Over 1,700 miles from Campbell University sits the Deerwood Ranch in Wyoming, an isolated barn mostly used for cattle ranching and sometimes serving as a host of weddings.
It’s exactly what you would picture if you envisioned a Western barn on a large piece of remote land.
But when Campbell wrestling coach Scotti Sentes and Wyoming coach Mark Branch looked into this location, they pictured it as a venue for a wrestling dual.
That’s right, a wrestling dual. In a barn. In Wyoming.
You may have seen the viral videos of this event on social media, or maybe someone mentioned the dual in passing. Branch said people still drop by his office to talk to him about the event.
The production of these kinds of duals require a team effort, from the venue hosts to the operations team to the production staff.
Relive the dual that everybody’s talking about RIGHT HERE: https://t.co/9ejuRqb7VK#BattleAtTheBarn https://t.co/LCgw2zS71c
— UFC FIGHT PASS (@UFCFightPass) November 18, 2023
NCAA.com spoke with Sentes, Branch and two media leaders affiliated with the UFC Fight Pass broadcast — the streaming platform for this dual — about the logistics, challenges and future goals for college wrestling and how the sport can continue to grow by pushing boundaries and being creative.
From a military hangar to a barn
Planning these kinds of unusual events was not new for Sentes. Last year, he and his staff worked with UFC Fight Pass to host a dual on a military hangar in North Carolina, and while the event had a few hiccups (including having their venue reservation temporarily canceled before getting special permission and a rainstorm interrupting the flow of the matches), the setting and the promotion of the event brought a great spotlight to Campbell wrestling and convinced Sentes to consider more unique duals.
Sentes said he learned a lot in planning that first dual, but he wasn’t done trying new things. He wanted continue creating memorable experiences for his athletes — and his next ideas was to head west. Branch said Sentes reached out to him about bringing the Camels to Wyoming after the Cowboys posted a promotional video featuring the wrestlers on horses, wearing cowboy hats and celebrating the team amidst the background of the rustic beauty of the state.
Branch was all-in on building out something cool in his state with the Camels. Together, he and Sentes started looking for neat venues near the University of Wyoming to possibly host the next big wrestling experience. Branch said that several locations that they considered had dirt floors, instead of concrete, which would have made the mats messy. They were looking for a very specific type of barn.
One venue that they were looked into had concrete floors and space for fans, but Branch deemed it “too nice” for what he and Sentes were looking for. He said it was essentially a fancy gym built for volleyball. It lacked the rustic look he was going for. The search continued.
Then, Branch and Sentes found Deerwood Ranch. That’s when they knew they had stumbled onto gold.
The next step was working to get the match streamed and available to the public. Enter UFC Fight Pass.
Building fandom through creativity and respect
Walker Van Wey, the digital content manager for the UFC, had always been a big wrestling fan and believed in a possible partnership between college wrestling and the UFC. The connection made sense. College wrestlers sit in the corner for some of the biggest fighters in the UFC, and Van Wey said that articles about college wrestlers on UFC.com performed well.
But he hadn’t actually worked with UFC Fight Pass to broadcast a college dual until last year.
This now-thriving partnership all began with a conversation between Van Wey and Zach Bogle of the Stalemates podcast last season. Bogle and Van Wey had worked on some content together in the past, and Bogle reached out to Van Wey after Van Wey published an article on UFC.com about Campbell wrestler Josh Heil and inquired about possibly broadcasting Campbell on UFC Fight Pass. Van Wey said the idea was well received within the UFC team. He then reached out to Rob Haydak of Cage Fury Fighting Championships to coordinate production, and they were off and running.
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The UFC Fight Pass team successfully broadcasted the military dual and then started dreaming bigger. They wanted more duals in more locations. So, ahead of the 2023-24 season, Van Wey and Haydak started identifying different locations around the country, coordinating production efforts and reaching out to potential college team partners to set up these special experiences.
