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RTC stuff

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FriendofPittWrestling

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Apr 30, 2017
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Does anybody out there (PaFootball Guy ??) have any budget details for other RTC's like PSU, Michigan, Lehigh, Ohio State, etc.?

What kind of salary does an athlete require, travel budget, healthcare, and other operating expenses like advertising.

It would be nice to have a few yard sticks to measure the PWC and set some goals.

The university and city can more than compete with any other university out there. Gavin and Co have the, personality, experience, and certainly the expertise to attract top level recruits (and the winning only help speed that up). It seems to me, the only thing that isn't running on all cylinders at the moment, and where Pitt fans can have the most impact is the RTC
 
I have seen the numbers somewhere and I think these are in the ballpark. PSU is first with something like 5-6 million in theirs. Iowa is second with about 800000. OSU, Ok.St, and others trail that. Pitt isn’t even close to that.
 

I read those numbers but I do not know what they mean. Are you saying PSU RTC spends five million dollars per year? If so, on what? What is the budget itemization?

Below, I have listed all the RTC's in the US. Gavin has been involved with several of these RTC's (Lehigh, Ohio State, Oklahoma) so I am sure he has a good handle on this but it would be nice for the friends of Pitt wrestling -LOL - to know how Pitt stacks up to the competition and where the help is needed.

RTC's are 501c organizations. Although they are exempt from income taxation, they are required to file annual returns of their income and expenses with the Internal Revenue Service. I believe this information must be available to the public. Anyone out there know how to retrieve this information? Surely western Pennsylvania can engage more financial resources than some of the places listed.

I just want to understand what it takes to start adding athletes to the PWC. A powerful RTC seems the most obvious next step in the program.

Badger RTC, Madison, WI
Blue Ridge RTC, Boone, NC
Buffalo Valley Regional Training Center, Lewisburg, PA
Bulls Wrestling Club, Buffalo, NY
Chicago RTC / Wildcat WC, Evanston, IL
Chippewa Wrestling Club, Mount Pleasant, MI
Cliff Keen Wrestling Club, Ann Arbor, M
Cowboy RTC, Stillwater, OK
Cyclone RTC ,Ankeny, IA
Hawkeye Wrestling Club, Iowa City, IA
Illinois Regional RTC /Illini WC, Champaign, IL
Inland Northwest Wrestling RTC, Spokane, WA
Lehigh Valley Wrestling Club, Allentown, PA
Navy-Marine Corps Mat Club, Annapolis, MD
New England RTC / Bears WC, Providence, RI
New York City RTC, New York, NY
New York RTC ,Ithaca, NY
Nittany Lion Wrestling Club, State College, PA
Northern Illinois Elite Wrestling Club, DeKalb, IL
Ohio RTC, Columbus, OH
OKRTC, Norman, OK
Orange Crush Wrestling Club, Corvallis, OR
Panther Wrestling Club RTC, Cedar Falls, IA
Pennsylvania RTC, Philadelphia, PA
San Francisco Wrestling Club, San Francisco, CA
Scarlet Knights Wrestling Club, New Brunswick, NJ
Southeast RTC, Blacksburg, VA
Sunkist Kids Wrestling Club, Phoenix, AZ
Terrapin Wrestling Club, College Park, MD
Tiger Style Wrestling Club, Columbia, MO
Valley RTC, Fresno, CA
Virginia Beach RTC, Norfolk, VA
West Point Wrestling Club, West Point, NY
Wolfpack Wrestling Club Raleigh, NC
Wyoming Wrestling RTC, Laramie, WY
 
Yea the do spend that much. They’re waaaaay above everyone else.
 
The NLWC has close to 6 million dollars in the bank but only spent about 850K in 2018 and about half went to coaches and athletes. They also raised about 500K in revenue so they are not really touching the 6 million. For reference, the Hawkeye Wrestling Club, the second wealthiest club, spent about half what the NLWC spent but the did generate similar revenue but they are not in a position to spend much more.

There are a few people that say a great RTC is not needed but I tend to disagree because so many of the elite guys have aspirations of competing on the world stage and good RTC helps in recruiting those guys. Also, it puts a few more elite training partners in the wrestling room and that really helps the team.
 
Thanks PAFootball Guy.

