Interim gymnastics coach Carlos Silvestre not only has Wednesday’s meet against Illinois-Chicago on his mind, but survival as well.

Not only does Silvestre, in his third week at the helm, need to worry about the program, but he also has taken the responsibitlity of leading the fight to keep NIU gymnastics alive.

Silvestre said he has the support of the college gymnastic coaches, United States Gymnastics Federation, and important statistics, as well.

obert Cowlan, the director of the USFG men’s program, called Silvestre to show his support and will help in the coach’s crusade.

Silvestre also said he was overwhelmed by calls from his colleagues showing their support for NIU gymnastics. “Just about every coach at the college level called me or someone involved with NIU to find out for what reason the proposal (to drop NIU gymnastics) was made,” he said.

“(Cowlan) was very upset about the situation because the boy’s program in the U.S. has increased and a lot of their dream is to compete and achieve at a collegiate level and Mr. Cowlan is very upset about (the situation at NIU),” said Silvestre.

Silvestre kept refering to the success of the NIU men’s gymnastics program that has produced 16 All-Americans, five NCAA champions, two U.S. team members and one international champion.

Silvestre said dropping NIU gymnastics would hurt the entire sport. “The participation in boy’s gymnastics has been growing in the U.S. and if we drop a progam that is strong as it is here that would be sending a wrong message to everyone. NIU gymnastics has brought international recognition to NIU. We have competed against national teams from USSR and Japan here at DeKalb and we have competed against strong national teams from the Big Ten, Pac Ten, and the Big-Eight. I don’t think such a program should be dropped.”

Despite the controversy surrounding the team, it still needs to compete and it still has the goal of scoring over 275 points. Silvestri said he believes the team will achieve this goal against UIC tonight at 7 p.m.