Second- Tier sports want shot at SMC

Volleyball and Wrestling coaches hope the Save Mart Center can do for them what it does for basketball

By Joshua D.scroggin

The volleyball and wrestling teams would like to enjoy all the benefits of competing in the Save Mart Center, but the teams are feeling a little left out, both programs’ coaches said.

Volleyball coach Lindy Vivas said she used the SMC to lure her program-high eight recruits for 2003 and would like to use the arena as recruiting leverage in the future.

Wrestling coach Dennis DeLiddo said he’d like to make a pitch to host the NCAA wrestling tournament as early as 2006.

But both coaches said they have concerns they might not host as many events as they’d like in the new arena.

The SMC was originally intended to house volleyball, according to several Fresno State documents.

University President John Welty, in an April 1995 letter to the department of education’s office of civil rights, asked for a delay of the installation of new seating in the North Gym.

“ This would also allow us further time to seek support for a new arena to serve men’s and women’s basketball and volleyball,” the letter said.

In the university’s five-year (1999-2004) gender equity compliance plan, a part of Fresno State’s Title IX compliance actions is the construction of an events center to provide upgraded facilities for men’s and women’s basketball and volleyball.

Former Fresno State associate athletic director and current USU director Diane Milutinovich provided The Collegian with an architectural sketch of proposed SMC locker rooms, including plans for a 2,380 square-foot volleyball locker room.

The volleyball locker room was not built, Milutinovich said.

Vivas said she was under the impression the team would host all of its home games in the SMC, but Vivas said she was told recently the team would only play its marquee games in the university’s new on-campus sports arena.

John Kriebs, sports supervisor for both volleyball and wrestling, confirmed Vivas’ statement and gave a description of what a marquee volleyball game would be.

“ Definitely Hawaii,” Kriebs said.

A match against a top-25 opponent or a big rival would also be marquee, Kriebs said.

Kriebs said he’s having banners made commemorating the volleyball program’s past championships to be hung in the SMC and that the arena will “definitely” be the home of the volleyball team.

“ It could very easily end up that way,” Kriebs said. “That’s going to be the home of volleyball. I wouldn’t be surprised if all of the volleyball games are played there.”

But using the marquee-game logic, the volleyball team has only one game on its schedule with the qualification to ensure it’s played in the SMC—Sunday’s game against No. 2 Hawaii.

The Hawaii game will be played in the SMC, and Assistant Athletic Director Steve Weakland said the turnout for that match will give a good indication of the team’s chances to host future games in the arena.

But according to literature obtained from a 2001 NCAA Title IX compliance seminar, one of the top-10 lessons learned from Title IX investigations says economic reasons have never been acceptable excuses for non-compliance.

“ Title IX specifically says just because you don’t have the money, it doesn’t mean you can discriminate,” Milutinovich said.

The Hawaii game is traditionally Fresno State’s best-attended volleyball match—people were turned away form the North Gym doors when the game was played last year.

This season’s contest will be the first competitive intercollegiate sporting event to be held in the SMC, but the team will not host any more events there this year.

Neither will the wrestling team.

The wrestling team will host its first meet in January, and Kriebs said it would take $4,500 to secure the SMC for a wrestling event.

Kriebs suggested getting the wrestling booster club to pay the fee he said was for labor, not rent. But DeLiddo said he doesn’t want wrestling funds to go toward securing the facility unless he’s guaranteed to make the money back at the gate.

DeLiddo also said he didn’t want to lose the home-mat advantage of packing the North Gym.

“ A thousand in the Save Mart Center is not like a thousand in the North Gym,” DeLiddo said. “A thousand in the North Gym is rockin’ and rollin’.”

The NCAA wrestling tournament would get the SMC rockin’ and rollin’. DeLiddo said it was the third-largest money-making event in the NCAA.

Both DeLiddo and Vivas expressed interest in hosting larger-scale events now that the arena is built, but they might have to wait until next year, if at all.