Manheim, PA – I hope those of you who made it to one of the several national championships (i.e. NCAA, NAIA, women’s, etc.) had a terrific experience.  I continue to be amazed at the athleticism of wrestlers today.  For those of you who made it to the WIBN social at the Division I Wrestling Championships, please know we are forever grateful for your support of our signature WIBN event.  We sold 30 table sponsorships this year and had close to 300 people in attendance.  I want to give a HUGE shout out to our Co-Presenting Sponsors, Defense Soap, X2 Energy and the Safe + Fair Food Company.  
 
We recognized some very special wrestling ambassadors, our keynote speaker, Alan Nero, delivered a very entertaining speech.  The presenting sponsor of our keynote speaker was Joe Savino, retired managing partner of Northwestern Mutual (Princeton NJ).  Alan began his career as the head wrestling coach at the University of Rhode Island and along the way, has transitioned to become one of the most successful Major League Baseball Sports Agents in America.  He delivered some terrific messages about leadership while congratulating the wrestling community for creating the renaissance of college wrestling over the past 20 years (220 new programs have been added).
 
I would be remiss if I didn’t thank all of the “Table Sponsors” who supported the WIBN Social (click here to see the list).  It is so exciting to see this event blossom each year and there is no doubt that we are on our way to establishing a premier WIBN event at the NCAA Championships each year.
 
And finally, I would like to thank Coach Dan Gable and WIBN Board member, Joe Savino for their roles in celebrating outstanding achievement of several individuals via the WIBN network.  These award recipients are as follows:

Dan Gable America Needs Wrestling Award

• Sally Roberts: founder of the nonprofit “Wrestle Like a Girl” for her tireless efforts to grow girls and women’s wrestling at all levels.

• Joan Fulp: she has been meeting with state high school athletic associations and collegiate governing bodies to promote the growth of girls/women’s wrestling.

• Andrea Yamamoto: she has joined Joan Fulp in traveling across the nation to lobby governing bodies to host state championships for scholastic girls wrestling.

• Mike Hurt: CEO of ARMS Software and an extraordinary benefactor for helping to get 3 new NCAA Division I wrestling programs off the ground for the 2019/20 season.

WIBN Leadership Award

• Kevin Brooks: Chairman of the Denver Chapter for his extraordinary efforts to launch a new WIBN Chapter (in Denver) and host the NWCA All-Star Classic all in the same year.   

Now that the NCAA Championships are behind us, I want to turn the focus back strengthening each of our 17 WIBN Chapters.  Since the WIBN was absorbed by the NWCA in January 2018, we have been working hard to develop meaningful WIBN benefits for local WIBN chapter members who pay the nominal $50 annual dues.  These benefits include:

• Listing of your business in the “searchable” WIBN website directory (can be searched locally, regionally, or nationally)

• Ability to post your resume in the website job board.

• Opportunity to access resumes in the WIBN website job board

• Discounts to local and national WIBN events.

Please know that the WIBN parent organization, the NWCA will be aggressively assisting the local WIBN chapters in the following manner as we move forward:

• NWCA will be soliciting “inactive WIBN” members to activate their members (i.e. pay the $50 annual dues)

• NWCA will be promoting local WIBN chapter membership to our NWCA database in each region (where we have a WIBN chapter)

• NWCA is committed to promoting all local WIBN chapter events to the NWCA membership in each region.

• NWCA will help local WIBN chapters with the administration and organization of all events via a thorough “playbook.”

• NWCA will be encouraging all college wrestlers to upload their resumes into the WIBN website job board this spring as they look for internships and full time employment.  Local chapter business leaders will be able to hire smart, motivated wrestlers via this job board.

In summary, the WIBN is currently going through a period of accelerated growth and expansion.  Now, more than ever, we need the support of wrestling alumni to build on this success.  If you are located in a region that already has a region, please join and support its events and activities.  If you reside in an area that does not have a WIBN chapter, please consider assuming a leadership role to help us get a chapter started.  Thank you for your consideration of this request and we hope to see you at a WIBN event soon!