Division 1 Program Cuts Investigation: Preparing for the Worst (Part 1 of 2)

Feature By Jacob Kittilstad

MINNEAPOLIS, Minnesota, August 7. When an athletic department's budget needs to be balanced, collegiate swimming programs are often placed on the chopping block. If teams, however, become proactive in securing economic stability outside of what is offered to them by their athletic department, there is a much better chance of surviving a wave of cuts, Frank Comfort said.

"The easy way for an athletic department to free up money is to cut a sport like swimming. The creative way to find money is to fundraise for the team and take the program out of ever being placed in that position," said Comfort.

When Comfort coached at North Carolina, he put kept heavy emphasis on the need to endow his program's scholarships and fundraise for his team's special projects. He said it was important to always consider collecting contributions a long term project.

"It's not a two-week scramble for cash," Comfort said. "For the process to be effective, you don't pour 40 hours into one week of fundraising. You put in two hours or more each week over years."

Comfort said, as a coach, he would send out newsletters and e-mails to North Carolina alumni but it was mostly to engage the team's former athletes with the current program as opposed to constantly requesting support. However, the topic of fundraising was occasionally raised, he said.

"I don't expect to get money from people younger than 35 years of age. Maybe it's even 45 now because people are having kids later," Comfort said. "But we would still send out the information to the ‘under-thirties' just to keep them informed about North Carolina."

Mickey Wender, head coach of men's and women's swimming at The United States Military Academy at West Point, said it is important to try to have as many of the program's former athletes as possible give back on a yearly basis.

"We even encourage our recent graduates to donate at least a dollar a year," Wender said. "We're trying to create a culture of giving back that will help our program in the future."

Wally Morton, head coach of men's and women's swimming at Cleveland State, said if relationships are formed, reformed or maintained between a swimming program its alumni or other potential donors, a team's fiscally-driven goals still have the ability to thrive even during a harsh economic climate.

"We have a goal to maintain the quality of our facility and our latest goal was to buy a modern display board," Morton said. "Just recently we've reached our goal. Even in this economy we collected one hundred thousand dollars in donations from people with whom we've kept relationships."

Morton said the Cleveland State men's program is about 50 percent endowed while the women's program is just beginning the fundraising process because it is only his third year as their coach. Comfort, who shared that North Carolina had 41 endowed scholarships for its combined men's and women's program, said endowing part or all of a program is an effective way of dissuading an athletic department from cutting a sport.

"Put yourself in the shoes of an administrator. If you're looking to make a cut and you're looking at two of your non-revenue sports and one program has 41 endowed scholarships and the other has, let's say, three…what direction do you think your decision would go?" Comfort said.

Re-involving Alumni in the Team
At The Ohio State University, Bill Wadley, head coach of men's swimming, said he spends a lot of his time focusing on the quality of his athletes' swimming experiences.

"I want my kids to have so many opportunities provided to them because they were on this team that they'll be ashamed if they don't give back when they're older to help give other kids those same opportunities," Wadley said.

Wadley, whose team already has 15 endowed scholarships, said his goal is to endow every travel position in his program. To accomplish this he said he hopes to continue involving more Ohio State's swimming alumni in the fundraising process as he has in the past.

"Every program can do this. It doesn't matter how small the college is or what your record is," Wadley said. "When alumni get older and you ask them ‘What did your experience on the team mean for you?'…the question can bring tears to their eyes it was that important to them."

At Cleveland State, Morton said, to him, it is important to put up, at the pool, a picture of every single person who participated in the program thereby forever linking the alumni, at least photographically, to the team.

"Even the slowest guys get there pictures up and a lot of the time the slowest guys on the team are the one who appreciate the whole experience the most," Morton said. "And then later on in the future, they're the ones who contribute the most money because they never took participating for granted."

Comfort said although athletic departments may enjoy getting letters and phone calls from former student-athletes about how important their experiences were to them, decisions are most often driven by dollars and cents.