I disagree too. For decades, we have all recognized how often teams have had championship caliber wrestler at back to back weights due to constant competition in the practice room.

The new arms race is RTC's...if one wants to challenge the top ten. I don't know how one can get around that - even in a recruiting hot bed like Pennsylvania. I think facilities are actually a second tier concern for most wrestlers compared to work-out partners and coaches.

It would be nice to have budget details for some of those other RTC's around the country too.
 
FriendofPittWrestling said:
It would be nice to have budget details for some of those other RTC's around the country too.
Click to expand...

The top 15 clubs are averaging at least a 100K per year in revenue.

Finger Lakes WC (Cornell) has 450-500K
Wolfpack WC has 300K and 160-175k in yearly revenue
Carolina WC has 250K and that rounds out the top 5

Sunkist brings over 500K but they spend almost all of it.
Titan also brings in a lot of money.

Outside of Iowa and PSU the Big Ten doesn't have many RTCs with many assets but they do bring in a lot of money each year,

Also, there is a Penn State Wrestling Club separate from the NLWC that brings in another 200-250K per year in contributions.
 
I’ve mentioned this in the past, the NLWC makes a nice chunk of change off of its yearly youth wrestling tourney. They have 2 clinics the day before and charge each kid $40. They get 50 kids per session. They have to easily bring in $15-20k for the weekend, with the tourney and clinics. FLWC also has a dual tourney for the youth level. I’m not sure how successful it is, but it seems to do well. It looks like Pitt is missing the boat on this revenue stream. It may not bring in what the NLWC tourney does, but $5-10k would be nice.
 
Fantastic information!

Do you guys know what they pay each athlete and or what kind of travel budget each athlete has? What does each athlete cost the RTC?

It would be nice if Pitt could get creative and have a local youth club/community to "sponsor" their own RTC athlete. Kind of have a bake sale to sponsor Samat or Nico, or John and take ownership of their funds.

No, I do not mean an actual bake sale, but my point is to set up some kind of fundraising at the community level. It could be a clinic...a local tournament...donation jar at the high school or club dual meet...anything that sets up community interest in a particular athlete success. For the Olympics, local businesses would sponsor athletes. Why not set up this kind of thing for PWC athletes training for world and Olympic competition.
 
FriendofPittWrestling said:
Fantastic information!

Do you guys know what they pay each athlete and or what kind of travel budget each athlete has? What does each athlete cost the RTC?
Click to expand...

The NLWC is an outlier because they have a full-time coach on staff just for the club, they have 8 resident athletes that each make 25-30K on average, and they spend about 50K year on travel, which is also an outlier. The other big expense is insurance that runs almost 100K per year,
 
We've had some good conversations in the past about the RTC and its impact on Pitt. Coach Gavin has done an excellent job explaining how a strong RTC helps Pitt across the board, recruiting, training and winning. On recruiting, when the RTC signed Nico Megaludis don't you think that impacted recruiting lightweights, say Colton Camacho for one? We have 4 voluntary assistants including Nico. The goal is to have one for each Olympic weight class. Those were Coach Gavin's words. Let's make it simple and say 1 for each NCAA weight class, or 10 total. Before Coach Gavin came on board, we had none. Within 2 years, we're almost half way there. Yes, it takes money but not as much as you think. Salary range is $15,000 to $35,000 per year, give or take. So if you want to have 10, let's say, on average, you need to raise $250,000 a year just for salaries. I don't know how to estimate expenses for tournaments, etc., but, for the sake of this exercise, let's say you need another $100,000. That means for a total of $350,000 a year, you can match just about any RTC in the country and really jack up our image and attractiveness to the very best recruits.

That's not a lot of money in the scope of things. Don't forget, Pitt cannot provide any financial support to the RTC. So it's all on us. Simple and straightforward.
 
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I understand that the RTC needs to be fully funded through outside means, but I still don’t understand why they don’t look into running a youth tourney. If they have the right marketing and leadership, its easy money. It’s also great exposure for Pitt. We have gone to the NLWC tourney the past 3 years and the place is crazy busy. They have Cael, Taylor & Varner there to hand out trophies and get pictures. Thats how you build a brand and a fan base...kids love that.
 
