UMass Cuts Ski Team

[threecy]

I can't think of many major NE teams that don't have a nearby home mountain that would cut a good deal on night skiing rates.... pretty much every College or University fielding a ski program has a night skiing option within a half hour or less or their own home mountain very near the campus for some of the better teams.

At this point in the discussion, I'm going off second hand information, but I think it would be safe to say that programs based out of Boston and Rhode Island do not have the same training opportunities (size of course, availability as well) as those located nearer sizable mountains. Back to first hand, UMass Amherst, for instance, not only had the evening options, but also daily options during their extended winter break. Other colleges would spend large amounts of money on lodging and passes to get daily training during winter break.

 

[WJenness]

MA is 49th in the country in terms of spending on it's public universities... It's a miracle there are as many teams at umass as there are.

Life as a club sport athlete can be a little rough, but rewarding as well. It really sucks that the team got axed, and in some respects I wish that more places could operate on the OSU model and support a bunch of teams... that said the NCAA stopped being about the athletes and the sports a while ago, and it is now more about the coaches and the money (in many situations)...

Disclaimer: This is all spoken as a former UMASS club-sport athlete in Fencing, where we got some money from SGA (Student Government) but did a lot of fund raising on our own to get our butts to Florida for the first ever Collegiate Club National Championships for fencing (where we won ).

I have more thoughts, but lack the time to type them right now.

-w

 

[muleski]

Couple of thoughts and comments. The numbers that I have heard are that UMass has $20 Million plus budget for varsity athletics. The total ski team budget was, I think less than $100K. That's one half of one percent of the total budget. UMass, like many public universities has relatively few varsity teams. Too bad to see another go. When college ski teams are put under the microscope, the number that sticks out like a sore thumb is the net cost per participant. No revenue, and fairly small numbers. I think they had about 20 on their roster this year, so $5K per athlete at most {which actually isn't bad relative to ski teams}.

There are two different organizations that sanction college skiing. There is the NCAA; the Eastern NCAA group is the EISA {Eastern Intercollegiate Ski Assoc.}. There is one NCAA college ski division, and it's D1. However, the majority of the Eastern schools skiing NCAA D1 are D3 schools in terms of their other sports, etc. UNH, UVM and yes, Harvard are the exceptions. Then there is the USCSA. The USCSA spans a wide horizon, and has multiple divisions. You have some very well funded, varsity programs, some with full time coaches and in some cases assistant coaches. Colby-Sawyer, Plymouth State, Brown, BC, and many others have varsity teams. Others are really ski racing clubs, which are often run on the shoestring and funded very minimally by the school {often out of student activities, and not athletics}, and funded mostly by the participants. Regardless of the situation, the kids seem to have fun, and a lot of ski racing is going on. It's great stuff.

UNH, by the way is most definitely NCAA D1, and not a "club". The had one of the strongest men's alpine teams in the country this year. Some colleges have BOTH a varsity NCAA team, and a USCSA program, though it's rare. CU, Boulder was number two at the NCAA championships, and also has a USCSA program, with three coaches and something like 65 racers. Huge.

UMass is likely of the opinion that they can maintain some ski racing, which has been in the USCSA {men were National champs a couple of years ago!}, as a club activity. Unfortunately, when you lose a coach and the funding is gone, a lot changes. It won't be the same in that format. As a ski racing fan, and Mass resident, I think it's sad. But I understand the economics. I would have preferred to see all of the sports teams being forced to tighten the belt, or find other ways to raise revenue {fund raise, sponsorships, etc.}. But it's not my business!

By the way, the head USST DH/SG coach, Chris Brigham, is a UMass alumnus.