"When the term ‘loyal alum' is used, don't be conned. It's all about the money and the donations people make," Comfort said.

Team Action Outside of the Pool
Bob Groseth, who is the Interim Executive Director of the College Swim Coaches Association of America, said he thinks a lot of the members of the college swimming community hold the false belief that having a team is a right and not a privilege.

"I think a lot of people are taking it for granted," Groseth said. "Coaches should be telling their swimmers about the alumni who donate…get the athletes involved and tell them how someday it will be them who should be donating. The giving spirit unfortunately nowadays has to be taught."

Wender, who was the head coach for the University of Washington's swimming programs from '88-'06, said after the college teams near cut in the year 2000 he became incredibly proactive in fundraising as well as finding imaginative ways to find money.

"The Starbucks Corporation was the third largest in Seattle and we put together a proposal for them to fund our summer program. We created Starbucks Aquatics and they would give what they could during the summer and college seasons," Wender said. "Nearly every community has businesses and corporations that may be willing to contribute. Swimming is such a healthy and clean sport that it's something really attractive for a corporation to support."

Morton said, outside of the realm of donations and fundraising, it is imperative for a team to have a good rapport with college administrators outside of the athletic department.

"A team needs to have a strong relationship with the University President," Morton said. "In the 90s, cuts were happening here at Cleveland State and the athletic director wanted to drop our program. The president said ‘no way' because we had always been very close with him."

"After that, I haven't taken anything for granted. Our program is solid right now but every coach should take it year by year," Morton continued. "I mean, I feel good about the program…I wouldn't be raising all the money if I didn't. But, that being said, I'm on my 36th one-year contract."

Comfort offered additional advice, other than using economic persuasion, on how to avoid a program cut such as consistently keeping athletes out of trouble, keeping athletes graduating, cooperating with the athletic department and having athletes on the All-American lists.

"It's also important for coaches to attend other University functions," Comfort said. "Head coaches should be at the football and basketball games. The athletic director may not notice every time they're there but over a few years, he'll definitely notice the coach's dedication to the school."

Comfort added, "Some coaches can't seem to see further than the pool."

Role of the Head Coach
Wadley says there are many aspects to his job at Ohio State other than coaching including recruiting, developing, endowing and fundraising.

"I believe you have to be just as passionate about fundraising as you are at recruiting," Wadley said. "The school is putting a huge investment forward…there's a lot of money being spent…and coaches need to understand that. If the athletic department is willing to invest in us the coaches, the coaches must be willing to invest in the school."

Groseth said fundraising should be a major priority for division 1 head coaches and both collection projects and contribution goals should be given considerable effort by the coaching staff.

"As a head coach I personally found out that when you get involved in it, it's surprising how many people want to help you out," Groseth said. "It's part of your job…ensuring the longevity and productivity of your organization."

Frank Comfort said in the late 90s, each coach at North Carolina was encouraged to raise 1 million dollars from his or her alumni to be used as a team endowment. He met this goal before he retired in 2007 and learned about the position a head coach should take in asking for donations.

"I'm not saying, if you're a head coach, you have to turn in your stopwatch and become a fundraiser full time but it is my belief that if a head coach is not intimately involved in a project, it will fail," Comfort said.

Nort Thornton, former men's head coach at the University of California, Berkeley, said when he worked to endow his program he was fortunate to have supportive alumni willing to contribute to his cause. He conceded, however, initially he wanted no part of the fundraising process.

"It's never been under the job description on my contract and at first I resented it because it took time away from coaching," Thornton said. "But now I believe it's necessary to find people who will support the team and it's the job of the head coach to kind of ‘sell it' to them."

Thornton continued, "And you know what? The more involved I got and the more time I spent getting to know our alumni, the more fun it was for me."

Thornton said although campaigning for funds is energy consuming, it does not have to dominate the time of a head coach.

"You always have to keep it in the back of your mind. Opportunities present themselves at different times and you just have to be prepared when the right situation comes around," Thornton said.

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