Local Wrestling Community Pushes Back On CBU Decision To Cut Team

For about a decade, Logan Tan regularly attended wrestling practices at the California Baptist University’s (CBU) wrestling facility through its youth practice club, the West Coast Regional Training Center (RTC).

Tan, now a senior and wrestling captain at Martin Luther King Jr. High School, credited the program’s coaches for his years of athletic, academic and spiritual success. He also planned to start his student-athlete journey at the private university in the fall.

“I want to come here, because it’s just around the block,” Tan said. “I feel like I can establish a great legacy here and come out the other side a great man.”

However, unless he and a coalition of alumni and local supporters can convince CBU’s administration to reverse course, Tan might soon be forced to change his plans.

Earlier this year, the Riverside-based university announced it would discontinue three men’s athletic programs, including its Division I wrestling program, by the end of the spring semester. The decision has already affected about 70 local youth wrestlers who can no longer train with CBU coaches at the RTC. If the decision stands, 26 collegiate wrestlers will also be impacted.

“It’s really part of a bigger problem seen in the Inland Empire as we export all of our talent — all these great, hard working people — and force them to find opportunities elsewhere, rather than right in their backyard,” Tan said. “If we don’t support the institutions that have actively contributed to our communities for years, then we’re honestly failing as a community.”

The university’s vice president for athletics Micah Parker said in a press release that the cuts were necessary as CBU looks to invest in other programs. The school’s website added that federal gender equity rules, a recently-approved antitrust settlement and its available resources were among the reasons why school leaders chose to cut the three programs. 

The university said the decision cannot be appealed, nor would fundraising efforts change the decision. The press release also added that the university planned to honor athletic financial aid packages for current athletes who chose to stay and help those looking to transfer out. 

“We have closely monitored the shifting landscape of intercollegiate athletics that has affected institutions across the nation,” Parker said in the press release. “It was necessary to discontinue some athletic programs in order to offer remaining student-athletes and teams the best chance to succeed.”

Nolan Kistler, a CBU wrestling alum, is a local attorney spearheading a group opposed to the administration’s decision. He said he believes the university was cutting the three men’s teams because it would make it easier to comply with federal regulations, which would require the university to launch additional women’s programs. 

“That was an option that they had on the table, and they chose a very defeatist mindset,” Kistler said. “I’m not saying they weren’t faced with the difficult decision, but there were other options that were available to this athletic department, and they chose the easy route.”

The Riverside Record reached out to the university for comment but did not hear back prior to publication. 

After first learning about the university’s decision, Kistler launched a website to advocate for the wrestling program’s continuation and began a fundraising campaign to collect $20 million to be used as leverage to help convince the administration to reverse course.

“The $20 million would endow the program,” Kistler said. “The university has a 5% return on investment, so the $20 million raises $1 million a year, and that would be the operating budget for the men’s wrestling program.” 

As of February 9, the group has raised a little more than $1 million in donations, according to the website. 

Kistler said he’s fighting to keep the program alive, because the cuts would impact both the wrestling team and the wider Inland Empire wrestling community. The wrestling program is one of four Division I programs in the state, according to Kistler, the next closest is more than 150 miles away in Bakersfield. This, he added, would take away opportunities for local talent to study and compete close to home. But it’s not just the local athletes being impacted.

The future for out-of-state athletes, like Adonis Bonar II who moved from Nebraska to compete for CBU, was also up in the air.

“I’m really taking it one step at a time, staying united,” Bonar said. “With my educational journey, I really liked it here and the classes, the professors were really great. I don’t know really what I’m gonna do after I’m out of here.”

The school’s decision is already making it harder for younger athletes looking to grow in the sport, preventing them from receiving wrestling-focused training. 

The RTC utilized CBU’s wrestling facilities, Kistler explained, with some of the collegiate coaches receiving compensation from the university for training youth athletes. Although the two programs are separate entities, he said, the two were also so closely intertwined that it would be difficult to keep the RTC running without the university’s program and support. 

As of January 29, the university told the training center it could no longer host its sessions on campus, according to Kistler. They have since found a home for the RTC at a nearby jiu-jitsu gym on Indiana Avenue, but said it was more of a temporary solution than a permanent home. 

Tan, who was at the last practice on CBU’s campus wearing a black #KeepCBUWrestling tee, expressed hope that the university would change its mind before he has to make a decision about college.

“This is not about improving your wrestling game,” Tan said. “It’s also about the culture it’s created here in the Riverside community. These are great men, and they influence a lot of wrestlers over here.”