NCAA Division II Pfeiffer University in Richfield, North Carolina has informed the member of its men’s and women’s swimming & diving teams that the athletics department would no longer support the varsity men’s and women’s swim teams beginning with the 2015-2016 season.
The athletes were called into a meeting on Monday where Athletic Director Bob Reasso where they were informed of the decision, according to sophomore Max Hamilton. The school later sent out this statement:
“It is with great regret that we inform you that Pfeiffer University has decided to no longer sponsor men’s and women’s swim teams effective May 15th of this year. We have made this difficult decision because of many factors, but the most important one is that our swimming teams do not compete in the Conference Carolinas where all our other sports compete. We have decided to concentrate all of our efforts on Conference Carolina sponsored sports. There has been a slight delay in this announcement as the Executive Committee of the Board of Trustees was involved in this decision.
We realize this will affect many of our students’ lives. If your son or daughter is on an athletic scholarship we will honor that scholarship until they graduate. We would love for them to stay and continue their academic career here at Pfeiffer, but also realize they may want to transfer to another school to continue swimming on the collegiate level. If that is the case we will do everything we can to help make that transition as smooth as possible. Each student will, of course, receive a release from Pfeiffer University.
If you have any questions regarding your son’s or daughter’s transition, please don’t hesitate to contact Bob Reasso, Vice President for Athletics.”
Hamilton says that the reason for the cut was cited primarily at costs, and that the team was told that none of the boards that had to approve the decision received any dissenting votes. He also says that they weren’t given any opportunity to try to save the program through fundraising.
Among the other reasons given, according to Hamilton, is that the university’s primary athletic conference, the Conference Carolinas, doesn’t sponsor swimming. That left the team to compete in the hodge-podged Bluegrass Mountain Conference, which is comprised of teams from the NCAA’s Division II, Division III, and NAIA, and includes the defending NCAA Division II National Champions from Queens.
The team’s women finished 8th at the Bluegrass Mountain Conference Championships last season, and the men finished 9th. The men’s team scored at NCAA’s for the first time in 2014, where they were 25th overall, and they improved to 7th in 2015. The men’s team in its current incarnation has only been around since 2006. The Pfeiffer scored at the meet in both 2001 and 2010, with a high of 27th-place in 2001.
The team was represented in Indianapolis by two athletes: freshman Inigo Alarcia, who was 10th in the 200 IM in 1:48.72; and sophomore Dima Turkin, who was 43rd in the 50 free in 20.77. Turkin has been as fast as 20.2 in the 50 free and 47.40 in the 100 back.
The team provides the maximum 8.1 scholarships for men and 8.1 scholarships for women.
The university has not responded to a request for comment on specific reasons why the program is being cut.
As a current Pfeiffer student, I am extremely disappointed in Pfeiffer. My roommate is a swimmer and I have many friends on the team, It is true our team has improved every year since it began, many of our current swimmers from this year made personal bests and set records for the university, we also scouted several new athletes and awarded scholarships this year. I don’t understand why we would cut a team that is doing really well just because they compete in a separate conference. I wish more students, parents, and faculty members would show their outrage through emails to Bob Reasso and to the university, If more people did that I believe we could reverse the decision. As… Read more »
from the article, the 2 reasons for shutting the program were financial and competitive. its a damn shame no one was given an opportunity to review the financials and then have an opportunity to generate revenue to save the program, etc. that’s plain laziness.
as to the conference not supporting swimming, seems that is something the colleges can “easily” fix by better supporting swimming.
either way, it all sounds like b.s. excuses and the school, like so many others so far, just don’t want swimming.
I completely agree. Pfeiffer has always spent more on the teams that did really well. I swam for Pfeiffer College back in 1988-1992 and we were great. We all qualified for Nationals every year but sadly they couldn’t keep a swim coach. Pfeiffer has never paid much attention to swimming and as much money as we pay to go to college the program should remain open. I feel bad for all the swimmers out there because they were sold a bag of garbage by Pfeiffer.
Article from my local paper:
http://www.thesnaponline.com/sports/falcons-to-no-longer-have-swimming/article_ee7e4318-e3cc-11e4-a005-bf8edb791648.html
Meant to say coker college .sc added wrestling in 2013…and on first year roster had 43 students…at some point the increased enrollment would have to justify keeping sport why do schools add sports..if not help enrollment?
As a pfeiffer u. Grad of 87′ I’m shocked to see p u drop supposedly over con aff. Who cares except for bob reasso about being a c c sport…swimming has its own con….how about the enrollment numbers on both teams justifying keeping the sport…a sport that not all colleges have creates recruiting oppt for schools like p u that did have…cover college .sc added wrestling2013…bet they like the 45 new students it’s brought….
I am the swimmer who reported what happened to my team to swim swam. I reached out to swim swam because I did not want this situation to simply be swept under the rug and not spoken about. Our coach resigned in October 2014 and later the month the process to cut the program began. However our team was not informed in any way that the school was considering cutting the program. We found out April 13, 2015 that our team had been cut and when we asked if anything could be done to save the program we were given a one word answer: No. It also has been hard to swallow since our AD is also our soccer coach… Read more »
I would just like to thank everyone for the support. I am the swimmer who reported this to swim swam because I did not want this to just get swept under the rug without any questions asked. This decision had been in motion since October 2014 however it was not brought to our attention as a team until April 13, 2015 when the decision had officially been made. We asked if anything could be done to save the team and were simply told no. Our Athletic Director is also the soccer coach which has definitely raised some eyebrows through out this decision. All in all I think me and most of my teammates just wish that we had not only… Read more »
This is a very sad moment and one that I think the university will come to regret. I swam at the Pfeiffer pool almost daily from my freshman year at East Rowan and was then recruited to Pfeiffer. 8 years swimming in that pool taught me a lot about hard work, dedication, and success. My team was my family. We may have had to travel to some odd places for meets, but we did what it took to compete. I was just at Pfeiffer this past fall for homecoming and attended the swim meet and the pool looked nicely updated and the team seemed much larger then it was 10 years ago. I actually told my husband that I was… Read more »