard. Diaz knew it was going to be tough and that Louisiana's high school system did not facilitate as much success at the next level.
"Mizzou actually came down to Lafayette. I think it was the last year they did that, and they put on a camp And just after hearing Coach Smith talk and seeing that, it's like a real thing at that next level. I mean, coming up in a state without college wrestling at all, it doesn't even seem real. You've got a bunch of high schoolers doing it, but everybody's coach has wrestled one year in high school. And everybody knows random, messed-up techniques."
He was enthralled. The idea of wrestling in college intoxicated Rodrigo Diaz. It was wrestling that hooked in Diaz. Not just the sport, but what the sport of wrestling brings to a person's life.
"The way he talked about wrestling and life, I knew that was the kind of person I wanted to be. I just love the grind. I love being able to get creative when you're on the mat. Being able to learn something new every day." Rodrigo Diaz continues, "No matter how good you are, somebody's going to be able to kick your ass. And I like that too, this idea of being able to get better."
Diaz was swift to take action. He knew he wanted to wrestle at Missouri. He reached out to everyone he knew from the program in an effort to find out what he needed to do to earn his spot on the Missouri roster.
"Once I decided that was what I wanted to do, I messaged everybody on the coaching staff from their academic advisor to the GA just asking, like, 'Hey, like, my dream is to wrestle at Mizzou. Like, how can I make that happen?' They told me to come to the wrestling camp. And so, I grinded all summer and my parents were nice enough to drive me up there the 14 hours away it was, at the time, that was one of the closest D1 programs in the top 10 to us."
Once in college, it was a huge shock. His skills were far behind the kids that came from traditional wrestling areas.
"I had to relearn everything, like, from scratch. It wasn't just getting in shape for college. I didn't know how to do anything right." He continues, "These people have been learning a perfect sweep single for, I don't know, since they were in, like, the sixth grade. And I found out I'd been doing it wrong for four years."
Diaz goes on to talk about the benefits of an in-state program. "If we had a college in Louisiana that wrestled, it wouldn't have even had to be D1, I promise you, I would have been at every camp, every duel."
While I didn't want to ask him directly if he would have chosen LSU over Missouri, I did ask if Rodrigo Diaz would have other considerations if an in-state program option existed for him. We can never take away the great times he had at Missouri. But an option at LSU would have been tantalizing, Diaz admits.
"At the end of the day, it would have came down to where I would have felt most at home, most supported. But being able to have family and friends or, be able to see that vision, like, watching duels or tournaments and be able to drive home during the holidays. It would have been night and day, especially down south."
None of this is to say Louisiana doesn't have a talented pool of wrestlers coming out of high school at any given time. It's the thought of leaving the state that keeps much of Louisiana's wrestling talent from competing at the next level.
"A lot of people want to stay home, and I know quite a few wrestlers that are two, three-time state champs that decided not to wrestle in college because they had to be that far away."
Diaz was forced to seek his wrestling career out of state. No UNO. No Louisiana Tech. No UL. No LSU.
Jimmy Bible: Cultivating Louisiana youth through wrestling
Just across the mighty Mississippi River from Tiger Stadium lies Brusly High School. The two are separated by 3.52 miles as the crow flies. Brusly's wrestling program is among the best in the state.
Founded in 1978, the school has won 137 individual state championships and 14 team titles. Current coach, Jimmy Bible, took the helm over on 1999. Since taking the job, Coach Bible's program has been prolific. His team won the team state title his first year and 11 more after that.
Even in Louisiana, a state nearly devoid of wrestling completely, Coach Bible believes that the sport is important. But he fights with discoverability. Generally, wrestling is a familial sport. But in the deep south, that is not the case.
"It's one of those sports where you don't grow up unless you have a dad or some relative that wrestled before. Most of the people that I deal with, the majority of them, never wrestled before."
With his boots on the ground, Bible sees that turning around a bit. With his hard work at Brusly over the past 20 years and the job market provided by the state of Louisiana, Jimmy Bible sees wrestling becoming more generational down here. He also notes that once kids get a taste of it, wrestling becomes an obsession.
