The Southern Scuffle was someone else’s brainstorm, but Heath Eslinger recognizes a good thing when he sees it.
So the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga wrestling coach was ready within hours to pounce when Scuffle sponsor UNC Greensboro announced that it would no longer field a wrestling team, thus leaving the tournament’s future in jeopardy.
His pounce — reserving McKenzie Arena and selling UTC athletic director Rick Hart and associate athletic director Matt Pope on hosting the event — resulted in Chattanooga’s first major collegiate wrestling event in three decades taking place today and Monday.
“A lot of the credit belongs to Tom Shiflet, the guy who started the Southern Scuffle eight or nine years ago and slowly developed it,” Eslinger said. “We’re getting something that’s already pretty darn good, and we want to make it better by bringing it to a community that really loves wrestling.”
The 22-team Southern Scuffle, boasting such national powers as defending NCAA champ Penn State, third-ranked Minnesota and fourth-ranked Cornell, begins at 10 this morning and carries through Monday’s 6:30 p.m. championship finals.