Athletic Department Plans to Boost Scholarships, Resume Mens Track

In its second major realignment in three years, the athletics department is substantially increasing scholarship support, reinstating the mens track program and eliminating four varsity sports.

As difficult as it is for the athletes in sports were cutting, these are hard, tough decisions that had to be made in order for the program to advance, said Robert Corran, director of athletics. It gives us greater capability to fund all programs at a higher level. Our basic objective is to make all our teams competitive right now. There are a lot of teams that are under-funded and extremely limited.

Scholarship support will increase from 82 scholarships totaling $2.4 million distributed primarily across 8 sports to 124 scholarships totaling $3.7 million distributed across 20 sports in five years under the plan. Anticipated increases in revenue and private support will fund the planned increase, Corran said.

The realignment strategy will result in the reinstatement of mens indoor and outdoor track and field and the elimination of men and womens tennis, mens golf and mens swimming. Program eliminations will affect 45 student athletes. The reinstatement of mens track and field will bring 30 student athletes back into the program. Corran said the department decided to reinstate mens track because he sees strong potential for a mens program to emulate the success of the womens team.

He also said that the sport enjoys a high level of participation among Vermont high school students, is relatively inexpensive to compete in and supports the ability of the mens cross-country running team to compete at a high level. The plan also provides for strengthening recreational sports opportunities, giving better operational assistance to teams to help with their recruiting and travel expenses, and eliminating a tier system that previously set different expectations per sport and allocated resources accordingly.
[ Comment, Edit or Article Submission ]



.