Frank Pergolizzi

September 20, 2011

"Tech is a STEM institution -- science, technology, engineering, math," Frank Pergolizzi told Putnam Rotarians today. "All of our coaches understand that the best thing we can do is to recruit to our campus engineers who are athletes."

Pergolizzi is in his third year as athletic director at WVU Tech in Montgomery.

Enrollment at Tech this year is up seven percent in head count -- up ten percent in fulltime-equivalent numbers, and much of the growth is due to the balance between athletics and academics for the school's 1,300 students.

"If we can get you to come to Tech, stay in the program, use up your years of eligibility," he said, "the chances that you are going to graduate is in the mid-eighties, which is a very high percentage.

"We put a lot of focus on improving our retention, and I think we're beginning to see the results of that."

The school since 2005 has been in the Mid-South Conference of NAIA Division I (National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics). "We don't get money by selling tickets or TV," he said. "Last year our total income from ticket sales, concessions [and all sources] was $16,000. We spend $2.8 million on athletics. The institution supports the rest of the program because it's important to the institution."

In twelve sports, there are 276 athletes at Tech. That's 21 percent of the student body. Among the residential population of 500, over half of the students are athletes.

How to reconcile the difference? "We bring to Tech students that otherwise would not come," said Pergolizzi. "Of our 276 athletes, 139 of them are West Virginia residents. Those 139 pay in tuition and fees $829,000 before scholarships, before financial aid. In room and board; those 139 students who live on campus because they're athletes pay $1,154,000.

"That's just our [West Virginia] resident students. There are 137 non-resident [athletes] -- out-of-state -- who pay more. The out-of-state students pay $1,908,000 in tuition and fees and another $1,121,000 in room and board.

"The grand total of all that is $5,012,000.

"One of our twelve sports is wrestling. There are only three colleges in West Virginia that wrestle. Wrestling is a unique sport that gives us an opportunity to recruit young men from this state, more so than we do in perhaps any other sport, to come to Tech and participate in a sport that is growing."

With a new coach in the past three years, the numbers in wrestling went from six to about 32 " -- and we think we can get that up to forty."

Facilities are a challenge, he said. "If you've been to Montgomery, you understand that we're built into the side of a mountain, and we don't have any spare space.

"Other than basketball, football, volley ball and wrestling, all of our other sports are off campus. Baseball plays at the field at East Bank. Softball plays at Riverside High. Soccer plays at Coonskin Park up in Charleston.

"It's not a traditional college campus where everything is right there. If you want to see a soccer game, you've got to get in a car and treat it like an 'away' game."

Tech has refurbished its swimming pool, and competitive swimming has been added back on the athletics agenda. "With a river right in front of us," Pergolizzi added, the school may soon inaugurate a rowing team.

Tech counts several Putnam graduates among its star athletes, and head football coach Scott Tinsley once coached at Nitro High School.

It will be a homecoming of sorts for Tinsley on October 29th when he brings his Tech Golden Bears to meet a team from Kentucy's Lindsey Wilson College on the field at Nitro.

Presently at home in Teays Valley, Frank Pergolizzi in his 17-year career includes stints at St. Francis University, East Tennessee State and Southeastern Louisiana University.

Rotarians and guests (left to right) are Larry Stricker (Randolph Engineering), Rotarian Diane Springer, Gary L. Lacy (American General), and Rotarian Chet Marshall.