Readers Respond to “SAVE OUR SPORT!”

PHOENIX, April 26. LETTERS of support have been rolling in since we posted Phil Whitten's editorial: "S.O.S.: save Our Sport. A Call to Action."

Here is a sample:

SAVING MEN'S SWIMMING
count me in!

my swimming background includes:
a.. swimming in high school and a.a.u.
b.. swimming for both a junior college (monroe c.c.) and a division i program (indiana state university – program dropped in 1982)
c.. coaching (a.s.c.a. level 3 high school & u.s.s.)
d.. swim parenting (still have 4 involved in summer league, u.s.s., high school, & division iii swimming and diving)
e.. former vice-president t.i.s.c.a. (texas interscholastic swimming coaches association)
sincerely,

bob button
assistant principal
bay city high school
bay city, texas

SAVE COLLEGE SWIMMING
Phil,
How can I help?
I swam NCAA for Tulane in the mid 60's (a school that was a trend-setter in killing its swimming program) and am an active Masters swimmer. Currently, I reside in New Orleans. Perhaps you could share a little more of your plan and then I can better determine how I can help as well as enlist the efforts of others.

Best Regards,
Dave Miner

THANKS
Phil-
As a full time professional swim coach, I am totally dismayed at the decision of many college athletic directors. I don't know what I can do to help, but
if there is something you need, I will be more than willing to volunteer my time.

Thanks

Bob Platt
Spirit Swimming

A CALL TO ARMS
Hi, my name is Jeremy Tillman, and I will be attending Princeton University next fall. I'm not sure exactly what I can do to help the cause, but I can't sit idly by while swim programs and traditions are being replaced by additional jock straps and gym towels for the football team. As a future collegiate swimmer, I can't help but wonder "Could my school be next?"
Though Princeton swimming doesn't appear to be threatened, I don't want to take that chance. I'll do what I can to preserve the sport I love.

Jeremy Tillman

RE: SOS: Save Our Sport. A Call to Action
Hello Phillip:
I just read your editorial, which was forwarded via e-mail to me by the swim coach at Cleveland State University. My son will be swimming at Ohio State University this fall.

You make excellent points in the article. Numerous
families here in the Pacific Northwest convinced the University of Washington NOT to drop their swimming program, and the AD reversed her decision. One of the swimmers from our local club will be swimming there as a freshman this fall.

Let me know how I can help. Thanks.
John Foltz
University of Idaho

SOS
Phil,

Enjoyed your article. I was an assistant swim coach at the University of Oregon when they cut the sport in 1986. As you mentioned, the current Nebraska A.D. Bill Byrne, was the axe man at U of O in '86.

I am currently a businessman in Charlotte, NC. My kids swim for the Mecklenburg Aquatic Club here in Charlotte. I am also a board member at MAC.

Please let me know what I can do to help. Maybe my experience as a coach, parent, and club leader might be of some assistance.

I agree that this is a serious issue. My 11 year old son trains in the elite age group sub-group at MAC. 20 girls, 6 boys. He loves the sport but once said to me "sometimes I feel like I'm in gymnastics." Something has to be done.

James Hetzel
Weddington, NC

SAVE OUR SPORT!
Phil–

Bravo for your leadership on this stomach churning issue. I am simultaneously a Masters swimmer, coach and college swimming alum, and am happy to assist in preserving these life-expanding opportunities for young
men. If it helps, I am in a semi-influential position with a highly esteemed parks and recreation agency in Fairfax, Virginia, with in advanced degree in Sports Business.

Thanks for calling attention to this issue: nothing gets my blood boiling like simpleton ADs taking the easy way out (a la Bob Frederick).

Thanks,
Pete Sczupak

SWIMMER
hello phil,
I swim for the University of Evansville in Indiana and my coach just sent me your article. It sounds like a great fight because my whole family is
swimmers. From my Grandmother, dad, brother, sister and me. If there's anything that you think we could do around here just ask. There's just one thing i think could help swimming. It's only on the television once every 4 years. And when it is everybody watches, so you should try to get it on tv more. Showing college teams matching up or something like that or try to
have them get scores on sports center or something. If college football and basketball get all the attention they should try to spread it around. well thats all i got. Keep up the fight.