"Now, to say that, I do have former alumni who bring their kids in, and people from out of state who come in to the area to work in the plant, and they have kids, and they get them involved." Coach Bible continues, "It's one of those sports that kids fall in love with after they do it, because it's something that they can do, they can train for, and whatever they put into it is what they're going to get out of it."
For Coach Bible, the hardest part in building a program is the lack of the next level in state for kids. He points to the time gone by when LSU had a team and the entire state flourished in the sport from the direct impact that the school had.
"I've been doing this a long time. And my thing is college wrestling is so far off to these kids because you've got to go off to go do it. To have teams here in Louisiana would make it more real. When LSU had a team, you had a lot of other schools like Leavell and West Monroe and all those big power football schools who had teams. Because LSU had a team. When LSU did away with the team, they kind of did away with their teams over the years. You know, kids in Louisiana want to go to LSU. They want to go to in-state school."
Kids who wish to compete at the next level, be it at a prestigious college like LSU or somewhere not as elite, do not have that opportunity. With the familial nature our state has, leaving home is hard.
"But they don't offer wrestling. They don't want to go. It's very seldom that they want to go out of state to to wrestle. It's just not that real to them. They don't want to leave Mama. They don't want to leave the friendly confines of Brusly or their state." He continues by saying, "I think if we had more colleges with wrestling, I think it would improve the wrestling in Louisiana. And I think more kids would get involved with it there will be an outlet after high school."
For many in-state wrestlers, it's LSU or bust. State champions who could wrestle somewhere, these athletes opt to end their careers and simply attend LSU or another in-state college. And it's not just Brusly, Coach Tommy Prochaska at Catholic High has also had these issues.
"I've had good kids come through my program, three, four-time state champions. More times than not, I can't get them anywhere to wrestle. And I got coaches calling me. But they say, 'Coach, I'm going to just go to LSU,' or BRCC and all this other kind of stuff. Same thing with Catholic. He had some real good guys, Division I state champions, but they want to go to LSU."
Sometimes, kids are leaving and going out of state to wrestle. But often times, they end up coming home early, again, because of the culture of Louisiana. "Sometimes it's not what they imagined it would be. They're far from home and instead of sticking it out, you know, it's easier to come on back home."
Again, Jimmy Bible reiterates how kids opting to stay in-state and not continue wrestling, despite how much they love it, is what hinders wrestling in the state.
"I have a lot of kids who probably could have went to college and wrestled but because wrestling was so far off they didn't. That is one of the things that hinders the sport in Louisiana is because college wrestling is so far off for these kids."
Coach Bible continues, echoing the main theme of our discussion so far: "We're a big old family down here. I try to tell them, 'Hey, Brusly ain't going nowhere.'"
Talking about LSU's former wrestling program, Jimmy Bible talks on how LSU's program operated once upon a time. In addition to pulling in local talent, like Mike Clevenger, LSU was also very good on the recruiting trail, as one would assume.
"LSU had a really good program. They were getting kids out of Iowa to come down here because it was warmer and they can, experience a different culture."
The SEC already has wrestling, though it's been co-opted through other conferences. Missouri, the same college Rodrigo Diaz wrestled at, and Oklahoma are now in the SEC and have wrestling programs. With LSU leading the way, Coach Bible envisions a reborn SEC wrestling that could compete with the best in the country.
"The good thing is, is you got Missouri and you got Oklahoma in the SEC. Yes. So you pick up LSU, you get another couple of schools to get into the conference." Continuing, "Wrestling is big in Florida because you got all those guys from the Midwest that come down and they want to see good wrestling. So you get about six or seven schools in the conference and you got another southeastern conference."
Be it LSU, UNO, or any other program in the state, Coach Jimmy Bible will be doing his part at Brusly High School, putting out state champions, and working to an in-state program for his kids to wrestle at the next level. With LSU being a stone's throw over the mighty Mississippi River, why not LSU?
LSU's Legacy: Kevin Jackson
Kevin Jackson is undoubtedly the most successful wrestler out of LSU's now-defunct wrestling program. He was a four time All-American, thrice at LSU. He won two World Championships internationally in 1991 and 1995. Jackson's pinnacle was in 1992 when he won the gold medal at the Barcelona Olympic Games.
For several years, he coached Team USA and is now the a coach at Michigan who won a NCAA team title in 2022.
