Edgar Bright dismissed from Pitt wrestling program

Well, this isn't good:

A former University of Pittsburgh wrestler was arrested over the weekend on several charges, including aggravated assault.

According to the criminal complaint, 20-year-old Edgar Bright was arrested Friday around 12:30 a.m.

According to the complaint, Bright got into an argument with his ex-girlfriend and her friends got involved.

The complaint states that Bright punched one of the women in the face and flipped another woman over his shoulder and onto the ground.

According to the complaint, Bright is also facing charges of possession with intent to sell drugs and possession of a stolen gun.

Ugh.

Bright was dropped from the program and if those charges were accurate, it's pretty easy to see why. You hate to hear anytime one of these kids gets in trouble, but some of this is just really bad stuff.

Seems this isn't Bright's first incident, either. From The Pitt News:

Bright was previously arrested last August in Cleveland, Ohio, and was charged with assault, kidnapping and intimidating a victim or witness.

Bright pled guilty to the assault charges. He was found guilty and served 45 days in jail before his release on June 15.

Many wondered what happened to Bright last season as he didn't wrestle much of the year. It's unclear if this had anything to do with it but connecting the dots, perhaps it could have.

The arrest came in August, but Bright did wrestle a little early on after that happened, including against Penn State in the team's big meet against the Nittany Lions. Still, he missed much of the season and Pitt was even forced at times to go with nine wrestlers without having someone to take his place, such as one weekend against several programs. Without much of an explanation from head coach Jason Peters at the time, if this was the reason, it makes his statement at the team more understandable.

But again, this is all very much making assumptions right now.

With women allegedly being attacked there are certainly far, far bigger issues here than the wrestling program. But in terms of the team, this obviously doesn't help. Bright was a tremendous talent and a ranked wrestler for the Panthers. To not have him for the next two years is a big loss to the program on the mat and puts them at a disadvantage. At the same time, with the issue last fall and now this, the dismissal from the team was a perfectly logical decision.

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