Towson University (Md.) releases plan to shut down men’s soccer program
By Charles Boehm
Less than two weeks after the University of Richmond announced that it would disband its NCAA men’s soccer program in order to make room for a varsity lacrosse team, another college in the soccer-mad Mid-Atlantic region has begun to move in the same direction.
On Tuesday Maryland’s Towson University released news that Director of Athletic Michael Waddell has recommended a “reconfiguration of the intercollegiate athletics program” in which the men’s soccer and baseball programs will be discontinued, to be replaced by men’s tennis.
“Our Towson University community holds a great deal of pride for our baseball and men’s soccer student-athletes and the legacy they have established with Towson University,” wrote university president Maravene Loeschke. “I recognize how disappointing and difficult these discussions are for our student-athletes, alumni, families, supporters, and the entire campus community. In these challenging economic times, it is sometimes necessary to recommend approaches that, although troubling to many, may be in the best interest of long-term stability.”
Waddell’s report states that the Tigers’ men’s soccer program costs the university $407,170 per year. He estimates a savings of nearly $900,000 by shutting down soccer and baseball, with tennis – which would bring Towson back up to the NCAA-mandated minimum of six men’s varsity sports for Division I schools – only costing some $97,000 per year.
The Baltimore Sun reports that members of the men’s soccer alumni community met with Waddell in March to discuss what was needed to maintain and strengthen the program, and responded to his request for more donations and vocal support with a substantial fundraising push.
“In retrospect, it almost seems that Mr. Waddell had his mind made up well before he even met with the alumni and that our efforts were in vain,” Danny Skelton, former Towson captain and current boys soccer coach at St. Paul’s School, told the Sun.
“I shudder to think how I will need to explain to my two small children years from now why the soccer program that daddy played for no longer exists. It is disgraceful. The most difficult part for me and many of my fellow alumni is the fact that the soccer program has had a great deal of success over the course of its history, and when compared to the success of the other programs, who, by the way, are fully funded, there is no comparison at all. ”