When asked about LSU and the last time he thought about LSU wrestling, Coach Jackson mentions his recent induction into the LSU Athletics Hall of Fame.
"I was inducted to the Hall of Fame a couple years ago. So that probably was the last time I really thought about LSU wrestling."
When asked about why he chose LSU, Coach Kevin Jackson mentioned that it was actually the weather that made his decision for him. Being from Michigan, Jackson was running from the cold, harsh winters that he'd grown up with. Being a wrestler, that led him to two spots in the country.
"Warm weather. I'm serious. Back in the day I was trying to get out of Michigan, and so my top two choices were Arizona State and Louisiana State. And so it's a little different from kids these days with, you know, you go because of the academic field or the profession you want to study. I was just looking to get some warm weather."
It was the ties with his home state that made the decision for him. Once down here, Kevin Jackson was introduced into Louisiana proper. He was captivated by the difference in culture between his home state of Michigan and down south in Baton Rouge.
"I already had the Michigan guys on the team, and so I already had some relationships. But definitely just the culture and the difference between Michigan and Louisiana was pretty evident. From the way people spoke to the food to, I was introduced to a crawfish boil early on in my college career. Those things like that, being in the downtown New Orleans and spending time there, too, as well as the swamp-type atmosphere, I wouldn't say a culture shock, but an understanding and a feel of a different culture."
While wrestling at LSU, Jackson knew they could compete. While he ended up at Iowa State after the program was cut, his times at LSU were of the highest level. The team that would become LSU's final could compete with he best and finished with a strong national ranking after the NCAA tournament.
"I loved my time at Louisiana State. You know, it was my school of choice, and most wrestling people think I spent my whole time at Iowa State, but Louisiana State was my school of choice. I had great memories and great experiences down there. We were a strong team that competed against all the top-level competitions. The team that was dropped was ranked going into the National Championship as a team, fourth in the country."
Much like scheduling USC for the season opener in football, LSU wrestling did not shy away from tough competition. That desire to compete with the best and become the best is what brought top level talent in from across the country like Kevin Jackson and Joey Atiyeh, who won silver in the Olympic Games.
"But we were in a position to win a trophy as a team, and that says a lot for what Coach Larry Sciacchetano did with that program. One of the reasons I chose Louisiana State is because they did travel and wrestle all the best teams in the country and wrestled the best events in the country."
His time at LSU was great, as most athletes have always found. There is, of course, the food, and the culture of living in South Louisiana. But there is also the brotherhood that comes along with any team sport, like wrestling.
"Living in Broussard Hall, there's great memories there with, in the sports-only facility and the athlete cafeteria. There's always great memories of great food there. And so obviously nothing but fond memories and great, great times while I was down there for the most part."
When the program was cut in the 80's, Jackson just had to move on. He was chasing greatness and legacy. But he never quite knew where he stood in the LSU community. That is, until he was inducted into the LSU hall of fame.
"I was in another location and I never went back down to get my personal items from my room or any of those things. I just was off to the next university because it was like being recruited again. And so I didn't really know how the school felt about me and my experience down there until they inducted me into the Hall of Fame, and I became the first wrestler ever inducted into the only wrestler ever inducted into the Hall of Fame and just how they put that great ceremony on."
It was finally then, that Kevin Jackson's story with the state of Louisiana and LSU came full circle. "I finally got that feeling of it being the place that I chose in my home, and they looked at me as a family member as well."
Coach Jackson went on to talk of the day the wrestling team at LSU was cut. This was before smartphones, before social media, and Jackson was told by a coach. When he called Coach Sciacchetano, there was still some optimism about the program returning, despite the Title IX turbulence.
"It was unbelievable because we had no indication that we were going to be dropped. I was at a wrestling camp and the head coach of this university that I was at the camp of came and told me. It wasn't the days of text messaging or cell phones. So I had to go find a pay phone and call up Coach Sciacchetano, and he's like, 'Yeah, and we're working to get it back.'"
Unfortunately, it never came to fruition and Jackson, who still had Olympic dreams, had to move on.
"It was some frustrating times and confusing times, but for me as going into basically my senior year, I had to keep it moving."