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Is there a difference between the Pittsburgh Wrestling Club and the newly established RTC? And where are they (or it) based?
 
Connect the dots !!

Samat Nadyrbek Uulu
Samat is an international wrestler from Krgyzstan who trains at Pittsburgh wrestling club as a resident athlete.
Kyrgyz World Team Member at 57 Kg
Asian Championship Runner Up
World University Games Runner Up
NYAC Champion
Dave Schultz Memorial Champion (2017)

2019 Freestyle World Cup
USA line up
57Kg Sanders, Richards
61Kg Megaludis
65Kg Retherford
70Kg Chamberlen
74Kg Martinez
79Kg Gannt
86Kg Brooks
92Kg Zilmer
97Kg Gadson
125Kg Nelson

Seven Pitt wrestlers ranked by coaches panel
Tribune Review/Jerry DiPaola February 14,2019

https://triblive.com/sports/college...-wrestlers-ranked-nationally-by-coaches-panel

Phillippi (15-2) is fourth in the rankings and No. 1 in the first RPI listing of the season.

"I don't think Micky is so worried about Daton Fix when he is wrestling with Samat and Nico every day. Micky knows Daton is hoping he can be as good as Mickys work out partners some day".


Cole Matthews wins Edinboro Open
"Just went back and watched all his matches from the tournament on flo today. He looked good, his shots early looked quick and crisp he looks pretty strong and aggressive. If he keeps developing he will be a good wrestler for us the next 4 years"

Three Sign LOI
Colton Camacho
At his signing, he was ranked 14 th in the nation at 138 by FloWrestling. (I believe he is hurt as he is not currently ranked) As a sophomore he went 35-9, won sections, placed 3rd in the WPIAL. He DNP at states but placed 8th at Powerade.
As a junior he went 40-3, won sections and WPIALs, placed 2nd at states, placed 7th at Flo Nationals, 3rd at Junior Nationals, and 3rd at Powerade.

Ryan Sullivan
Currently ranked 6th in the country at 126 by FloWrestling. As a sophomore he went 39-4 placing 2nd in the WPIAL and at States. As a junior he finished 42-1 with both WPIAL and PIAA titles.
 
Last edited:
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All the RTC’s work the same where they have a couple fundraisers but mainly rely on donations. For example, NLWC has a golf outing and a youth tournament for fundraisers while PWC has a golf outing and a casino night for their fundraisers. Some RTC’s just have bigger donations or more donors. The cost of an athlete usually varies based on their accomplishments. Nico Megaludis is our most expensive athlete right now. PWC will need to add a guy around the mid-upperweights next in the RTC and that will most likely cost $50-$60k all things included. To be a fully functional RTC the PWC will need an operating budget of about $300k. RTC’s are still growing pretty rapidly and the prices for quality athletes continue to raise.
 
The RTC is an absolute necessity in today’s college wrestling world. There is a reason teams with a championship quality wrestler at one weight tend to be able to recruit and develop top wrestlers at the weights above and below his weight: the availability of that wrestler in training and the wrestling room.
Having Phillippi helps us at 125 and 141: having Nico too helps us more. PSU’s strength in the upper weights can be traced directly back to Taylor, Ruth, etc. Right now they are ranked 1, 1, 1, 2, 1, 3 from 157 to Hwt. That is unheard of. And, they have had Taylor, Retherford and others to help those guys and attract future replacements for them.

I don’t think it’s either realistic or necessary for Pitt to have an RTC staff wrestler at every weight class. 5 or 6 should be sufficient. A 165 pounder can workout with a 157, 165 and 174 pounder. I’m sure Nico works out with our 125, 133 and 141 pounders. It’s better IMO to have 5 or 6 top notch training partners than 10 who are a step or two below them.

