Dear Wrestling Coaches and fans:

The Yakima Valley Community College (YVCC) wrestling team is on the chopping block. The administration has recommended to the board of directors to drop the wrestling program and add women's cross country due to Title IX issues. 

We, the wrestling community, have requested that they keep the wrestling program and add a women's wrestling program. We believe that we can help the school resolve their title IX issues while adding an opportunity for women in the northwest for their fastest growing sport. This will help the wrestling community as a whole, and as we know the northwest is loosing program after program. Just in Washington we have gone from once having 44 colleges and universities with wrestling to now having 2 and potentially 1 by 2010. 

Please assist us in showing YVCC what a great idea adding a women's program is by writing letters in support of adding the women's program and perhaps some words why. Even better would be to have all the girl wrestler's you know or coach write letters stating that would like and deserve the opportunity to wrestle in college and there are very few possibilities out there, and none in Washington. It would be even better if they would say that they would or would seriously consider YVCC if they were to begin a program. 

We need to show the board of directors and the administration that the time is right for this and that we could field a team of at least 20 women the first year and 40 or more by the second. 

There are some examples of some good letters that we have already received on the www.Washingtonwrestlingreport.com site's message board. Also on that site is the original proposal made by us to the board after the administration provided theirs. We make our next written presentation to the board on 03/03/08 and we need the letters by that date. The actual verbal presentation will be on 03/13/08, call me if you would like to attend and show support. 

I can be contacted at mschmitt@lakemontyakima.com, (509) 307-0140 and fax at (509) 972-9010 and 1410 N 16th Ave Yakima, WA 98902. 

Coach Pimentel can be reached at apimentel@yvcc.edu or (509) 941-8486. 

Thank you for your attention to this very important matter.