Mat Leader Challenges Spokane … … To Make 1996 Olympic Trials A Hit For Both Athletes, Wrestling

Jim Scherr knows challenges and he is offering one to Spokane.

The executive director who turned USA Wrestling around was in town on Monday to make it official - the 1996 U.S. Olympic Freestyle Wrestling Trials will be held in the new arena next June.

“For those competing, this event is more crucial than any event they’ll ever compete in,” said Scherr, at a press conference at the Crescent Court ballroom. “There’s nothing that compares to stepping out there for one match, do or die, to make an Olympic team.

”(Spokane’s) job is to set the stage the athletes deserve and the USA wants to see. It’s a year-long effort. Our goal is to fill that arena and make it a great event for the athletes.”

Scherr understands that from both ends. He made the 1988 U.S. Olympic freestyle wrestling team, finishing fifth in the Seoul, South Korea, Olympics.

After the 1990 Goodwill Games in Seattle, he retired as a competitor, but took on a bigger challenge, reorganizing the nearly bankrupt USA Wrestling.

“The most difficult aspect (in the transition) was not competing anymore,” said Scherr, 33, a 198-pounder as an Olympian, who still looks to be fighting trim. “Whether you do or don’t, you feel like you have the ability to compete.”

But even experience as an athlete representative on the USA Wrestling board or an MBA from Northwestern University’s Kellogg Graduate School of Management didn’t prepare him for his new challenge.

“The transition and condition when I came in was difficult, much more difficult than I anticipated,” he said. “They had just about outspent their ability to bring revenue.”

Scherr managed to streamline and put USA Wrestling on solid ground while the United States has managed to remain the dominant power in freestyle wrestling and become a strong contender in GrecoRoman and women’s wrestling.

“You don’t need six people to dig a post hole when you can only get one or two in the hole,” was his simple explanation.

He and his twin brother, Bill, now the coach at Northwestern, were NCAA champions in 1984 for Nebraska and the natives of Mobridge, S.D., were teammates on the ‘88 Olympic team. (Bill finished third at 220 pounds in Seoul.)

USA Wrestling has two missions create wrestlers by helping the grass-roots programs and assist the wrestlers who make it to the top through financial support that allows them to train beyond college.

With Scherr leading the way, USA Wrestling is meeting the challenge as Team USA won the 1993 freestyle world title. The recently selected Team USA is favored to defend its title later this year in Atlanta against the challenge of Russia, Turkey and Iran.

Prior to the trials in Spokane, there will be five regional tournaments and the national championships in Las Vegas in May. Each regional champion and the top six at nationals in each of the 10 Olympic weight classes are eligible for the trials.

All the wrestlers except the national champion compete in a one-day tournament June 7. The winners take on the national champions in best-ofthree matches the next day to determine the Olympic team members.

Besides picking the Olympic team, there is one other goal for Spokane - one the city will no doubt embrace. Scherr and Toby Steward, president of Star USA, which is promoting the event, would like to see an attendance record for a freestyle wrestling event in the U.S.

The new arena will hold 12,500 for wrestling. The record is more than 9,000, established at Hec Edmundson Pavilion in Seattle for the 1990 Goodwill Games. (Seating for the Olympic Games in the Atlanta World Congress Center will be 7,500.)

That’s another challenge, which keeps Scherr enthusiastic about his job.

“There’s always new challenges. That’s what makes the job rewarding,” he said. “We’re a not-for-profit organization. There’s no end to the job. If I worked 24 hours a day I could get about 75 percent of the potential things I could do done.”

Notes

Steward said 300 local volunteers are needed for the event… . The Olympic Trials will be televised nationally, probably on cable… . A successful event would make Spokane a leader for the 2000 Olympic Trials… . USA Wrestling selected Spokane over Pittsburgh, Houston and Oakland… . Events with the Trials include a fanfest, a fundraising Olympic Golf Classic and clinics.

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