Despite an eleventh-hour move to reinstate six St. Edward’s sports programs that were slashed three weeks ago in a round of budget cuts, steep financial goals presented by the administration to save them might well make those last-ditch efforts futile.
The small, private Catholic university in Austin eliminated men’s and women’s golf, men’s and women’s tennis, men’s soccer and cheerleading in April in light of the coronavirus pandemic. Coaches of those programs have worked to raise money and try to meet financial quotas put in place by the university.
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The coaches are being asked to come up with pledges totaling more than $2 million per sport by the end of May to ensure the programs will be reinstated for five years. Those coaches are also being asked to work toward fully endowing all their sports to ensure their survival, a total that reaches almost $60 million for the six sports.
The golf and tennis programs would have to generate $16.6 million apiece for the endowments while soccer’s tab would be more than $20 million and cheer $4.6 million, coaches said.
“When St. Edward’s came back to our committee with the numbers, the writing was pretty much on the wall for all of us,” said Jennifer McNeil, the Hilltoppers’ women’s golf coach for 17 years. “If we had more time, we could get this done.”
And what’s the likelihood that men’s and women’s golf will be saved?
“Maybe 5%,” she said.
McNeil coached the first St. Edward’s women’s golf team in the 2003-04 season and also worked as the men’s head golf coach the next season. In 2011, she was the NCAA Division II national coach of the year, and her women’s team won the NCAA West Regional in 2013 and finished fourth at the national championships. One of her two recruits has decommitted.
Debbie Taylor, St. Edward’s athletic director, didn’t sound very optimistic Monday.
“Yes, it’s a challenge,” Taylor said about the quick turnaround and money goals.
Asked if the situation was bleak, Taylor said, “I think it’s going to be very challenging to raise the funds in that amount of time, but I don’t know if I want to put a word on it.”
One parent of a St. Edward’s athlete whose program is being eliminated had no problem calling it bleak and questioned the school’s resolve. The cuts will reduce the school’s number of sports from 16 to 10, the minimum level necessary to remain at the NCAA Division II level.
“They don’t want to make it happen over there,” the parent said. “We’ve offered to pay for two years for the golf program to give all the kids a chance to graduate or move on. It’d cost about $800,000, and we have commitments for half of that. But they want $2.5 million to support a five-year program, which we’ve got to raise by May 31, and we don’t think we can in this environment.”
Estevam Strecker, coach of the men’s tennis team, alternates between optimistic and realistic by the hour. He’s been instructed that he must raise $16.6 million over the five years to fully endow the program.
“That’s a gigantic mountain for the next five years, even if we raised the $2 million this month,” Strecker said. “If we did this, fundraising would become the biggest part of my job.”
He admits he’s had little time to think of his own career.
“There are moments when I’m really motivated and excited, and there are moments of just despair when I say there’s no way we’re going to do this,” Strecker said. ”… But I tell my players every single day to never quit competing; I can’t quit right now, or that would make me a hypocrite. But we’re down a set, and it’s match point.”
McNeil wants to believe St. Edward’s truly wants the sports reinstated, but she has doubts.
“The way it feels was it was a convenient way out,” she said. “I’ve been at St. Ed’s so long, I want to give them the benefit of the doubt. In my heart, I want to believe that. In my rational mind, it takes me down a different path.”
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