BU wrestlers look back one year after team’s final season

Less than a year ago, Boston University wrestler Matt Belikov, then a sophomore, stepped off the mat after a match, feeling invigorated and proud, a memory that was one of many he shared with his teammates. The feelings were in sharp contrast to the confusion and sadness he experienced a few days later when he realized there would be no wrestling team to come back to.

“We were pulled into a room, and everyone was speechless,” said Belikov, now a junior in the School of Management. “You felt everyone’s pain, as well as your own. We couldn’t really believe it. We didn’t think it’d really happen. It came out of the blue. It just really blindsided us. It didn’t really hit you at once.”

Former BU Director of Athletics Mike Lynch announced on April 1, 2013 that the 2013-14 season for the varsity-level wrestling team would be its last, The Daily Free Press reported. Shortly after the announcement, wrestlers launched the “Save BU Wrestling” campaign on various social media platforms and received support from BU students, alumni and groups including Student Government and Greek Life, the FreeP reported Dec. 11, 2013.

“It was a huge hurdle to overcome,” Belikov said. “I didn’t know what I was going to do at BU. It caused a lot of problems. There was a lot of insecurity for me. I had to find a new place at BU. Those were my people. That’s where I enjoyed being, and they kind of just took that all away.”

A question-and-answer document released by the athletic department called the decision to cut the wrestling team “strategic” and was neither financial- nor Title IX-based, the FreeP reported on April 3, 2013.

Since the wrestling team was cut, many team members and former coach Carl Adams have joined other athletic teams or have quit athletics altogether.

Belikov is now a member of the track and field team, where he is training to compete in the decathlon. While he appreciates his new teammates and coaches on the track team, Belikov said nothing could replace wrestling for him.

“We had such a special group of guys. Just having them around was so much fun,” he said. “We had people from all over the school, very different kids, but we all had that one backbone.”

Adams, who had coached the wrestling team for 33 years, moved on to a new position within BU Athletics as coordinator of student athlete services.

“It [the new job] couldn’t be a replacement … so it would be difficult for anything to replace the time I spent in the sport of wrestling,” he said. “I enjoyed helping them go after achieving their goals. And they were just fun people to be around and to coach.”

At the time the athletics department was considering cutting wrestling, Adams said, he had no idea the plans were in the works.

“When I first found out, my initial reaction was one of shock,” he said. “The athletes were devastated, and I’d think that would be an obvious emotion when you have your program pulled out from under you.”

Andrew Maksimovic, a senior in SMG, also joined the track and field team as a thrower following the removal of the wrestling team.

“It’s different, and there’s a learning curve, so we’re far behind, especially at the Division I level,” he said. “It’s a different lifestyle, and the nature of the sport itself is completely different from wrestling.”

While he is happy to be part of the track and field team, Maksimovic said, he harbors some resentment toward the athletic department for removing the wrestling program.

“[The cut] made me hate BU a little bit, the administration,” he said. “I love the school, I love the city, I love the people, but President Brown and the athletic administration can’t really count me as one of their biggest fans.”

Maksimovic said he misses the stability of consistent practices and spending time with his teammates.

“Everything else could be variable, but every day, you leave whatever else is happening at the door, and you walk into the wrestling room and nothing else matters,” he said. “That probably [is] what I miss most, having that time and a purpose to always be striving to achieve.”

As a freshman, Dane Harlowe competed in the NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships, where he scored one win against a high-ranked wrestler. Since the team’s cut, he is no longer on a sports team.

Although there is more time to focus on academics, Harlowe said he misses the camaraderie with his teammates.

“We’d have practice every day, and we really had such a strong team bond, and without that bringing us together every day, it’s harder to get everybody in the same room again, with everybody’s schedules the way they are,” said Harlowe, a junior in SMG. “It’s just tough, and I wish we could have that more often like we used to.”

BU Athletics did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

Several students said they were saddened to see the wrestling program removed, despite how much it meant to the community.

Preeya Behal, a senior in the College of Arts and Sciences, said she can understand how the wrestlers might have felt losing an activity they were passionate about.

“Especially if it [wrestling] was their passion, it really sucks for them,” she said. “I’m an English major, and I love to write and I love to read. If that were suddenly taken away from me somehow, I would be able to cope, but it would be definitely a lot harder to find things to do around here.”

Ashley Cooper, an SMG senior, said although she feels bad about seeing the wrestling program removed, she sees a silver lining for former members.

“Wrestling was a big part of their lives … then that’s something they don’t have now, but now they have more time to do other things,” she said. “A lot of athletes have issues with time management, trying to keep up with all their training, and then also going to classes.”

Sonya Shekhar, a junior in SMG, said the wrestlers and students should have had more of a say in determining whether the team could remain at BU.

“I remember a good number of my friends being upset about the cut … It was probably a monetary concern, but I feel like the students should have had a say in it. Students could have offered alternatives that would have at least lessened the blow.”