Wrestling coach training program provides leadership link

The National Wrestling Coaches Association (NWCA) recently launched a leadership-development training program in an effort to better prepare coaches and student-athletes for leadership positions.

The program was developed in partnership with the United States Marine Corps and Southwest Missouri State University. As part of the Marine Corps' Building Leaders for Life program, a two-week interactive Internet-based course will be available to all college and high-school coaches. Coaches who complete the course earn one college graduate credit through Southwest Missouri State. In addition, a companion course geared for student-athletes will debut September 1.

According to NWCA Executive Director Mike Moyer, the purpose of the program is two-fold.

"It's designed to make sure our wrestling programs are aligned with the educational mission, vision and values of the NCAA and of the institutions they represent, and we wanted to begin to put together a formal leadership training program for the athlete," he said.

Moyer said the idea for the training program grew out of round-table discussions with the NWCA membership.

"Too often we take young coaches and put them in head-coaching roles without a lot of training, or we take young student-athletes and put them in leadership roles, such as captain of the team," he explained. "Rarely do we ever provide formal training for either, so in many instances they could be set up to fail."

To date, 85 college and high-school coaches have either enrolled or completed the course. Moyer said the goal is for every college coach to complete the course.

The content of the student-athlete companion course will be integrated with the content of the coaches course.

"The idea is that the coach initially goes through the course and then the coach would work with his student-athletes in going through the companion course," Moyer said. "The beauty of this is that it encourages interaction between the wrestler and the coach. The student-athlete will be working directly with his coach and the coach will be applying the principles he learned."

Moyer said the NWCA hopes to not only add courses to the program in the future, but also develop standards and eventually put a certification program in place.

"Our focus as an organization is to transfer coaching from an occupation to a profession," he said.

The cost of the coaches course is $230. The charge for the companion course for student-athletes will be about $30.

Space is available for course sessions beginning May 1 and June 1. To register or for more information, go to www.nwcaonline.com or contact the NWCA at 717/653-8009.

Women's hoop coaches honor Denver director

The Women's Basketball Coaches Association has named M. Dianne Murphy as recipient of the 2004 Administrator of the Year Award.

The award is presented annually to an administrator, athletics director, associate or assistant athletics director, or senior woman administrator who has excelled at encouraging the growth and quality of women's basketball programs and women's athletics programs overall, and has served as a professional role model for student-athletes.

Murphy has been director of athletics and recreation at the University of Denver since 1998. Formerly the head women's basketball coach at Eastern Kentucky University, Florida State University and Shorter College, Murphy was named the 2000-01 National Association of Collegiate Women Athletics Administrators Division I-AAA National Administrator of the Year. She also was the recipient of the Senior Sports Administrator Award, presented by the All-American Football Foundation. She currently chairs the Division I Women's Basketball Issues Committee.

Division III statistician becomes the statistic

As a long-time stats man, Burt Beagle is no stranger to streaks. But in the course of all his years of charting the statistical fortunes of Bernard M. Baruch College, he is working on a streak of his own.

Beagle has worked 870 consecutive Bernard Baruch men's basketball games. The streak dates back to 1969, the year the program was established. In fact, Beagle has attended every game the Statesmen have played except the seventh one, which he missed to attend an out-of-town meeting.

Sports Illustrated recently recognized Beagle's amazing streak in the "Faces in the Crowd" section of the March 22 issue.

Beagle estimates he has worked at least 6,000 college and high-school basketball, football and baseball games in the New York metropolitan area. At age 70, he is showing no signs of slowing down, either. In addition to keeping stats for Bernard Baruch's men's basketball squad, he also serves as associate head baseball coach at the school.

-- Compiled by Leilana McKindra

Number crunching

Looking back

25 years ago

Here's what was happening within the Association in April 1979:

The NCAA reaches a two-year agreement with a fledgling cable sports network called the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network (ESPN). The agreement, which provides that the entire spectrum of NCAA sports is covered, calls for the exclusive cablecasting of a series of NCAA championships as well as college and conference regular-season events in 18 sports. ESPN President William F. Rasmussen says the network plans to limit commercials to just four minutes per hour during the college telecasts. "We will not under any circumstances interrupt the action of any contest for a commercial," he says.

The U.S. Department of Energy submits a possible conservation plan to Congress that, if implemented, would impose restrictions on the retail sale of gasoline during weekends. NCAA officials note that the standby option, developed because of fuel-shortage concerns, would affect attendance at college sporting events.

The NCAA Basketball Rules Committee votes overwhelmingly not to adopt a shot clock. Secretary-Rules Editor Edward B. Steitz says the committee did not consider the shot clock to be necessary for a game that already is strong and popular. Steitz says the committee referred to research on 50,000 shot situations to see how long it took for the ball to change hands. In more than 96 percent of those situations, the ball changed hands within 24 seconds and more than 99 percent of the time within 30 seconds. Steitz notes that much of the clamor for the rules change stems from an Atlantic Coast Conference game in which Duke University led the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, 7-0, at the half.

The NCAA Executive Committee approves championship criteria stipulating that at least 100 members must sponsor a sport to establish an Association-wide championship and that 50 members must sponsor a sport to establish a division championship.

Television ratings reveal that the Division I Men's Basketball Championship game shown on NBC between Michigan State University and Indiana State University is the highest-rated game in championship history. The game featuring Michigan State's Earvin "Magic" Johnson and Indiana State's Larry Bird is viewed by an average audience of 24.1 million people, constituting a share of 38.