Since it was created in 1981, the Penn State Wrestling Club has tried to fulfill two major goals: use membership dues to send Penn State wrestlers all over the country and the world, and improve the overall visibility of the sport on campus.

Unlike other universities' wrestling clubs, the Penn State Wrestling Club lets both wrestlers and wrestling supporters get involved. Benefits for club members include the opportunity to follow the team closely throughout the season through two publications and first priority for tickets to all home and most away meets.

One of the purposes of the membership money -- which does not include the cost of tickets to the meets -- is financing trips for Penn State wrestlers to tournaments in and out of season. Tournaments during the season are for the redshirts, who are affiliated with the club when they wrestle. The club pays travel costs to tournaments across the country, giving redshirts the opportunity to compete while they are ineligible to wrestle for the varsity team.

Skip Pighetti, a redshirt on the team, said the trips to tournaments during the season gave him experience wrestling outside of practice.

In the off-season the wrestlers compete in freestyle and Greco-Roman tournaments, including Olympic qualifying events. These tournaments give the team members an opportunity to wrestle all year.

"We are recruiting kids now that want to make a year-round commitment and we need to give them that opportunity," Coach Rich Lorenzo said.

Lorenzo added that in the pre-club days, Penn State could not offer that kind of commitment to its wrestlers. He said Penn State needed a club to remain competitive with other Division I programs.

Besides the priority seating arrangements, club members also have the option to attend brunches prior to special events and socials following home meets. The club spent about $33,000 last summer between trips for wrestlers and social events for the members.

Non-student club members pay $20 per year and students pay $5.

"We charge just enough to break even," said Russ Ruhf, former club president and acting treasurer.

Because of these tactics used to attract members, the club has established itself as the largest and most aggressive club on campus, club president Art Freeman said. On a larger scale, Freeman gleams with pride when he says Penn State's Wrestling Club is the "most active club in the nation."

Not only does the club benefit the present wrestlers that compete here, it benefits ex- and future wrestlers as well. The club sponsors a graduate program that gives aid to wrestlers who have received their degree from Penn State to go to graduate school. Former All-American Jim Martin, for example, is receiving financial aid from the club to continue his education at Hershey Medical Center.

The club also sponsors tournaments for kids --last Sunday there was one from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. in Rec Hall.

On campus, the club is not quite as familiar to the students. The on-campus membership is about 15 people and most of them are women.

"I don't think there is enough male response to the events," club secretary Connie Christiansen said.

Student club leader Julie Abel agreed. She explained that the three or four men that join each year usually don't last beyond the second or third meeting, probably because they think they actually get to wrestle. Once they find out that their job as student club members consists of promoting the team through flyers and banners, they vanish.

Christiansen expressed concern about the lack of male membership, but Abel didn't seem bothered by the lopsidedness.

"It really doesn't matter, as long as we have hard workers," she said.

Overall, the club has over 700 memberships this year and at one to five people per membership, Ruhf estimates about 1,500 to 2,000 people are involved in the club.

Information about membership can be obtained by calling the ticket office at 865-7567 or sending a letter to Penn State Wrestling Club, P.O. Box 316, State College, PA 16804.