Is wrestling the invisible sport on campus?

Samantha Casey
Contributing writer

If you had front row seats to any sporting event of your choice, what sport would you choose to attend? Was your answer wrestling? Why not?

Hockey, football, basketball and baseball are undeniably the most popular sports. Just look at the Blackhawks, Bears, Bulls, and of course, the rivalry between the White Sox and Cubs. Even at North Central, students choose to attend football and basketball games more than any other sport offered at this school.

Jim Miller, the athletic director at North Central College and an alumnus, is one of only three athletic directors in the country who have formerly coached wrestling.

Having been involved with wrestling from the time he was 6 years old, throughout college, and then another 18 years of coaching, Miller put wrestling into perspective quickly: Wrestling is not like any other sport.

“It’s hard to figure out what’s going on, which is not the case for most sports. If you don’t know what’s going on, you just see two guys rolling around on the ground,” he said.

Miller explained that basketball and football are completely different from wrestling.

“A basketball game has a start and end time, while a dual meet for wrestling starts at 9 a.m. and can go non-stop until nine at night.” Miller says knowingly, “It’s an exhausting day.”

Most students do not know when meets are because there isn’t advertising like there is for football or basketball. With a shake of the head and shrug of the shoulders, Miller says, “The excitement isn’t there.”

Miller says, “The band isn’t there playing music and the wrestler you’re there to see could be eliminated by 10 in the morning.”

Kevin Bratland, head wrestling coach and instructor of health and physical education, is more concerned with the wrestling team rather than building a fan base.

Bratland knows all too well that “some sports are more mainstream and popular to casual fans and they lend themselves to having a larger fan base,” and “some meets are more attended than others depending on the opponent, our national ranking and their national ranking.”

Bratland says, “I am not concerned with attendance and am Ok with just our family, friends, and biggest fans attending.”

While both Miller and Bratland are not bothered by the low attendance, sophomore 133 pound wrestler Layten Binion, thinks that his peers are missing out on “one of the most exciting sports.”

Binion said he is well aware that “a lot of people don’t have an understanding of the sport,” but still finds it difficult to put in all the time and effort to have only family and friends show up to watch him wrestle his opponents.

Miller, Bratland, and Binion all think that there are ways to increase attendance at meets, such as self-promoting, having meets at good times for students’ schedules, and adding incentives, such as raffles.

They all agree that once you give wrestling a try and root for someone on the mat, all the excitement is there. As Binion said, “like any sport, once you immerse yourself into the activity, that’s when the excitement happens.”