U of W axes sports programs

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 02/05/2017 (3049 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Morgan de Pena was planning to host a celebratory barbecue Tuesday night to close out the 2016-17 University of Winnipeg baseball season.

Instead, the head coach of the Wesmen was preparing for a funeral in the wake of the U of W’s decision to kill his program, one of the victims of wider budget cuts.

Earlier in the day, the university announced it was cutting the men’s baseball and men’s and women’s wrestling programs and putting the men’s soccer squad “on pause” for the 2017-18 season.

On Monday, the university approved a general operating budget that shaves $3.7 million in costs to make up for a provincial funding shortfall but still balance its budget, as required by law. In addition to the sports programs, the U of W cut senior management positions and froze the salaries of non-union employees for 2017 and 2018.

The university did not say how much it will save by eliminating the sports teams.

De Pena was shocked and confused by the move.

“We’re a totally self-funded program,” he said. “I don’t know, other than maybe some administrative workload, there’s no financial implications to it at all. I’m trying to get an answer from the president and the dean as to why our program had to be cut. I don’t know.”

University of Winnipeg spokeswoman Diane Poulin said the baseball program was $21,000 over budget for the 2016-17 season, in addition to a $39,000 deficit from previous years. She also said baseball players benefited from free access to athletic therapy and the weight room.

De Pena’s said he believed he had until the end of the fiscal year, July 30, to make good on the $21,000 and the team had scheduled fundraising events to do just that. The outstanding deficit of $39,000 was news to him.

The Wesmen baseball team, which has just completed its sixth season, including the last three as members of the NAIA’s Northstar Athletic Association, generated its funding from its own players and various fundraising campaigns. Each of the 18 roster players and six red-shirt players paid $3,500 to play last season.

Pena said the program operates on $130,000 each season and has a volunteer coaching staff.

“We all paid a little bit out of our own pocket and we had a (fundraising) social coming up, probably not now,” said pitcher Cody Bartel of Blumenort, who just finished his first season with the team. “We had a wine banquet, stuff like that.”

Outfielder Cole Armstrong was stunned by Tuesday’s developments.

“Right now it really hasn’t kicked in, I guess. It’s kinda hard to think about,” said Armstrong, a Winnipegger and two-year veteran of the squad. “I haven’t really tried thinking about (what to do next). I’m just hoping that somehow this thing can get reversed.

“We fund the program ourselves, so we’re trying to find a reason. Can’t find one right now.”

De Pena said he had no clue that his program was in jeopardy.

“None at all,” he said. “It was a kick in the gut. I had no idea. I mean, I’ve got 40 (potential) recruits, I’ve got 14 or 15 committed. I’ve got a kid from Australia. I had a kid from Prince Edward Island, a kid from Nova Scotia coming. Manitoba kids. I’ve got to tell them all to go somewhere else and I’ve also got the guys on the team, I’ve got to tell them it’s over.”

De Pena said he asked about the possibility of preserving the program.

“I’ve been told, ‘no’ by the athletic director,” he said. “But I still (want to ask) the president of the university, ‘Can you justify, can you tell me why our program is being cut, what the financial burden is?… We’re not part of the budget. Why are we being cut?’”

The school recently hosted the 2017 U Sports Wrestling Championships. Wrestling head coach Adrian Bruce was unavailable for comment.

“We can no longer afford to maintain those teams,” said U of W’s senior executive officer Chris Minaker. “There’s a lot of expenses associated with away games, travelling and all that kind of stuff, so those are the teams, unfortunately, that we’re not able to fund next year. We recognize that that has an impact on players as well as staff.”

The men’s soccer team will be on hiatus and is not guaranteed to return.

“Unfortunately, the coach of the men’s soccer team had resigned earlier this year and we are just not in a position to be able to hire a new coach this year, we just can’t do it,” said Minaker.

Five athletics programs were preserved, including men’s and women’s basketball, men’s and women’s volleyball and women’s soccer.

Wesmen athletic director Dave Crook was ßnot available for comment.

mike.sawatzky@freepress.mb.caTwitter: @sawa14