When Penn State faces Illinois at 7 p.m. Friday, it will end a long wait for Sanderson, his wrestlers and the program’s fans. The match is Penn State’s first home dual since facing Bloomsburg on Nov. 15. “We’re not real happy about it as a program because we are trying to provide an atmosphere and an opportunity for our fans,” said Sanderson of the long drought between home duals. Advertisement The Illinois match is one of the Nittany Lions’ five home meets. They host Northwestern, Michigan and Michigan State during an eight-day stretch next month. “It’s probably more disappointing for the fans than it is for anybody else,” sophomore heavyweight Cameron Wade said. “We definitely love to wrestle at home, but we will go where we have to.” The skimpy home schedule coincides with renewed interest in the program that originates from Sanderson’s hiring last April. The timing of the hiring hurt in one regard: Penn State had most of its 2009-10 schedule set when Sanderson arrived from Iowa State. The majority of a college wrestling schedule is set before the end of the previous season, Sanderson and associate athletic director Jan Bortner said in separate interviews. “With respect to all of the schedules for the teams I work with, first and foremost it’s the coach who puts the schedule together,” said Bortner, who oversees the wrestling program for the athletic department. “As you can imagine when Cael got here in April contracts were already firm. There wasn’t a lot of flexibility at that point.”
The Big Ten sets the conference schedule, which gives coaches little control over late-January and February arrangements. Coaches have more latitude in selecting non-conference matchups. The Bloomsburg dual marked Penn State’s lone non-conference home meet this season. The Nittany Lions visited Lehigh, West Virginia, Pittsburgh and Lock Haven. Lehigh, West Virginia and Lock Haven visited Rec Hall last season. The NCAA permits 16 competition dates, with the Big Ten schedule using eight dates. Penn State filled its other slots with the four road duals and four tournaments: the Sprawl and Brawl and Virginia Duals, the Nittany Lion Open, and the Reno Tournament of Champions. The Nittany Lion Open was held at Rec Hall on Dec. 6, but the event’s 10-mat format creates an unfriendly spectator environment. Scheduling might become trickier as Sanderson’s tenure progresses. Sanderson, a four-time unbeaten NCAA champion and Olympic gold medal winner, is one of the sport’s biggest draws and a home match against Penn State can provide a temporary boon for a program. West Virginia, Pitt and Lock Haven had crowds of more than 1,100 fans when they hosted Penn State. The Nittany Lions’ match at Lehigh drew 5,234 fans, the second largest in Stabler Arena’s wrestling history.
Penn State has become a bigger home draw under Sanderson. The school sold 2,047 season ticket packages, a nearly 1,000-seat increase from last year’s total. The Bloomsburg meet drew 4,063, while more than 2,400 fans attended the team’s preseason intra-squad match. This season, Penn State’s biggest supporters have satisfied wrestling cravings by organizing bus trips to away events. “We have a wonderful fan base,” freshman 174-pounder Justin Ortega said. “They are at all of our away matches no matter how far away it is. Can you imagine what we are going to bring in at home?”
Home crowds should swell next season, when Bald Eagle Area graduate Quentin Wright, touted freshmen David Taylor, Ed Ruth and Jake Kemerer, and perhaps some members of the 2010 recruiting class, which includes Central Mountain stars Andrew and Dylan Alton, enter the lineup. The 2010-11 Big Ten schedule hasn’t been released, but one coach said he has seen a proposal that has teams traveling to the same places they did this season. Sanderson said he expects a larger home schedule next season, with Lehigh and Pitt among the possible non-conference matchups at Rec Hall. “I think we are getting to where we have seven home duals next year,” he said. “It’s a lot of work and scheduling is tough, but it’s important for the program.” Friday’s meet is the Nittany Lions’ (8-3-1) marquee home meet this season. The 19th-ranked Fighting Illini (5-3) are the only team in the current NWCA/USA Today Top 25 visiting Rec Hall and the match doesn’t conflict with any major high school or youth events. “It’s always awesome wrestling at Rec Hall,” Wade said. “It’s better to be here than any hostile environment. I guess you could say we have a home mat advantage. It’s great to go out there and wrestle in front of people that love Penn State wrestling.”
Thanks to Guy Cipriano and the "Centre Daily Times" (State College, Pa.) for the article