Mike Lonergan

SOS
Phil,
I read your article in "SWIM" Magazine. I'm a former D-1 swimmer for Butler University and served on the NCAA student athlete advisory committee for two years.
I was often disheartened by the attitudes of the
athletic department toward swimming. There I was at
one of the better schools in the midwest (that could
probably recruit on academic merit alone), swimming
for a team with the highest combined GPA of any NCAA
swimming team in the country (3.5 my senior year); we
had one of the fastest pools in the country in our
back yard with the IUPUI Natatorium less than five
miles away and we were still getting kicked out of our
locker room so that the guest basketball team didn't
have to use the women's basketball team's locker room
on game days. We watched as the athletic department
refused to put traction strips on the stairs down to
our locker room, but some how managed a big screen TV
for the basket ball locker room. All this time I'm
working in the English lab as a tutor and trying to
figure out how athletes who can manage an entire
paragraph without a single verb are somehow getting
better treatment than a team that truely embodies the
spirit of athleticism (i.e. excellence in all areas of
personal achievement).
Needless to say, I sympathize with your cause, and
even now, two years out of college the whole thing is
a sore subject for me. Getting to my point, you said
you needed lawyers and while I'm not a laywer yet, I
will be one when I graduate from law school next year,
so tell me what you need and I'll be more than happy
to dedicate any time, talent, and energy I have.

Most sincerely,
Jane Stevens

I WANT TO HELP!
Mr. Whitten,
As a lifelong swimmer and reader of "Swimming World" Magazine, I could not help but notice the trouble brewing among several of the Division 1 swimming programs. Your letter, which I read on swiminfo.com, mentioned that you are interested in "mustering some troops" for the impending battle.
You see, I was a proud member of the University of Maine men's program from 1989 to 1993. Twice in those four years our program faced the budget ax. We fought and won the first battle, but not without casulties. Alan Switzer, who had coached the men's team for twenty years, voluntarily resigned in order help cut costs (the men's and women's teams were combined under longtime Women's Coach Jeff Wren). The second time was a much more severe situation. There was no room left for realignment of any kind – every cost-cutting move had already apparently been done. The women's team was to continue, the men's was not. The state's entire swimming community rallied for our cause. Parents, coaches, alumni, lawyers, businessmen, teachers, and the local media all were involved in their own ways; the amount of support was incredible. An endowment was created to shelter the team from any more budget cuts. Yet, despite all this, the future of our team was still uncertain because not enough money was raised(should I mention we were still in the middle of our season?). One day, however, we athletes learned that a certain famous horror writer and his wife from Bangor had come to our aid. Word had reached Stephen and Tabitha King about our plight; they did not hesitate to do what needed to be done. They contributed enough money to keep the program indefinitely for many years. The endowment now provides at least the yearly operating costs of the teams, if not more.
I should mention the names of the athletic directors who were at the helm when the Athletic Department wanted to cut the Men's program. The first time around tha AD was Kevin White. The second time around was Michael Ploszek.
Phil, this is the first time in many years of reading your editorials that I have written you. I want you to know that you have my support. If I can contribute more, let me know. Good luck in the fight!!
Sincerely,
Nick Voikos
Saco, Maine

SAVING NCAA SWIMMING
Phil,

Please let me know what I can do to help out. I've already had a pretty bitter experience when I taught at the University of Wyoming with the elimination of the skiing program, the ONLY one to deliver NCAA
championships to the school. And, I taught a number of the athletes who were all first rate.

Clearly we cannot let this happen to swimming as well.

mel dyck

AN OPEN LETTER to Athletic Directors and Athletic Department Administrations:

