[Sly Fox]

Coach Castro interviewed in story up in jersey about the state of college wrestling ...

Former Kingsway coach Jesse Castro, who won five consecutive regional titles as the head coach at Liberty University, saw his program downgraded to club status after last season to comply with Title IX laws. The school would like to have wrestling as a varsity sport, but feels that legally it can’t.

“On the Division I level, it’s grim,” said Castro, who feels the sport is hurt by a lack of administrators with wrestling backgrounds in colleges and high schools.

“Any Division I coach would agree with that, no one is safe. I’m even parodying that from (wrestling and coaching legend) Dan Gable, that’s what he said at the national coaches convention, no one is safe because of the peripheral issues. We do what we can to strengthen our programs, but it doesn’t look good.

“On the positive side, there are great things occurring behind the scenes, with the leadership education the NWCA enacted. We’re taking the right steps — building leadership skills, increasing recognition of positive APR numbers. NAIA and Division II have increased 30 programs over the last four or five years. There’s growth in college wrestling, just not Division I.”

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