Of course, Kevin Jackson would move to the international scene and win a couple World Championships and the gold medal in the 1992 Olympic Games. Having an athlete in your corner as a university is a major boon to a program and university according to Jackson. Iron sharpens iron, as the old saying goes. And a program that creates Olympians and Olympic champions is one that excels in all areas.
"I think it brings a world-renowned recognition to their overall program when they have athletes that aspire to be the best in the world and go on to be the Olympic champions or world champions. So it just allows their athletics program to thrive even more and say that they've done some things at the highest level to help produce someone that's able to go on and capture that."
At the Olympic Games, Kevin Jackson had a call back to his days at LSU when he met back up with another student-athlete, specifically from track and field, and that was a great reminder of Jackson's days in Baton Rouge.
"For me it was exciting because when I was at the Olympics, there was another female that was in track and field that went to LSU, and she was the same year as myself. We came in as freshmen into Louisiana State together, but when they dropped the program, I didn't see her again until opening ceremonies of the Olympic Games, and she had made the Olympic team. It just gets that world-renowned recognition for the university."
Jackson would talk about how standing on the podium at the Olympic Games during the opening ceremonies not only represents yourself and your family, but your university as well.
"When you're standing on the podium or at the opening ceremonies, you're representing yourself, your country, and then your universities or the schools you've gone to and the people that have poured into you, they come along too. I think that's what those in the Olympics are participating in."
Coach Kevin Jackson would go on to beat the odds and take home the gold medal in freestyle wrestling. It wasn't only the Team USA coaches or his Iowa State coaches that poured their knowledge into him. Coach Larry Sicacchetano was with him three of his most formative years. LSU was part of his story.
The importance of an in-state wrestling program
All of this is to hopefully convince you, Mr. Scott Woodward, of the importance and need of an in-state wrestling program. With Mike Clevenger and Kevin Jackson, I aimed to show you that LSU had a great program and could compete at the highest levels of the sport. Coach Jimmy Bible out of Brusly high school showed that there are talents in this state like Rodrigo Diaz in Lafayette or David George who is in attendance at LSU right now. There are students, Skylar Whiddon for example, that will come from out of state to wrestle and grow here as student athletes. Or maybe they just want to escape the cold.
I asked each and every one of these men one common question: Why is having an in-state wrestling program so important for the state of Louisiana and why should it be LSU. Here's what they had to say…
Though he may have just retired, Mike Clevenger said that he's seen first hand what having in state wrestling does for a student athlete body.
"It's very, very, very beneficial because we've got several. We've got a junior college. We've got a couple. My nephew actually wrestles for Central Oklahoma. They're the Division II National Champions. You know what I mean? So there's several options in and around here. And off my high school team, there's five of them still wrestling in college over the last couple of years. So it really helps to have that convenience for your local kids to have a chance."
Continuing, Clevenger adds that Louisiana has the talent. Recently, several Louisiana natives have been doing well in the D1 Wrestling scene. Evan and Jacob Frost are already fantastic wrestlers at Iowa State. Joshua Sarpy is at Little Rock. Jacob Yawn has wrestled at Cornell, one of the top programs in the country. There's Demetri Teddie, Devin Durham, Nicholas McClendon, and Alex Yokubaitis. These are all wrestlers that have come from Louisiana that wrestled in college from 2020 onward. I could bore you by going back to the 80's and beyond, but I will spare you."
"They're not going to go pro, but to have a chance to go to college and continue on and maybe keep them in so they can come back and get back to wrestling down the road. That's what's really going to be helpful. And Louisiana has gotten a lot better. When I was in college, they weren't quite to the levels they are now. They've had a few pretty good kids. It's not as big as in some of the other states. You've got the Frost Brothers that are really promising. They're doing real well. They're from here," Clevenger says. "There's some talent that's coming around. It would really help. I had chances to stay at Oklahoma State. I would have probably went to OU. It's those fringe schools that have pretty good teams that aren't big-time wrestling schools that really got hit with the Title IX."
Tarleton State's Grant Leeth sees how even at the genesis of a program, of how it changes wrestling state-wide with a snowball effect of talent and experience with every student from Louisiana that graduates from LSU and stays involved with the sport.