Abraham Lincoln is a man to be respected. In arguably our countries toughest times, he stood for his values. He may not have been the most liked or popular man, but he believed in the cause. If he were alive today, he might look at the landscape of college athletics and once again see a cause worth fighting for.
In 1972, to combat inequities, Congress in acted Title IX. The spirit of Title IX was to create a more level playing field between genders and races. Over the years, the law has been more clearly defined by the courts. No where has it been more scrutinized than the world of college athletics. Numerous advances have been made and today, you probably would be hard pressed to find one collegiate athletic department that doesn't have checks and balances in place to ensure the continued development of new and deserved opportunities.
That, my friends, is not our issue. No, it runs much deeper than that. I graduated from Georgia Southern University in 1994. My wife and I both represented our university swim teams. Every year we were at G.S.U., we would continuously hear talk of the men's swimming and men's cross country teams being dropped for "budget" reasons. What budget reasons we would ask? We didn't have a budget to speak of. Our combined sports had 2.5 scholarships (swimming, cross country, tennis, wrestling, and track are considered non-revenue producing and therefore "fair" game to be eliminated). Each program shared head coaches with their respective women's teams and workout facilities. Both sports traveled by bus (or vans) with the women's teams and only at conference championships did either stay overnight. So, if you figured it on paper, maybe the budget was a combined $100,000 annually. That $100,000 funding of both men's sports gave over 40 young men every year the opportunity to be called a Division I collegiate athlete. More importantly, both sports– when compared to the other men's sports– were first and second in grade point average and graduation rates.
Dr. David Wagner was Georgia Southern Universities athletic director. While I may not have always seen eye-to-eye with Dr. Wagner, I respected him. During those budget conversations (which he included student-athletes who would have been affected by the dropping of their sports) his answer was always "it won't be easy but we will find the $100,000 to keep both sports." He made a difference in the lives of hundreds of young men and young women, probably more than he will ever realize.
In 1995, Dr. Wagner retired as Georgia Southern's athletic director and Sam Baker was hired. Mr. Baker's background had included a recent stint with the College Football Association. Within two years of Mr. Baker taking office, he had not only dropped men's swimming but also men's cross country– all to save roughly $100,000 yearly. Consider, Georgia Southern's total athletic department yearly budget is $4.5 million dollars, he saved a grand total of 2%. Well, it actually turns out saving was only part of the plan. Georgia Southern decided to use the $100,000 it was saving by eliminating men's swimming & cross country to fund the start-up of women's indoor & outdoor track (it should be mentioned Georgia Southern doesn't have an indoor track facility within 130 miles of it's campus). In the eyes of Mr. Baker, it was easier to cut two non-revenue producing sports than find an additional $100,000 to start two new sports.
If you are thinking Title IX had anything to do with G.S.U.'s decision to eliminate either sport, the answer is no. The athletic department was in Title IX compliance and it's master plan called for the addition of two additional women's sports to continue showing progress. No where was it written or was G.S.U. advised that it had to drop any men's sports.
Neither the men's swim team nor men's cross country teams were invited to share their opinions on the future of their sports. They were not given the opportunity to raise the necessary funds to keep their sports alive– like the University of Washington. It simply was a decision made by Mr. Baker and his committee of "yes" people.
You see, there was something else really insulting in Georgia Southern's decision. Mr. Baker announced the elimination of both sports the week Georgia Southern was returning to the "promised" land. The football team was playing in the Division I-AA Championship Game. A place Georgia Southern hadn't been in a few years. What better time to announce such a decision. Let the swimmers and runners know on Monday their teams were being eliminated and then that weekend, play for the Division I-AA National Championship. No one will pay any attention. Well Mr. Baker, we did pay attention. Current athletes, alumni, and parents tried repeatedly to get you to reconsider. Even the SGA attempted to step in. But you had made your mind up. So, Mr. Baker, we are targeting you and athletic directors across the country with the same cavalier attitudes. You are not going to get away with it.
Just like Abe Lincoln, we have a "weapon" to fight back. And it's what you guys love so much. MONEY. Athletic directors across the country are judged on several things; wins/losses, graduation rates, and their abilities to raise dollars. While we can't control the first two, we sure as hell can the third.
Right now, we are issuing an all out boycott on any and every collegiate athletic department that has ever dropped any sport– men or women's– for monetary reasons. We will make your ability to raise dollars — whether through fundraising, sponsorships, tickets, souvenirs, concessions — the most difficult job imaginable. You will realize that there is a consequence for your actions. While you might save a few dollars in the short run, it will cost you dearly in the long run.
I often wonder, if it hadn't been for my opportunity to participate as a collegiate athlete where I would be today. Aside from the joys of winning, I learned how to be organized, responsible, and committed. The coaching staff and the collegiate experience instilled in me the skills necessary to graduate with honors in four years and then earn my Masters Degree one year later. And best of all, Georgia Southern was where I met my wife, Heather. Alumni get togethers, pride in my alma mater, supporting current student-athletes — that has all been ripped away — and most importantly, the same opportunity we were afforded is no longer available to future generations.
This site is a public cry to every alumni, fan, supporter, participant– you name it– affiliated with the schools referenced on this site. I, and every other athlete who has ever been a member of an eliminated program, encourage you from the bottom of our hearts not to contribute, spend, or donate another cent to these University Athletic Departments. Don't buy tickets to their events, sweatshirts with their schools team logo (clothing apparel with a university team logo means the athletic department receives a license royalty, if it doesn't have the athletic logo you are o.k.), invest corporately, or buy products from companies that support the athletic department.
Instead, contribute, spend, and donate your dollars to other areas of the university that are not affiliated nor give funds to the athletic department. Such examples include; libraries, research centers, schools of academia, capital improvements, and endowments.
If we unite and slow down the flow of dollars to guilty athletic departments, we send a loud and clear message, "you cannot and will not be able to continue with your actions." However, if we do continue to support those universities that have made their decisions, we might as well be giving them a stamp of approval.
And if you think money isn't a great weapon to fight back, just ask Robert Scott, President of Morgan Stanley Dean Witter. His company was one of the first to invite ex-President Bill Clinton to speak to employees. Some of Morgan Stanley's clients were so outraged, they pulled their accounts– to the tune of several million dollars. It later led Mr. Scott to issue a statement saying it was a mistake to invite Mr. Clinton to speak. Since his visit with Morgan Stanley, have you noticed many companies lining up to invite Mr. Clinton to speak?
Money does talk. And it's the only messenger A.D.'s will listen to.
Fighting for Future Generations,

