 "Photo: Justin Maurer")
Men's track and field head coach Jim Fischer has his doubts about what the future holds for his team, but is currently trying to stay focused on the season at hand. With the possibility of up to a 10 percent financial cutback, Fischer said he and his staff might have to make some major adjustments.
In a recent address to the faculty, university President Patrick Harker said that the current economic downturn is inevitably affecting Delaware as well as schools across the country. Harker said that financial cutbacks have been submitted to the state, but the school must be ready for further cuts. However, Harker also said statistics and further details are not available until the Delaware Economic and Financial Advisory Council finish their meetings at the end of June.
Schools across the country have been looking to their athletic programs to find ways to reduce budget spending. The University of Vermont recently laid off two major head coaches in addition to cutting two varsity sports teams from its program. In an effort to conserve money, Delaware State University dropped their wrestling program. Even baseball is losing support from schools such as Northern Iowa, which recently cut its team. The University of Massachusetts, which sent 18 players to Major League Baseball in years past, is now entertaining the idea of cutting the program altogether.
Even before the release of next year's final financial statistics, coaches in all University of Delaware sports already started figuring out ways to cope with the economic predicament.
"Earlier this year, we were told there would be a 5 to 10 percent cutback across the board," Fischer said. "The athletic department told everyone to prepare for cuts whether they are sooner or later."
However, Fischer isn't worried about the consequences, saying the performance of his team should not and will not be affected by these financial reductions.
"I have confidence that regardless of money, our kids will be the best they can be," Fisher said. "These kids are out for a sport and they want to perform to the best of their ability and are working too hard to go only half way."
In December, the athletic department decided to demote the varsity indoor track team to a club sport. While indoor track has been a varsity sport for 43 years, it will no longer receive intercollegiate funds to compete at the varsity level, said Delaware's athletic director Edgar Johnson. Johnson also said the athletic department will be adding a women's golf team in the coming year, all in an effort to comply with Title IX.
However, Johnson said the budget for women's golf is less than that of indoor track. The women's golf roster will be relatively small, with about 10 people, compared to an indoor track team, which has upwards of 50. Costs will be fairly inexpensive for golf matches, only having to cover the charges for the golf course.
Still, most teams have already started finding ways to fill these financial gaps to keep the effects as minimal as possible. Fundraisers and alumni donations have always been a key part of varsity sports, but they are becoming more important now than ever before, according to Scarlett Schmidt, director of athletic development.
"Last year the school took in nearly $1.3 million in donations from season ticket holders and alumni,"Schmidt said. "But we've implemented a new plan because we can't continue to fund athletics as we have in the past."
Schmidt said she is hopeful that Delaware will bring in nearly $2 million from donations alone, which will help cover the costs of athletic scholarships, special projects, and to help offset some of the cost of the school's nearly $17 million budget.
Although Delaware's tennis team has a small budget to begin with, it is still feeling the stress. Head coach Laura Travis said she couldn't comment on exact numbers, but said the tennis team has already found ways to help minimize financial repercussions.
"We have had the support of alumni and friends to help plug in the differences," Travis said. "What is uncertain is how the economy will affect all our teams and the entire university community in the upcoming days and months."
For a team like men's lacrosse, there is no luxury to cut back on equipment because all the players need adequate protection for such a contact sport. Nor can the roster be shortened due to the high contact and danger of the sport. Therefore, the team has had to find different ways to make up for financial problems.
"We are just going to have to do more fundraising to help raise more funds," men's lacrosse head coach Bob Shillinglaw said. "We'll have to run some more high school tournaments, do a few more fundraisers and do as much as we can with our alumni - the key is not to get deterred."
Other teams have also been notified there will be some changes in the coming athletic year that coaches will need to accept.
Men's soccer head coach Ian Hennessy has already been told there will be no overnight traveling for out-of-conference matches, but rather everything will be within a bus ride's distance. This will save money on hotels, food and extra transportation.
"We will definitely not be fully funded next year, but I'm not supposed to say much more than that," Hennessy said. "But we try and keep things in perspective. Individuals and families are losing jobs, so we just need to roll up our sleeves and get on with it."
One of the most difficult aspects of the cutbacks the soccer team will have is less scholarships available than in years past, Hennessy said.
Last year, the school allotted close to $7 million to scholarship money, most of which is delegated to athletes' partial scholarships. However, Delaware handed out nearly 250 full scholarships this past year, as opposed to the next highest school in the Colonial Athletic Association which only distributed approximately 220, according to Johnson. Scholarship money is a key part of Delaware's athletics, but Johnson said the scholarship budget isn't going to grow.
A lot remains to be determined, but Harker stressed his confidence in the strategic plans to try and fill these financial cracks.
"Despite the current worldwide economic stress that is impacting the U.S., state and university community, we remain committed to our overall strategic plan as well as our plan for athletics," Harker said.
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