"It's unbelievably important. A, In-state tuition, you give higher education opportunities to kids for a cheaper price than they could find elsewhere. But B, when you see the D1 team – so I grew up in Missouri. I saw Mizzou duels. I watched these guys compete in nationals, and it was inspiring for me to continue to pursue my wrestling career, to work a little harder, to want to get to that point. And then C, when we graduate, you know, obviously I went the college coaching route, but so many of my teammates graduated and are now coaching clubs and high school teams throughout Missouri. And they've had D1 coaching. They've had D1 training. They've competed D1. Now they're taking that experience and giving back to the youth and high school kids and elevating the wrestling as a whole in the state."
In Texas, Coach Leeth plans to encourage that snowballing of experience, especially after Tarleton State becomes a D1 school.
"That's our plan here in Texas. They've never had a Division I team. They've never had guys in state getting that Division I experience and coaching and all those things. And now as we graduate kids, I'm going to push them, 'Hey, get involved with your club at home or get involved with the high school. Give back to the sport. Elevate wrestling in this entire state.' So many of these Texas programs, their wrestling coaches didn't even wrestle. They were football coaches. They got asked to coach the wrestling team. And so while I appreciate those guys stepping up and doing it, I would much rather see experienced wrestlers in those positions."
David George and Skylar Whiddon, the co-captains of the LSU wrestling club, point out how a wrestling club develops the population to be better citizens. Most do not go to wrestle at the world level, much less the Olympic level. David George says that developing these skills makes for a better environment throughout the state.
"I think it means a lot to the high schoolers to have an option that isn't out of state because out of state tuition is just so expensive. And being from being from Louisiana we don't have the best wrestling yet in comparison to other states. So going out and maybe not even starting and paying for school out of pocket with student loans just is a lot. And I think even on the club level, I think just having competitive college wrestling, for these high schools to go into and to further develop their skills would be huge because not only does wrestling develop you, like skill wise, it develops you personality wise. It develops you physically. You grow up with all these traits of hard work and dedication and that get further exemplified whenever you're in college because you're just giving more time and energy. And so the sports just giving back more."
Skylar Whiddon grew up with wrestling. His coming from Virginia points out the issues with no in-state wrestling for Louisiana youth coming to the collegiate world and are looking to wrestle. Out of state tuition is expensive and giving wrestlers the option to go to college, wrestle, and not have to spend that out of state tuition is a major benefit.
"I'm, going to piggyback off of that. Obviously I'm from Virginia, so I know what it's like to have to pay out-of-state tuition that's ridiculous compared to in-state. So I know a lot of a lot of high schoolers are going to give up on their dreams just simply because of the financial aspect of it. And I think having a program in state is crucial to those guys who aren't ready to give up on their dreams, aren't ready to hang up the shoes for lack of better statement. It's crucial to have a program in state for them to turn to. I mean, wrestling's a tough sport everyone knows that it's one of the toughest out there. To go from something that gives you so much purpose and then all of a sudden have to drop it and go into your freshman year of college where everyone in your dorm is partying, you know, it's a rabbit hole."
He also echoes what David George says about developing character. Skylar Whiddon points out that freshmen year can get many caught up in bad habits. At the most extreme, it's detrimental to the lives and well-being of Louisiana's athletes. Having wrestling provide that structure is something that can mitigate that from students coming into the collegiate world.
Skylar Whiddon continues, "I think having a sport to keep you occupied your freshman year, especially such a disciplinary sport like wrestling, is crucial because, all these guys who are seeking some sort of thrill because they can't get it from wrestling anymore, are going to turn to drugs, alcohol, end up on the streets. Obviously that's kind of like the like a far end of the spectrum, but it's a real possibility in having a program that for these guys to turn to is a huge aspect of making sure the academics are still up to standard."
Hailing from Lafayette and finding wrestling late, Rodrigo Diaz talks of the community that wrestling creates within itself. He also points out the accessibility for boys and girls of all shapes and sizes who are able to compete in wrestling proper.
"I think it being a unique and smaller sport just like increases the support. Because I think people are proud when they're a part of a community. And it's all about like our culture, our community. And I haven't seen a sport with more of that than wrestling. As far as what it could do for the youth, I think wrestling's the greatest sport because anybody can do it. And that's been said by a lot of people. You can be big or small. You can start freshman year of high school. You can be a girl or a boy. It's the fastest women's sport, fastest growing women's sport. Last year, it doubled in size at the youth level."