Rob Butcher

SAVING SWIM PROGRAMS
Phil,

I have three sons who swim, and a husband who swam high school and college. No superstars in the pool, but competitive, and they love(d) it. My husband and I swim masters.

I have really been puzzled over US swimming's schizo attitude toward swimmers of this variety. Swimmers are some of the greatest kids in the world. And US Swimming alternates between wringing their hands over
their inability to retain teen age swimmers, and promulgating programs and formats that leave the non stars feeling unsuccessful and unwanted.

College programs at a variety of levels are one way of keeping youngsters interested, even after they figure out they will not be going to the Olympics.

I have watched developments here with interest and dismay, as well. It is not only the top level programs which keep the sport going – it is all the smaller and, yes, less competitive programs (many of them non
scholarship, Division III) which provide goals and incentives to the rank and file of high school age swimmers.

Colleges cut programs, in my opinion, for two reasons.

1) It is NOT an endorsement of women's athletics – just the opposite. It is an attempt to undermine Title IX by associating it with unpopular policies and unfair practices. These AD's are not advocates of women's sports.

2) The classroom success of swimmers has not received enough attention or PR. this is something I would have expected US Swimming to take the offensive on a long time ago.

My kids are in many ways, typical. Good enough in the pool to score points at state, not good enough for a Division I scholarship. But, in the classroom, they are tops. Two Merit scholars (one still in high
school – we don't know about him yet), one valedictorian, one salutatorian, one swam for University of Chicago, the other swims for Caltech. Neither of them even considered schools with no swim team, or schools (i.e. Stanford) for whom they could not compete.

Now, while one was being ardently recruited by nearby University of Central Florida, due to his academic promise, I finally told the recruiter, "Peter is applying to Caltech and MIT, period. You are not in
the game for one reason – you have no swim team. Tell your director that."

He did. UCF will be starting a swim team in 2003.

Talking with another college professor from a FL school at a conference a few weeks ago, he lamented that. while their programs are very successful, they have trouble recruiting talented students from Florida.
I told him " Get a swim team." He was puzzled, so I explained.

My older sons' college choices. My youngest son's college prospects. The local high school team is 60% honor society members. The tiny ( approx. 20 kids) USS team my son swims on has three (at least) future
valedictorians from three different high schools in Brevard county. The last four Merit Scholars from our local high school were swimmers. My son's team at the University of Chicago had the highest GPA of ANY
affiliated student organization on campus (other than honor societies).

And. I told him, this is TYPICAL, not unusual.

He had no idea. He was meeting with their admissions director the next evening, and planned to bring it up.

US Swimming needs to do its homework. Run some surveys. Find out exactly how good in the classroom these kids are: What are their SAT scores. How many of them earn science and math awards. Who the Merit Scholars are. What are their GPA's. Go not to the AD with the support the Olympics story, but the President with the academic recruiting story.

It'd a powerful argument, if you back it up with facts. And it will keep kids in the sport that will grow up to be influential supporters of swimming for many years.

Carol Seidel
Titusville, Florida

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