The result was a lineup of duals, including another another Campbell military base dual, a dual at Perry High School in Ohio, the “Battle at the Barn,” a series of Campbell duals in North Carolina, a theatre dual in Missouri, a match on the Atlantic City boardwalk, a Vegas dual and the SoCon rivalry dual between Campbell and App State.
Things are about to heat up in Buies Creek this Friday!!#SoConCrown pic.twitter.com/cxBgGlR5fJ
— UFC FIGHT PASS (@UFCFightPass) January 30, 2024
The challenge in creating these events, Van Wey said, was winning over some of the more traditional, old-school fans of the sport.
“Wrestling is one of those sports where I think there’s more purists than almost any other sport,” he said. “They’re kind of used to the world that they’re already living in. They may not be familiar with the UFC Fight Pass branding.”
Haydak’s team helped provide a solution to Van Wey’s concern. He sought out expert commentators for the duals like David Taylor and Shane Sparks to call the matches and then collaborated with his own proprietary graphics team to produce high-end imagery and accurate scoring systems. These kinds of touches were key to winning over traditional wrestling fans who might be hesitant about seeing the sport moving into these unusual venues.
The production team has largely received praise for these endeavors, but Haydak wants to emphasize that he and his team are not here to take over the sport. They do not want to be seen a threat to the core traditions of wrestling. His goal, and Van Wey’s goal, is to provide another platform for the sport and give it an opportunity to grow amongst a new fan base by featuring athletes in unexpected spaces. The high-quality production is part of that effort, but the goal is really just to continue to tell great wrestling stories.
“We’re looking to be complementary entering the space,” Haydak said. “We’ve always known wrestling is a key martial art…and to now be able to showcase these athletes and assist with growing the sport, that that is ultimately what we’re after. We want to give the spotlight to them.”
Additional challenges and rewards to consider for the future
With the streaming logistics in place and the venue secured, Branch and Sentes had everything they needed to pull off the barn dual.
Well, almost everything.
Both coaches knew that if they were going to commit to producing a unique wrestling experience with UFC Fight Pass in a barn, they wanted to do it right. They wanted blue jeans, cowboy hats, the whole authentic look.
The problem was, NCAA rules prohibit jeans and hats for coaches during duals.
Branch said this was a hurdle, but not an insurmountable one.
After a lengthy process, he was able to appeal the rule and receive an exemption to wear cowboy apparel during the dual. Local businesses also stepped in to supply the team with special hats and gifted vests. So there they were, sitting on hay bails in their sponsored hats and in their jeans, competing under the lights in the kind of “Battle in the Barn” Sentes and Branch had imagined.
The only thing that would have made it better for Branch? A Wyoming win.
Despite the result, the Cowboys head coach said he would do it all over again, especially if he had the opportunity to work with UFC Fight Pass.
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“It was eye-opening for me, the professionalism that came with UFC Fight Pass and just to see how seriously they took,” Branch said. “They didn’t want one hiccup, and that’s pretty cool. I would tell any coach that if you get an opportunity, be as creative as you can think of.”
Sentes agrees, and he’s already thinking about fun ways to continue to put his team in the spotlight. Perhaps a dual on a cruise ship? Maybe a bout inside the Vegas sphere? The sky is the limit.
The Battle in the Barn 🤠📸
An iconic night in Cowboy Wrestling. pic.twitter.com/Ea7yyXW25a— Wyoming Cowboy Wrestling (@WyoWrestle) November 18, 2023
Regardless of what comes next for Campbell or Wyoming in terms of unique venues, the barn will go down in the record books as one of the most distinct wrestling moments of this last season, and it’s a memory these athletes will have with them forever, thanks to the creativity of their coaches and the commitment of the production staff.
“Being under the lights and having the setup that we had… that’s that’s what these guys dream of right there. You know, they want to compete on the biggest stage…and we set some pretty cool stages for them to compete on,” Sentes said. “It’s stuff they’re going to remember their whole lives and tell stories about so it was cool to be a part of it for them and for me.