Manheim, PA - On behalf of the Wrestlers in Business Network (WIBN) Board of Directors, I want to take this opportunity to welcome all WIBN members and prospective members into the new year. For those of you who will be attending the NCAA Division I Championships in Minneapolis, we hope you will attend our annual Wrestlers in Business Network Social presented by Trackwrestling & Defense Soap scheduled for Saturday, March 21 from 2 pm to 5 pm at the Renaissance Hotel which is a short walk from the competition venue.

You will be able to network with business leaders from all around the nation. Further, our Keynote Speaker presented by Raymond James, Ira Lubert, will share some of the extraordinary business acumen that has helped him build a Venture Capital Empire over the years in Philadelphia. To purchase tickets and/or a table sponsorship, please click here: 

Speaking of WIBN events, I continue to be amazed at the phenomenal success that many of our local WIBN chapters are having across the nation. A perfect example was the WIBN/Delaware Annual Takedown Cancer Social, which was held in conjunction with the Beast of the East Wrestling Tournament on December 21 at the University of Delaware. The purpose of the event was to bring attention to two very important efforts:

• Galvanize the wrestling community in Delaware to “takedown cancer.”

• Grow the wrestling base to bring varsity wrestling back to the University of Delaware.

The WIBN/DE Board did a phenomenal job assembling a panel discussion with some iconic wrestling ambassadors and notable dignitaries including but not limited to:

• Majority Leader of the Delaware State Senate, Nicole Poore (she is a wrestling mom)

• U.S. Senator (Delaware) Chris Coons (wrestled in High School)

• Bethany Hall-Long, Lt Governor of DE (from a family of wrestlers),

• Dr. Sciubba, Neuro Surgeon/Oncologist at Johns Hopkins/College Wrestler,

• Nicole Duffy, Director of Psycho-Social Oncology at Helen Graham Cancer Center (wrestling cheerleader),

• Paula Swain, EVP of Human Resources, Incyte Pharmaceuticals,

• Dan Gable,

• Bob Brams, former Delaware high school wrestler, prominent attorney, and brain tumor survivor,

• Vic Leonard, Chair of Wrestlers in Business Network/DE Chapter,

• Matt Robinson, Chair of Delaware Sports Commission,

• Mike Moyer/WIBN & NWCA.  

There were many great messages communicated during this panel discussion, but perhaps the most memorable comment was by U.S. Senator (DE) Chris Coons, who affirmed his commitment to bringing back varsity wrestling at the University of Delaware. 

The longer I am involved with WIBN, the more I believe this concept is critically important to our efforts to strengthen existing college wrestling teams and/or to establish new programs. In the few short years that WIBN has been under the NWCA umbrella, we have been able to re-connect with SO MANY highly influential wrestling alumni who have drifted away from our sport over the years as the result of having lost so many intercollegiate teams (we lost 550 college teams between 1972 and 1999). As our wrestling alumni galvanizes via professional networking and career advancement events hosted by various WIBN chapters, we will see an accelerated renaissance of college wrestling programs across the nation. 

With this in mind, we need everyone’s help to strengthen our WIBN infrastructure. If you live in a region where we have a WIBN chapter, please click here so you can purchase a membership in your local chapter: https://www.wrestlersinbusiness.org/join. If you live in a region where we don’t have a WIBN chapter, please consider helping us to identify a dozen business leaders who are willing to serve on the local WIBN chapter board so we can launch a new WIBN chapter. 

Thank you so very much for your consideration of this request, and we hope to see many of you at the WIBN/National Social at the NCAA Division I Championships in Minneapolis on March 21.

Growing wrestling together, 

Mike