Fresno State wrestling program’s legacy? A stripper party, demeaning jokes, racial slurs

In 2016, then Fresno State Athletic Director Jim Bartko said of new Bulldogs wrestling coach Troy Steiner: “Being able to find a head coach with the integrity, spirit and knowledge that Troy brings to Fresno State is invaluable.”

Then, in announcing the hiring of Israel Silva to be an assistant coach, Steiner said: “His ability to connect with the student-athlete, alumni and fans is very evident and I know I will be able to trust him in helping build the Bulldog wrestling program.”

Both characterizations, sadly, have now been shown to be empty words in the harsh light of an investigation into allegations of serious wrongdoing in the Fresno State wrestling program.

Far from applying integrity and knowledge, Steiner is portrayed in the investigative report as an out-of-touch head coach under whose watch a stripper party was held with recruits; he then kept quiet about the party and failed to report it as required. In another incident, one wrestler may have received improper financial help in the form of parking fines being paid off; that is now being checked out by the NCAA.

Silva’s “connecting” with student-athletes, according to the allegations in the investigative report, included instigating crude, demeaning sexual stunts and innuendo. He too is faulted for not reporting the stripper event, and was found to have been unprofessional in referring to white people or anyone from Clovis as “entitled.” Silva regularly used the N-word when talking to the team, though it was not shown that he directed it at any wrestlers, the report indicates.

Silva was found to have engaged in sexualized horseplay with wrestlers — such as holding a student face down on a bed on a road trip while making a comment that is usually used in the context of sexual intercourse.

The salacious details, and resulting investigation, are a sad postscript to a program that was intended to unite the university to the broad base of fan support for wrestling that exists in the central San Joaquin Valley.

Wrestling connection

Fresno State’s wrestling program was closed down in 2006 due to budget pressures. But it was a point of pride for then-university President Joseph Castro when Steiner was hired amid fanfare in 2016, coming from a strong Oregon State program where he was an assistant.

Unfortunately, financial pressures surfaced last fall when, for the second time, wrestling was dropped as a Fresno State sport. It was a victim of the budget woes caused by the COVID pandemic.

Uncertain future

It was in June last year when the news broke about the stripper party. The Bee Editorial Board noted then that the party paled in comparison to scandals that had occurred in Fresno State athletics in the past., such as the troubles under men’s basketball coach Jerry Tarkanian, whose players were accused of grand theft, sexual assault and assault with a deadly weapon, among other crimes.

But the possibility that strippers had entertained athletes, even possibly high-school-age recruits, was without question a bad look and affront to Castro, the clean-cut president and now chancellor of the California State University system.

The Editorial Board asked the university to announce the results of its investigation into the wrestling program. Instead, Bee staff writer Robert Kuwada followed up with public-record requests, which yielded the report by the law firm Atkinson, Andelson, Loya, Ruud & Romo. The Cerritos-based firm has a Fresno office.

While wrestling is done for now, one question is whether Steiner is continuing to be paid. The Athletic Department would not answer that question. His contract continues through June 2023, but he can be suspended or fired if he violated NCAA or university rules. Certainly, the contract should be terminated if violations are found to have occurred.

It is too bad wrestling came to a demise for a second time at Fresno State. It is doubly unfortunate that a stripper scandal is the black mark that will be remembered. Maybe many years from now another attempt can be made to bring wrestling back. But that can only happen with much tighter controls on a program that went off the rails in its most recent existence due to the negligence of a head coach and the bad behavior of an assistant.