Goss: Safety must come first

Athletic Director Tom Goss said he would have halted the Michigan wrestling program had the National Collegiate Athletic Association not implemented national regulation changes.

But the NCAA announced last week that it will immediately enact several rules to make wrestling safer. The changes included, among other restrictions, banning wrestlers from using rubber suits, laxatives and saunas in their workout practices.

The national organization also restructured previously relaxed weigh-in times to conform to stricter deadlines, stating that wrestlers must weigh-in no more than two hours before the match for which they are trying to qualify.

The changes came swiftly after the death of three collegiate wrestlers, including Michigan wrester and Kinesiology junior Jefferey Reese. Reese died on Dec. 9, about one month after the deaths of two peer wrestlers - Billy Saylor of Campbell University in North Carolina and Joseph LaRosa of University of Wisconsin at La Crosse.

All three wrestlers died after attempting to quickly shed large amounts of weight to qualify for competition.

Goss said the severity of the incidents warranted such a drastic response as threatening to cancel the Michigan wrestling program if the NCAA refused to make changes.

"If we could not make the sport safe, we would have ended the program," Goss said. "They couldn't have made it safe without the NCAA's cooperation."

Before the NCAA created a level ground for all programs, Michigan wrestlers may have been at a disadvantage because of the rules already adopted at the University weeks after Reese's death. Goss approved similar recommendations made by the University task force several weeks before the NCAA released its new regulations.

"Of course we went ahead with our own rules and if we could have wrestled with our own rules, we would have," he said. "If we would not have been able to compete, then we would have had to make an alternate decision."

While the possibility of halting the Michigan wrestling program has disappeared, Goss said the urgency of making long-term changes hasn't dissipated.

"The rules are passed and there are still some other issues - dehydration and body fat," Goss said. Today, "we are going to begin monitoring them."

Goss said those involved in integrating weight-assessment and monitoring practices will make further recommendations to the NCAA for its April Wrestling Committees meeting.

In addition to implementing effective weight-assessment and monitoring programs at the University, the task force on wrestling announced one further recommendation Thursday.

Task force members strongly encourage the NCAA to consider changing the number of national weight classes and the weights they include. Officials said the weight classes need to be adapted to better accommodate wrestlers' body demographics from what they were several decades ago, when the classes were originally set.

- Daily Staff Reporter Heather Kamins contributed to this report.

01-20-98