Article:Santoro's plan at Maryland draws praise ... and for good reason.



Borrowing a phrase from Stephen Colbert, a tip of the cap should go to the University of Maryland for its recent decision to extend head wrestling coach Pat Santoro’s contract through 2013.

Maryland A.D. Debbie Yow, one of the top administrators in college athletics, has shown that non-revenue sports and a commitment to winning do mean something in today’s high-dollar world of college athletics.

Why is it a big deal? By luring Santoro away from his assistant position at Lehigh, Yow gave Santoro a chance to build a program and the two-time NCAA champion has taken the reigns and slowly, but surely, started building a winner in College Park.

The extension could also make sure the Terps don't lose Santoro down the line should an attractive position present itself.

Not a single wrestler competing in this weekend’s NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships was alive when Maryland last won the ACC title, way back in 1973.

But Santoro started being selective and tried to sell recruits on a rebuilding effort, the part to build something special and reclaim Maryland’s proud wrestling history.

From 1953-1973, Maryland and coach Sully Krouse won the first 20 ACC wrestling championships. But since 1973, the Terps only finished second four times.

That was until Santoro arrived.

While coaches Krouse and successor John McHugh continued to put winning teams on the mat, dominance in the ACC waned.

After McHugh retired from coaching after the 2003 season, Santoro came in and success wasn’t exactly immediate.

With McHugh still involved, Santoro took the reigns and went 4-9 in his first season. Then a sophomore slump, so to speak, as the Terps beefed up the schedule some and ended up 3-13-1.

Then, in year three, a mild improvement as the team improved from sixth in the conference to fourth and went 8-10.

Year four is when it really started to take shape as the Terps won the ACC regular season outright, tying the school-record for most dual wins in a season with 17 victories to just five losses. A second-place finish at the ACC tournament was the highest since 1990.

Redshirt freshman Hudson Taylor, one of Santoro’s prized recruits out of prep wrestling powerhouse Blair Academy, finished a match away from placing at the 2007 NCAA Championships. True freshman Mike Letts won the ACC and was seeded in the Top 12 at 174 pounds.

Things were starting to go right and with a staff comprised of All-American Brad Dillon of Lehigh and Maryland native Todd Beckerman of Nebraska, an All-American staff was set to put out All-American results.

This season, Santoro’s Terps won the ACC title, ending a quarter-century drought and again went unbeaten in ACC duals. They also found themselves ranked in the Top 25 for nearly the entire season. The Terps upset victory over then-#5 Michigan had announced Maryland's arrival.

This year's NCAA Championships wouldn't see as much disappointment. Taylor finished third in the country at 197 pounds after battling back from a quarterfinal loss and will likely start next season ranked #1 in the nation.

Yow rewarded Santoro’s zeal with a contract extension, further exemplifying Maryland’s “27 Sports, 1 Team,” motto emblazoned on the school’s athletics website.

“Pat has proven he can recruit the best student-athletes, achieve competitive excellence and also expect results in the classroom," Yow said in last week’s press release. "That reflects our values here at Maryland, so he has been a terrific fit. We are proud he and his wife Julie choose to stay here, building a top ten program. By bringing the ACC Championship back to College Park and sending six Terp student-athletes to this year's NCAA Championships, Coach Santoro has certainly put Maryland Wrestling back on the national map... where we expect it. We look forward to the future of Terp Wrestling under Pat's leadership."

This is what sets AD’s like Yow apart. She’s rewarding solid work for non-revenue sports.

Too many times in our great sport of wrestling, great work goes unnoticed, while sub-standard performances don’t even get as much as a slap on the wrist.

Some coaches might be worried about the status of their programs due to cuts in college wrestling programs or just might be afraid to rock the boat.

Santoro hasn’t rocked the boat too much, he’s just quietly building a program. While Maryland isn’t going to contend for an NCAA championship this year or even next, that goal is at the forefront of the coaching staff’s to-do list.

Programs that aren’t performing up to their own standards shouldn’t be afraid to make a coaching change. And while I work for the National Wrestling Coaches Association, I’d be lying to myself if I said every coach out there is doing everything they can to produce a winner.

Sure, some programs have scholarship hurdles and some have had issues with maintaining eligibility, injuries or even numbers due to roster caps and limited funds, but when the programs that don’t have those issues continue to cruise into mediocrity with little accountability, then we see our sport stagnate.

Maryland is an indication of what’s right with a team and a university that has made a commitment to wrestling. The emphasis is on winning with the right type of athletes and learning to crawl before you can walk.

More A.D.’s need to reward wrestling coaches for building winners and re-building once-proud programs rather than continue to just sign a check for a sport that is considered an also-ran many places.

Some changes need to be made. We’ll never see another off-season like 2005 again, where the rotation and jiggering of coaching staffs nationwide numbered in the 40’s.

If someone isn’t doing enough to win, do something about it and find someone that is willing to go the extra mile, like Santoro, and reward them when they get the job done.

How long do college basketball teams stick with a coach that’s gone 14-15 six straight years? How long do big-time college football programs stick with a highly-paid coach who hasn’t led his team to something other than the InsertGoofyCompany.com Bowl in the last decade?

To be big time, we need to all act big time … and maybe, just maybe, reap the rewards that follow.