Brusly's Jimmy Bible talks about the natural athletic talent living within our borders, growing up in our state. He knows that the wrestling talent isn't Iowa or California level, but wrestling isn't an option for a lot of our student athletes and many let that opportunity to compete at the next level slip by because of the lack of that opportunity.
"You have a rich tradition here in the state as far as wrestling goes. We're not California or Iowa or anything like that. But, I mean, since 1940-something, we've had wrestling here. And we've seen our best go off and leave the state, or some of our best don't want to leave the state. For them to have a program here, it would give these children an outlet to further their career in wrestling. I think wrestling in Louisiana is getting better all the time."
He continues saying how even after wrestling is done for a student athlete, be it at the high school level or collegiate level, the lessons learned from wrestling are priceless. From accountability to hard work and discipline, wrestling creates a population of special individuals who exceed in all areas of life, athletically and professionally.
"It teaches them discipline. It teaches them how to think for themselves and how to compete. On the other side of it, wrestling is sort of a team sport because you can get team accolades on if you do well and all this other kind of stuff. So there's a team component to it."
Finally Kevin Jackson, the man who has been at the peak of the sport of wrestling, weighs in on what a wrestling program at LSU will provide for the university. He echoes Coach Jimmy Bible's point that wrestling creates extraordinary people.
"It's about opportunity, right? It's all about opportunity. And if you don't have the opportunity, then you're going to miss out on some things. And so I think with Louisiana State, or any other program within the state, not having opportunities to wrestle at their universities, they're losing quality student athletes. They're losing quality people. They're losing leaders of the next generation that are going to go out in the world and do some special things. Wrestlers produce some really powerful and productive individuals that not only in sports but within the community and society."
Jackson continues, reiterating his point, that having opportunities for your youth as they enter the next state in their lives when transitioning from student to adult are given a chance to exceed at something they love.
"I really think it's about the opportunities missed, opportunities that young wrestlers or wrestlers within the state will have to leave the state for, and wrestlers that are capable that don't want to leave the state don't have that opportunity to pursue the next level of wrestling for themselves while pursuing a great education at these universities."
Finally, Kevin Jackson reminds everyone what makes Louisiana so special, especially for the kids that are right here, in our state, our high schools.
"LSU has strong tradition for wrestling. I mean, we we're a great program. Wrestling, we have great coaches. And also we were producing and wrestling against the nation's best and competing at the highest level. And so when kids see that and they're in their own state and they're close enough to home but far enough away and the weather and everything else that Louisiana provides, it would have been a very, very difficult state to leave as a wrestler if LSU were one of those."
Thank you for reading, Mr. Scott Woodward
Thank you for your time invested in reading this lengthy article, Mr. Woodward. Living in Baton Rouge, LSU has always been a passion of mine. The deeper I dove into this topic, the more I had to uncover which led to more stones to turn over.
I wanted this work to be thorough. I wanted to show how easily a program at LSU could succeed. Of course, there's the hard work in the administration office and on the mat with the coaches and student athletes. But, as with everything else LSU does, LSU wrestling could not only make a triumphant return, but could excel in the sport of wrestling.
LSU could be the leader, not only in the SEC who now has two teams with wrestling programs (Missouri and the newly-added Okalahoma Sooners), but in the state of Louisiana itself.
When LSU shut down its wrestling program, other in-state options for kids fell through. Northwestern, Louisiana Tech, and many others were closed down one by one. Slowly, wrestling withered in Louisiana and options for kids, lower cost options than attending and wrestling out of state, disappeared.
Wrestling in the state of Louisiana at a collegiate level would not only bring prestige to LSU, not only provide Louisiana youth with yet another avenue at higher education, but also could potentially spark a wrestling renaissance in the south eastern United States.
This was a lengthy article and if you did make it to the end, thank you for reading. I hope you see that an LSU wrestling program is not only possible to start, but also has the possibility to become a major player in the collegiate wrestling world. Our student athletes shouldn't have to leave to go wrestle out of state, like Lafayette's Daniel Cormier had to do at Oklahoma State. We can provide that here, at home, where there is no place like it. Mr. Woodward, bring back LSU wrestling.
Geaux Tigers.
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