If you think about it, Pitt should have a big advantage over the primarily small town and rural locations of most schools: The job market of a major city with a burgeoning high tech job force. At some point, a guy like David Taylor reaches the end of his career. Unless he is going to coach, how is the job market in State College or Ames, Iowa compared to Pittsburgh? My cardiologist has two sons. One is in medical school at Johns Hopkins; the other just got his postgraduate degree in Artificial Intelligence from CMU. The job offers he has gotten are so amazing and high paying that his dad says the younger son attending medical school won’t come close to the money the older son will make. Now, I’m not saying David Taylor can convert his ability to apply a cradle into a career designing robots, but the companies spearheading AI also have sales personnel, etc. and I suspect those jobs pay a lot more than selling farm supplies in Centre County.
 
mike412 said:
If you think about it, Pitt should have a big advantage over the primarily small town and rural locations of most schools: The job market of a major city with a burgeoning high tech job force. At some point, a guy like David Taylor reaches the end of his career. Unless he is going to coach, how is the job market in State College or Ames, Iowa compared to Pittsburgh? My cardiologist has two sons. One is in medical school at Johns Hopkins; the other just got his postgraduate degree in Artificial Intelligence from CMU. The job offers he has gotten are so amazing and high paying that his dad says the younger son attending medical school won’t come close to the money the older son will make. Now, I’m not saying David Taylor can convert his ability to apply a cradle into a career designing robots, but the companies spearheading AI also have sales personnel, etc. and I suspect those jobs pay a lot more than selling farm supplies in Centre County.
Click to expand...

You do people move after college
 
The wrestlers at these RTCS are living where the clubs are. Taylor lives in State College. His wife is an assistant gymnastics coach there. He probably is going to stay there or if they move it will be to coaching positions elsewhere. But, I am sure there’s will be wrestlers who would be attracted to the idea of moving to Pittsburgh over Ames or State College or Blacksburg. I would guess UNC and NC State both use the attraction of the Golden Triangle employment market to their advantage. It’s a natural advantage Pitt should use. The wrestlers who are married might well have wives who will be working while they are on the RTC staff. The employment opportunities in Pittsburgh is just another tool in the belt to attract staff.
 
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mike412 said:
The wrestlers at these RTCS are living where the clubs are. Taylor lives in State College. His wife is an assistant gymnastics coach there. He probably is going to stay there or if they move it will be to coaching positions elsewhere. But, I am sure there’s will be wrestlers who would be attracted to the idea of moving to Pittsburgh over Ames or State College or Blacksburg. I would guess UNC and NC State both use the attraction of the Golden Triangle employment market to their advantage. It’s a natural advantage Pitt should use. The wrestlers who are married might well have wives who will be working while they are on the RTC staff. The employment opportunities in Pittsburgh is just another tool in the belt to attract staff.
Click to expand...

I think Pittsburgh itself is the selling point with some. Never met Nico let alone spoke to him. Yet I bet being 30 minutes from home as opposed to 2 hours away played a role in his choice of coming to Pitt instead of staying at PSU. The next person the RTC needs to target is Jason Nolf then Vincenzo Joseph. Go after the hometown boys. We now have something to sell them in their hometown that we did not when they were being recruited in HS.
 
Again, the RTC wants to add more guys but it's up to us to provide the funds for them to do so. Here's a thought, contact our RTC and offer to pay Nolf's or Joseph's salary. You'd be surprised how quickly those guys would be added to our staff.
 
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Mikefln said:
I think Pittsburgh itself is the selling point with some. Never met Nico let alone spoke to him. Yet I bet being 30 minutes from home as opposed to 2 hours away played a role in his choice of coming to Pitt instead of staying at PSU. The next person the RTC needs to target is Jason Nolf then Vincenzo Joseph. Go after the hometown boys. We now have something to sell them in their hometown that we did not when they were being recruited in HS.
Click to expand...

Nico went back to Pittsburgh to work fulltime for his father and continue to train. Nico wants to make the Olympics but he understands that it will be a long shot and probably won't happen.

Nolf will not be at Pitt as for Joseph there may be a shot because of the log jam that the NLWC will have 74 kg in an Olympic year with Nolf and Hall.
 
Nolfs wife got drafted by a pro soccer team out west, so there’s a chance he heads west after his college career.
 
Nish67 said:
Again, the RTC wants to add more guys but it's up to us to provide the funds for them to do so. Here's a thought, contact our RTC and offer to pay Nolf's or Joseph's salary. You'd be surprised how quickly those guys would be added to our staff.
Click to expand...

Yeah I don't think my $100 will go very far to getting them here. Plus I won't be making that contribution till around December so Nolf will be off the board by then.

But way to single me out for suggesting a possible theory on how to get top RTC guys here.
 
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