Pitt Wrestling is a program that is looking to get back into the national spotlight. The program has a storied history with 76 All-Americans and 16 national champions. Third-year coach Keith Gavin is trying to restore that kind of pride. Pitt wrestling is coming off a 13-3 campaign in 2019 in which it sent five wrestlers to the NCAA Championships.

Pitt is off to a 5-1 start this season and finds itself ranked 10th in the country according to this week’s NWCA Coaches Poll. Four individual wrestlers are ranked among the top-20 in their respective weight classes as well. Under the guidance of Gavin, Pitt Wrestling appears to be on the rise.

Tuesday's announcement of a new arena should only further that growth for the program. Athletic Director Heather Lyke unveiled her plans for Pitt’s ‘Victory Heights’ initiative, a comprehensive plan to improve the university’s athletic facilities.

A brand new 3,500-seat arena is one of the highlights of the plan, and that will be the new home for the wrestling program. In addition to that, the wrestling program will have updated practice and training facilities, which should raise the profile of the program nationally.

“I expect it to be a game-changer for us,” Gavin said of Pitt wrestling future home. “It’s really one of the only things that we’re missing. We have a great staff, we have some great kids on this team, and we’re surrounded by really talented wrestlers in Pennsylvania and Ohio. So this is going to be big for us.”

Gavin’s mind quickly went to recruiting. High School wrestling in Pennsylvania is a big deal, and it is one of the top talent producing states in the country. The in-state talent has helped turn Penn State into a powerhouse, and Gavin is hoping Pitt’s new facility will help keep talent at home.

“Yea that’s the goal,” Gavin replied if he hopes this will help in-state recruiting. “We’re trying to do that now anyway and when I say that, we’ll take a good wrestler from anywhere, but if we’re going to do well it’s going to be with a lot of homegrown kids. You’re not going to get everybody, but we’ve got to keep as many as we can, so yes if we’re going to do well that will always be at the top of our list for recruiting is to keeping some of these kids that we have in the area at home.”

It’s not just landing talent for Gavin, he is hoping the new building helps attract fans and builds the program in that way as well.

“That kind of support is what we’re looking to get,” the Panthers third-year coach explained. “We’ve seen it a little bit, but winning helps with all that stuff and having that facility is going to help. So in that regard it’s going to help us to get more fans, but we’re seeing it already. We had to wrestle Ohio State at 3 o’clock on a Friday and it was packed and that’s an unusual time.”

Aside from landing more talent and building up a fan base, it’ll be more convenient to simply run a program with the added space. Gavin wrestled for Pitt and he was the program’s last national champion (2008) so he’s seen how things work here, and the Victory Heights plan will give this program the necessary room to expand and thrive.

“It’s going to impact us in a lot of ways and not just with recruiting but it’s got a bigger space than what we’re training in right now,” he explained. "Our wrestling room right now, the layout is a little funny and it’s just not big enough. We’ll do practice now when we have the first five weight classes those guys get on the mat while the other guys are off riding the bike or something, because if we’ll do them altogether they’ll run into each other and we’ll have some unnecessary injuries.

It’s just going to be a lot more efficient for training.”