Most of you know that Denny Hastert is the Speaker of the House. 

Most of you know that Denny Hastert was, and is, a "coach" with a simple philosophy who has become one of the most important and powerful men in our country.

Most of you know that Denny professes that his greatest thrill in life was when his high school wrestling team won the Illinois State Championship. That's how much he loved -- and loves -- wrestling.

Most of you know that when Denny Hastert has been asked to fight for wrestling programs that have been dumped he has risen to the occasion and brought many programs back from the dead simply by taking the time to get involved in the fight.

Most of you know that Denny Hastert has been give incredible responsibilities as the Speaker of the House -- in some ways his job is more difficult than that of the President in that the Speaker, not only has to stay on top of all of the laws -- but also all the affairs of the world -- including the war on terrorism, our immigration "problem," the economy, etc., etc., etc. Often his staff will schedule him for several meetings an hour -- all day long.

Most of you know that the American people are being told by the media that Denny is supposed to monitor the e-mails of all Congressmen. (I don't think the Speaker has ever even used e-mail.) -- or he should be fired. The Speaker told the American people that he knew about some e-mails a few years ago that didn't amount to any activity for which a Congressman could even be taken up on ethics charges, let a lone be expelled. The Speaker turned the problem over to a Congressman colleague then, dealt with the parents of the page -- who said they didn't want to explain the e-mails or take the case any further.  That is the way I understand the scandal developed even as portrayed by the media.

The Speaker is the leader of the House. But he is not the mother of the other Congressmen in the House. They are autonomously elected and serve at the pleasure of their constituents.

The Speaker has said many times that -- when times got tough -- wrestling taught him how to fight off his back -- and it teaches us all how to get off our backs. He is now fighting to get off his back --and needs our help.

My old high school coach, Bob Siddens, used to ask us in the wrestling room -- who would you want to go with you into an alley if you knew your were going to have fight a gang once you walked through  that alley on the way home.

Most of you know that Democrats, liberals and media have caught the Speaker in an alley and are beating him up.

I think the Speaker needs your support more than ever now.  Will you go into that alley with the Speaker -- or not?

I went to Washington DC for, and with, the Speaker as a senior counsel for a couple of years partly to fight for a change in Title IX.

During that period I grew to admire Denny. He is a decent guy who loves his country and loves sports in general -- and wrestling in particular.

I know this comment will draw the ire of some liberals on this site -- but I think even liberals will have to admit to what I said above -- Most liberals, though, will probably just rationalize that the Speaker deserves the beating he's taking. So let's just let him get beat up.

I disagree -- I think that there should be a presumption that the Speaker is telling the truth and knew nothing about Foley's nasty e-mails or whatever -- unless it's shown to be different. Don't you?

Some have said that the Speaker's travails are going to cost the Republicans the House and maybe even the Senate. 

Now let me explain how your failure to act might affect wrestling. My philosophy about Title IX has always been that The Speaker can't win this war alone. It requires grassroots support -- which he never got. Because of that the quota has slowly worked in a manner like Chinese water torture. One-by-one the weaker programs are being picked off until the only programs left will be those which can afford to be self endowed. If you know anything about Title IX, you know I'm telling the truth.

If you agree with me, you should know that the Speaker is one of those people who at least has his finger in the dike of this Title IX problem. If he loses his Speakership, the drip drip of the Chinese Water torture will become a torrent. If you think things are bad now, I can assure you that when the quota proportionality is required of all schools, you can't even begin to imagine what affect that is going to have on all wrestling programs in the country. 

I can also assure everyone reading this site that if we return to the days of Norma Cantu the Title IX quota will be the law of the land. When she was the head of Clinton's Office for Civil Rights, I told Cantu that the quota was unfair at the college level because at the high school level the "natural" ratio was about 60-40 male-to-female athletes. She said to me, "Well, maybe we'll need to impose proportionality at the high school level then." That discussion took place about 10 years ago. 

So has the Bush administration been perfect in it's enforcement of Title IX? No. Am I disappointed in the Bush administration? Yes. But I still say, it's a lot better than the Clinton administration was in it's enforcement of Title IX.

But I will say that when I was in Washington many of the Speaker's staffers told me specifically that Congressman Hastert would give up his seat for only one issue -- and that was wrestling. That fact really frustrated Hastert's staff and created an incredible hostility in Hastert's staff toward me as they knew I wanted / needed him to be aggressive in changing Title IX.  Denny agreed with me against his entire staff -- and constantly fought for you. 

We tried a lot of aggressive measures, but to no avail as we couldn't get the American people to get behind the movement. I finally gave up figuring that the other side "wanted it" more than we did, so we could never really get a coalition motivated enough to get rid of the quota.

Now I understand the NCAA has almost adopted the quota as the only way to enforce Title IX. That means the end of wrestling as we know it unless athletes combine with the anti-quota people and people of faith -- who all hate quotas.

I suggest we start by fighting to get Denny back as the Speaker. 

Trust me -- if Nancy Pelosi takes over Congress and Hillary Clinton takes over the White House,  college wrestling will be decimated. 

Wrestling needs you to get involved -- Now. Anyone who is interesting in helping contact me at DAA2000@aol.com. 

EDITOR'S NOTE: Dale Anderson is a nationally respected expert on the Title IX issue, and a past NCAA wrestling champion. This story reflects Mr. Anderson's opinion on this topic, not necessarily those of TheMat.com