Burch's challenge: Get up off the mat

PROVIDENCE -- Michael Burch feels as if he's been pinned to the mat for five years.

``I am fighting for my life, literally," he says, a tear racing down his cheek. ``They have wrecked my career."

As head wrestling coach at the University of California at Davis from 1995-2001, Burch transformed a terrible team that hadn't won a dual meet in three years into a Division 1 power that in 2001 posted its winningest season in 25 years. The accomplishment resulted in the part-time coach being named UC Davis men's coach of the year in May for the second time.

That same week, he was fired.

Slam-dunked, Burch says, in retaliation for publicly supporting three women wrestlers who filed a civil rights complaint after they were cut from the wrestling team. Burch, 44, now an assistant wrestling coach at Brown University, filed suit against the Regents of the University of California and four school administrators in 2003, citing Title IX violations. (Title IX, which requires universities that receive federal funding to provide equal athletic opportunities for men and women, was passed into law in 1972.)

The university's Regents don't dispute Burch's success. But they claim he is a foul-mouthed liar and a threatening, rule-breaking opportunist who is no women's rights hero.

In claiming that there was no discrimination outcry from Burch until May 2001, UC Davis said in a statement that ``the actions he claims he took in order to advocate for the women wrestlers were actually taken for the purposes of promoting Mr. Burch's efforts to obtain a full-time head coach position."

Burch's case received some legal muscle in July from US District Judge William B. Shubb, who denied the school's motion for a summary judgment.

In refusing to dismiss the case, Shubb said, ``Particularly troubling is [Burch's] evidence which suggests that his participation in public protests accusing UCD of Title IX discrimination might have been the event that actually secured his termination." Shubb set a tentative trial date for Oct. 11 in US District Court in Sacramento.

A companion suit by four UC Davis women wrestlers alleging sexual discrimination (filed in 2003 after the civil rights complaint was dismissed) is pending.

Women's wrestling is not a sport at UC Davis, but prior to 2000, they could practice with the men's team and receive team benefits. Later that year, the university said financial and other considerations dictated that the roster be trimmed to 30, and the women were cut.

School officials say they held a meeting April 24, 2001 -- coincidentally the day before the women filed their complaint -- and decided to fire Burch. Burch says he was terminated at a May 29 meeting after supporting the women in protests, in the media, and in a meeting with a state assemblywoman that resulted in funding for a $44 million science lab project being threatened.

Burch says when he asked for reasons for his dismissal May 29, UC Davis athletic director Greg Warzecka told him, ``We don't have to tell you."

Burch is suing UC Davis for reinstatement, but also for individual damages against Warzecka, associate AD Pam Gill-Fisher, assistant chancellor of student affairs Robert Franks, and associate athletic director Lawrence Swanson, Burch's direct supervisor.

According to Burch, he asked Franks May 25 why his new contract had been delayed. Franks told him that his public advocating for the women's wrestlers ``was making it very difficult for us to love you."

Burch admits he is obsessed with his court battle. ``They are the biggest, most powerful university system in the country," he said. ``They have a bottomless pit of money to spend. The only way you can win against that is you have to sacrifice your soul a little bit, put things that are important to you otherwise on hold."

Ironically, after his dismissal the only wrestling job he could land was as a second assistant coach at Brown, which lost a landmark Title IX class action lawsuit filed in 1992.

``I turned around the worst program in the country and no one even responds to me," Burch said. ``Virtually every application asks, `Have you ever been terminated at another university?' I have to say, `Yes.' Then I have to say I am involved in a lawsuit against a university. What hurts me worse? The fact that I've been fired by a university or the fact that I'm suing the university in terms of getting another job? I was done."

He was broke and forced into bankruptcy. He also had to seek counseling.

``I was homeless driving across country," said Burch. ``No income, no health benefits, living off unemployment, it was depressing."

Burch, who has since been promoted to first assistant coach, is also an ordained minister and teacher who advocates against the victimization of women. None of the defendants would comment publicly. ``We're grinding our teeth," said one of the defendants, who said the university's lawyers ordered them not to speak.

In his recent ruling, Shubb -- a no-nonsense judge who gained national notoriety after he seized a cellphone in his courtroom and ``tossed" it down the hallway -- also cited ``inconsistent testimony in the [UCD] defendants' presentation that cast doubt on their reliability."

Shubb noted that the defendants couldn't even agree on who was present at the alleged April 24 meeting. ``A reasonable fact finder could likewise conclude that the meeting did not take place when the defendants allege it did and that the decision was actually made at a later date . . ."

Burch was pleased with the judge's decision. ``There was no April 24th meeting. There's no notes, no nothing."

UC Davis says it has allowed women on its wrestling team since 1991 and has an excellent record of gender equality.

