The number of collegiate programs offering wrestling, judo and karate is dwindling, but an organization in Carbondale could be instrumental in preserving these sports at the college level.

It all began when Robert Whelan developed a wrestling program in Great Britain almost 10 years ago.

In Great Britain in 1989, we decided to give the wrestling program a boost, Whelan said. We labeled it as a grassroots program, and we developed exchanges between the United States and Great Britain.

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Harvard University became a part of this. They developed a club structure similar to what we have. Then I moved down to Carbondale.

Whelan, a fourth-degree black belt in judo and a championship wrestler, began working on putting together a program that was directly involved with John A. Logan College. But the organization decided to operate as a sports club, and they have been in existence for one year in Carbondale.

Southern Illinois Sports Club Inc. is a non-profit organization. The goal is to rejuvenate wrestling and other combat sports at the college level by offering scholarships to athletes to come to participate in the sports club.

The athletes can go to either John A. Logan College or SIUC. The club pays tuition and helps athletes find places to live and jobs if necessary.

Whelan said the potential for the program is to be a remarkable recruiting tool for both educational institutions.

I can see this also happening, Whelan said. They come down with one intention to prove they can do college and improve their wrestling skills and find the competition being offered to them is certainly adequate, so they remain here. We actually, in effect, are recruiting for Southern Illinois University and John A. Logan.

So far, the program has 14 athletes on scholarship. The goal is to have every athlete on the teams on scholarship, meaning 10 wrestlers, eight people on the judo team and seven on the karate team, for a total of 25 potential scholarships.

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The sports club is not bound by NCAA regulations, but the directors insist students maintain a C average.

These athletes have to maintain the same GPA as what they do in NCAA guidelines, wrestling coach Stacy Weiland said. They lose their scholarship under the same line. We stress academic excellence. We are not an organization that is going to take them on the road and take them away from their school. Our main goal is to get the education for these kids.

The club will be traveling to events, but for the most part the trips are weekend trips and will not interfere with class time.

The other difference is the club does not have nearly as rigorous practice times as an NCAA team might. Teams practice at The Sports Center, 1215 E. Main. The objective is to help students train and provide good competition, not to wear them down with extensive practices that take away from classes and jobs.

Here, we try to get in an hour, hour and a half practice at a time, Weiland said. A lot of our kids we have allowed to have outside jobs. We try to help them be successful.

Because of the decrease of the number of collegiate wrestling programs nationwide, an organization such as this can compete against colleges. The only limitation is that the club cannot compete for national championships. But the judo and the karate teams in the club can compete for national championships if they are accepted.

The club also is a service organization to the community and offers reduced prices for instruction in all of the sports they offer.

The club has seven black belts to help with the instruction. Ian McCannor, a fifth-degree black belt, is the karate instructor, and his moves have been featured in such Sony Playstation games as Batman and Robin, the Fantastic Four and Spirit Master.

They also will have a camp this summer at Touch of Nature that will feature two-time world judo champion Neil Adams and wrestling gold medalist Kendall Cross.

It is this type of environment that David Yoshida hopes will help him win a national championship while in Southern Illinois going to school.

He is involved in both the wrestling and the judo program. His father Ronald is the coach of the judo team. David, a sophomore at John A. Logan in criminal justice from Belleville, and his brother Yas have been involved in judo for more than 15 years and have attained the shodan rank (first-degree black belt).

This is a great program for college athletes who are unable to go onto a four-year college and cannot pay for it, Yoshida said. A program like this with the funding gives a chance for guys like us to be able to excel in our sports, plus be able to get our degree down here. It is just like being on a regular scholarship.