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Over 50 people met late this afternoon at the Silver Dollar
Hofbrau. Retired Coach Dennis DeLiddo, Takedown Club President
Tim Cornish, Coach Charles, his assistants and a group of
high school coaches, current Fresno State Senior wrestlers,
families and friends of wrestling attended.
The outcome of this meeting is as follows:
1. Coach DeLiddo will schedule a meeting with FSU President
John Welty for either Monday, June 19 or Tuesday, June 20.
His objective will be to have the wrestling program reinstated
at least for one more year. This would allow the seniors to
compete in their last year, while concurrently providing sufficient
time for the community to get together a financial package
that would sustain the wrestling program for the next 10 years.
2. Some members of the steering committee have initiated
contacts with attorneys to explore several avenues of action,
one of which would be an injunction against FSU dropping the
wrestling program and requiring immediate reinstatement. Another
possibility is to explore a "class action" lawsuit
for fraud against the University Administration (i.e. defrauding
the coaches and incoming freshmen into thinking that FSU was
supporting the wrestling program, when obviously they were
not). Other legal angles will be explored as well.
3. Coach Tirapelle (Clovis High) strongly urged us to direct
our efforts at hurting the school financially. We, the community,
would no longer support any event at Fresno State (whether
it be athletic or otherwise) and this would have a major financial
impact totaling millions of dollars. Coach Tirapelle suggested
that every booster of Fresno State be contacted, urging them
to write and send letters to President Welty (emails are too
easily deleted!) about their plan to discontinue support of
the programs. This would have a major impact.
4. We need to have everyone involved garner support for these
efforts. People need to be willing to put in effort over the
long haul. This will take time and a sustained effort will
be necessary to achieve victory.
5. We need to maintain our letter writing campaign and phone
calling to political figures (Mayor of Fresno, Governor, State
Legislature, etc.), flooding them with mail until they take
direct action to have the wrestling program reinstated.
1st Demonstration: Date/Time/Place Change:
The group thought it would be best to protest at the home
of FSU President John Welty as A.D. Thomas Boeh was nothing
more than a "mouthpiece". With this in mind, the
demonstration scheduled for Monday at Mr. Boeh's residence
is cancelled.
The 1st demonstration protest rally will occur on Wednesday,
June 21st, at 6 p.m. We will march on the home of President
Welty, 4411 North Van Ness Blvd., Fresno, CA 93704 The home
is located on the northeast corner of N. Van Ness and Holland
Avenues (between Ashlan Ave and Gettysburg Ave.) A designated
meeting place will be identified within the next day or so
for people to gather prior to the march.
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