Oregonian Ponders Future Of Pacific Football, Wrestling

These days you have to have a one-legged softball player or a headless basketball player for your small college to be covered in The Oregonian, Portland’s daily newspaper. But over the last week, The O has featured Pacific on its page twice to address a potential future sport and the health of another.

Monday’s issue (Jan. 26) addressed Pacific’s plans to bring back football after a 17-year absence. Pacific’s plans have picked up considerable more press after Division II Western Washington announced plans to eliminate their football 98 years. WWU officials cited budgetary concerns in the program’s demise.

Pacific Director of Athletics Ken Schumann, however, told The O’s Ken Goe that returning football to Forest Grove would help the University’s bottom line, noting the value of bringing 60-80 new student-athletes into a tuition-driven institution. He also cited the fact that since 2000, 47 non-Division I schools have reinstated or started new football programs.
“(Other programs) are using football to grow their enrollment,” Schumann said. “Division II is different than Division I, because we’re non-scholarship, and the athletes tend to be real student-athletes, fully integrated into the fabric on institution.”

Pacific is in the process of raising $1.5 million to find the start-up costs of the program. Schumann said that a decision on the program will be made “in the next several months to a year.”

Meanwhile, The O’s Jeff Smith took up the issue of dwindling collegiate opportunities for wrestlers in Oregon who wish to continue to the collegiate level. In their Jan. 22 Prep Thursday feature, Smith talked with high school coaches and athletes who are frustrated with the continual number of schools dropping wrestling programs in the state.

With the elimination of the Division I program at Oregon last spring, only six colleges in Oregon, offer wrestling. Pacific is one of four four-years in the whole Northwest to offer it, joining Oregon State, Portland State and Southern Oregon.

The article quoted a couple of former Pacific wrestlers who are among a vast network of Boxer alums coaching high school programs across Oregon. Trent Kroll wrestled for Pacific from 1988 to 1992 and coaches the team at Hood River Valley High School. He sees the demise of the sport collegiately as a warning for the health of the sport at the high school level.

”I think that if we don’t have college wrestling, we are going to see a decline in the next 20 years in the high school level because we won’t have enough qualified educators. It’s kind of scary right now.”

Former Pacific All-American Rick Herrin (1981-83), who coaches the program at Salem’s McKay High School, believes it is important for supporters of the sport to continue grassroots efforts into keeping kids involved in wrestling.

I think that the people that are in wrestling now are going to be seen as pioneers that are taking it to a better place. We’re going to win out in the end. It’s like being behind in a match and coming back and winning.”

One can hope that Kroll, Herrin and other Pacific alums will do their part to try and help keep Pacific’s program vibrant, sending their best and brightest to continue a tradition of excellence that they have helped build over the last 55 years.

Why Isn't (Your School Here) in My Paper??!!

There was a letter to the sports editor in Sunday's edition of The Oregonian that I can sympathize with, because it describes the daily plight of myself and many other small college sports information directors. While the letter specifically addressed Western Oregon University's football program, one could plug in the name of many local schools and programs, including Pacific.

"I'm beginning to give up on seeing anything on Western Oregon University in your sports section," the writer laments. "...75 percent of the roster comes from local communities, former prep athletes from communities that read your paper.

"I understand that Monmouth [located roughly an hour and a half south of Portland] may be a little bit out of the way for your reporters to travel. It's interesting that it's a closer drive from Portland than either UO or OSU but maybe not as convenient as PSU. It's a shame that a stadium filled with 3,000 spectators for a home game, a 9-2 record (2007), and playing in the competitive GNAC conference are big enough reasons to warrant a preseason write-up...much less game coverage."

The Oregonian, and just about every other daily, semi-weekly and weekly papers gets a hundred of those letters each year. The fact of the matter is, however, that no amount of letters or threats to drop subscriptions is going to change it.

Ever since the Internet boom began at the turn of the 21st Century, newspapers have seen their market share and their advertising revenue drop dramatically. People are turning to more immediate ways to get their news and information, such as Web sites and cable television. In our "now" society, many are not content to wait until tomorrow to get their scores, stats and analysis in the paper when they can have it sent to their Blackberry or listen to it on their iPod.

As a result, newspapers are cutting back on their coverage and changing their priorities in terms of what is newsworthy.

Here are some examples that have relevance when it comes to Pacific Athletics:
• The Oregonian has seen subscribers and ad revenue drop significantly over the past three years. As a result, the paper has cut back both on pages (which means less content) and offered enticing early retirement packages to longtime employees. Among those who have taken those retirements was Norm Maves, Jr., who was the last bastion of regular small college coverage at The O.

• Pamplin Media Group, which owns both the weekly Portland Tribune and the Forest Grove News-Times (along with 14 other small community newspapers in the Portland area) has lost a great deal on money, primarily related to reduced readership. The Tribune recently had to cut back to one print, on Thursdays, instead of two.

• The News-Times is not immune to the revenue drop. With the expected departure of Sports Editor Zack Palmer over the summer, the paper made a permanent cut to two sports pages per week and attempted to fill the sports position with a part-timer. (Not surprisingly, the paper was unable to fill the part-time position and Palmer continues to write and edit the paper from outside the area.)

• With the cuts in available space, the papers have to decide which teams will draw the most readers, in turn making the business the most money. Division I sports, and specifically Division I BCS football, is king in the college world, which is why you see the overwhelming coverage to Oregon, Oregon State and the Pac-10. The pro sports share that tier (in this market, that means football and basketball). After that, it is prep sports and the steady coverage of high school football, basketball, baseball, softball any anything else with a "HS" after it.

That often leaves recaps from the Pacifics, Linfields, Concordias and Lewis & Clarks of the world on the cutting room floor. Even a really compelling story, such as George Fox's run at the Division III baseball national championship, the end of Lewis & Clark's 27-game football losing streak or the plight of the wrestler at Clackamas CC who overcame addiction to be a national tournament favorite, all takes a great deal of work to make to print.

FOR SOMEONE WHOSE JOB it is to both inform the public about our teams and pitch stories that would be attractive to readers and put the school in a positive light, the current state of newspapers is quite disheartening.

But rather than beat our heads against the walls trying to get every piece of information in the local papers, we have adapted with the changing technology. Kelly Bird, my good friend and the sports information director at Linfield, has talked a lot about how, these days, the school's athletics Web site IS the newspaper and primary media resource for our programs.

I have embraced this approach to our Web site, which is why you see a great deal of detail in our game recaps, previews and reviews. You aren't going to find the information anywhere else, so let's give you all you can on the site.

This is also why you are seeing Pacific put more resources into more Web content and multimedia. As action photos are taken this season, you will see more photos put on our online photo galleries. We have began this blog, which provides another look into the world of Pacific Athletics. With the help of my student intern, we will begin adding more features and profiles on Pacific student-athletes. And we now have our E-Scores service, for those of you who have to have your Pacific score now.

Later this month, we will begin a new foray into Webcasting with live streaming of selected sporting events and Podcasts featuring interviews and highlights. More details on both will be coming in the following week.

As we make all of this information more directly available to you, the loyal Pacific University fan, this doesn't mean we won't keep approaching the newspapers, television and radio stations with stories on the exciting things going on in Boxer Athletics. We continue to work hard to try to put Pacific's story in The Oregonian, on KGW and many other outlets. We just are approaching things differently.

The industry is changing and adapting. It only makes sense that we do too.