``I've worked my entire [27-year] career with Title IX stamped on my forehead," Gill-Fisher said at the time. (She resigned to teach, effective the end of the year.) ``I am not about denying opportunity to women athletes."

UC Davis also self-reported several NCAA violations during Burch's tenure, including having too many coaches at a high school championship meet, staying too long in Las Vegas after a dual meet, and distributing too much meal money. The NCAA termed those violations ``secondary."

Burch says the violations were filed when he was already at Brown and were mean-spirited. ``That's malicious. They were just trying to defame my coaching name."

Burch's father was a high school coach, and young Mike was pinning neighborhood kids at the age of 5. He was a state high school champion from Northern California in 1980, a freshman All-American and four-year varsity starter on a Cal State Bakersfield team that won four consecutive Division 2 national titles.

This summer, he is teaching a course at Brown on ``Sports and Society" and is holding wrestling clinics for Rhode Island high school athletes, none of whom happen to be girls.

But girls' participation in high school wrestling programs is skyrocketing faster than any other girls' sport in California, according to statistics from the California Interscholastic Federation, which governs high school sports. Last year in the state, 1,230 high school girls wrestled competitively, compared with just 494 in 1998. There are currently only seven women's wrestling programs in college, none in Division 1.

Nationally, there were 4,334 girl high school wrestlers in 2004-05, up from just 112 in 1990, according to the National Federation of State High School Associations.

``Girls want to wrestle and they are doing it in large numbers on boys' teams from ages 8-28 all over the country in spite of having to compete against males to do it and in spite of having to endure harassment on male teams," Burch said. ``Meanwhile our society, including universities and the NCAA, simply are not comfortable with women being this rough and rugged. The NCAA does not equally advocate for women to play contact sports.

``There's a conspiracy against women in athletics to keep women out of contact sports."

The NCAA responded by e-mail: ``The NCAA process to identify emerging sports for women is a membership-driven process, and I should note that classifying a sport as contact or collision is not part of the criteria," wrote Jennifer Kearns, NCAA associate director of public and media relations.

The NCAA does not sanction women's wrestling, although it was the only contact sport added to the 2004 Athens Olympics.

Patricia Miranda won a bronze medal in Athens. A former Stanford wrestler on the men's team, she hopes things change soon.

``I wrestled at Stanford," said Miranda. ``I owe a lot of my success to men's programs. If the path isn't readily open, people pitch in and help you with your dreams. There was no boy who didn't make the team because I was there. Men like Michael Burch allow for a compromise. It doesn't seem right."

Burch says that ``UCD owes me back pay, a job, and a career, but beyond that they owe women the opportunity to varsity wrestle. Get scholarships and medical and uniforms."

In depositions filed, Gill-Fisher says she told Burch the university needed to extend more full-time positions to female coaches to comply with Title IX.

In response, she says Burch ``blurted out, `[expletive] Title IX,' and stormed out of [her] office."

Burch responded. ``That's completely fabricated. What coach in America could say, `[expletive] Title IX,' and not get fired?"

Burch contends that Warzecka ordered him to remove women from the wrestling roster in October 2000 for financial reasons. He said Warzecka said, ``If you don't remove the women from the team, we'll find somebody who will.

``I told him, `You're going to tell them yourself.' And he told the women the insurance policies were too high to pay for people who aren't going to be competitive. That's sex discrimination right there."

In his depositions, Warzecka said he left it up to Burch to decide which athletes to cut. He quotes Burch as saying, ``I don't give a [expletive] about the women, they can't compete against the men."

Responded Burch, ``Greg's fabricated that. It never happened. I'm going to walk in and say, `Who cares about the women?' I recruited these women. I spent extra time with these women for no extra pay. I started women's wrestling tournaments and did a lot of work."

It appears Burch has UC Davis in a headlock. He has a March 27, 2001, e-mail from associate AD Swanson, in which he offers Burch ``congratulations on a very successful year . . . I agree, the future seems very positive. I would be happy to meet and talk about some long-range plans and goals for you and your sport."

Burch also says, ``I had three contract negotiations with my union rep there in May."

UC Davis claimed in depositions it was afraid Burch would get ``violent" if told he was fired.

``The only physical contact I've engaged in is wrestling," said Burch with a smile.

Another internal memo dated May 3, 2001 -- nine days after he was allegedly terminated -- has a subject listing as ``Response to Mike Burch's Requests." This e-mail from AD Warzecka to vice chancellor Dennis Shimek is a thorough discussion of 2001-02 salary negotiations ``we would consider" for Burch.

Burch calls it a smoking gun.

``Why would you write an e-mail like that if you fired me on April 24?"

ON THE MAT: For a photo gallery on Brown assistant wrestling coach Michael Burch, go to www.boston.com/sports