By Tim McNellie, Staff Writer
Wednesday, December 8, 2004
The inter-school agreement that kept varsity wrestling alive for South Fayette athletes may be forced to end after next year because the school is growing too big to continue its partnership with Chartiers Valley.
South Fayette's athletic department is holding a meeting at the high school on Tuesday (Dec. 13), at 7 p.m. to discuss the future of wrestling in the district.
"There are always rumors out there," said athletic director Joe Farkas. "We want to talk about some of the options out there. Instead of all these rumors going around, let's sit down and talk."
With the Chartiers Valley partnership facing an almost certain extinction in the near future, South Fayette can take one of three paths: bring high school wrestling back to South Fayette, partner with another school, or encourage wrestlers to compete independently, with minimal school backing.
The athletic department will report to the school board on the results of the meeting.
South Fayette hasn't had its own wrestling team since the late 1990s. Although there weren't enough wrestlers to fill more than half of the 14 weight classes when the program was dissolved, the district's enrollment is growing quickly and some hope the sport could be reborn.
The quality of South Fayette's wrestling was never an issue - the program's final year yielded three state qualifiers from a nine-man team.
Toward the end, the school put custom mats in the practice year and tried to make wrestling more appealing, but the interest never materialized, Farkas said.
"It got to the point where it took longer to set up the mats than to have the five, six or seven matches each night," he said. "We've had some good wrestlers here and we tried to push the sport but we just didn't have the participation."
Debra Amelio-Manion hopes that will change. The parent of a 10-year old wrestler, she has been lobbying, almost single-handedly at times, to keep the sport alive at South Fayette. Considering the growth the township has experienced in the past few years, a wrestling resurgence is possible, she said.
"With all the growth in our district, what we were five-to-10 years ago, we are not now," she said. "There are a lot of new people here, and a lot of boys who have wrestled."
Failing that, a new partnership is another option. Considering the district's burgeoning enrollment, South Fayette's only option may be Fort Cherry, which is smaller than South Fayette.
South Fayette and Fort Cherry already have cooperative swimming and tennis programs.
If the school takes neither route, South Fayette wrestlers still have the option of competing in WPIAL tournaments independently.
For the past six years or so, South Fayette and Chartiers Valley have had a co-operation agreement that allowed SF students to wrestle on CV's squad.
Right now, seven high school and seven middle school students from South Fayette travel to CV after school to practice and compete.
That may end next year if South Fayette's male high school enrollment passes 225 students - the threshold for the two schools to co-op.
