Help Save UNO Wrestling

A few hours after the University of Nebraska at Omaha won their third NCAA Division II title in a row, Athletic Director Trev Alberts announced that the school was dropping their wrestling program to help smooth their transition to NCAA Division I.

2010 World Team memeber, Les Sigman, a UNO alumnus, has asked the community to help. Here are some excerpts from his blog.

I watched my alma mater win its eighth National Championship in wrestling last night via webcast where they crowned three individual National Champions and had seven All-Americans. It was another great year for the Mavericks and Coach Mike Denney. Just after UNO was wrapping up their National Championship celebration, Coach Denney received a phone call from Athletic Director Trev Alberts notifying him that UNO will be dropping the sport of wrestling and shocking the wrestling community.

Coach Denney has been the head coach at UNO for 32 years and has won 314 duals, 7 National Team Titles, and placed in the top three 22 of those 32 years. Although these stats are incredible, I feel that is second to what he has passed on to his athletes. His mission statement is “To teach and build good people, and to get them from good to great.” He has great values and leads by example. He has great faith, which is his foundation. Denney grew up a farm boy in Nebraska and has a great work ethic, which shows in results year after year.

The UNO wrestling team is one of the most successful teams in the Division and is way too valuable to just be “dropped.” Teaching and building good people here needs to continue as well as bringing National Titles back to Omaha, Nebraska as the team did this year and in years to come if given the opportunity.

You can send emails to:
Trev Alberts
[email protected]
402-554-2305

John Christensen
[email protected]
402-554-2311

Also, in case you were wondering, that is the same Trev Alberts who was fired from ESPN for not showing up to work.

From Si.com

As the day wore on, according to both Shapiro and Alberts, there were several conversations between Alberts and ESPN senior vice presidents Jed Drake and Norby Williamson. Finally, Alberts announced that he would not be reporting for work that afternoon (ESPN and ESPN2 aired three college football games between 3:30 p.m. and 10:30 p.m.). Once Alberts failed to appear for his studio show assignment with host Rece Davis and fellow analyst Mark May, he was fired.