NCAA: Western State axes ski racing team

By Published On: July 11th, 2008Comments Off on NCAA: Western State axes ski racing team

The intercollegiate ski racing program at Colorado’s Western State College has fallen victim to the chopping block, as school officials announced the shuttering of the program on July 9.
The intercollegiate ski racing program at Colorado’s Western State College has fallen victim to the chopping block, as school officials announced the shuttering of the program on July 9.
    Three years ago a decision was made to discontinue institutional funding of the ski program primarily due to a series of extreme budget cuts in higher education in the State of Colorado. With these cuts, the decision resulted in institutional funding being discontinued for the sport of skiing.
    "The school will honor the current scholarship levels of each student-athlete in the program through graduation as long as they are in good academic standing and should they choose not to transfer to another school to continue their collegiate career,” Western State Athletic Director Greg Waggoner said.
    The program boasted its first NCAA individual champion in 2007 when Sarah Schaedler captured the women’s GS crown. The team finished 18th at the NCAA Championships that season. The school’s former alpine head coach, Evan Weiss, earlier this summer was named the head coach at Nevada.
    The school’s administration launched an effort with friends and alumni of skiing to attempt to privately fund the program so that WSC would continue to sponsor the sport. Five years of private funding was initially pledged and an effort to use this time to endow the program was launched.
    Alumni and friends of the college were making annual commitments of more than $150,000 for the next five years to ensure the program would continue through 2010 in hopes that an endowment could be raised by then.
    These pledges were to fund annual operating, scholarships and salary expenses. After three years the endowment drive struggled and the annual pledges have fallen short, resulting in a substantial deficit in the ski program budget.
    “School officials worked hard up until the close of the fiscal year to jump start the pledges, but fell short despite their efforts,” Waggoner said.
    “WSC applauds the efforts that the friends and alumni of the ski program for their valiant effort to privately fund this program in order to continue the tradition,” said Western State President Jay Helman. “The college simply does not have the funds to adequately fund all needs on campus or all needs within the athletic department. WSC greatly appreciates the generous efforts of these friends and alumni of skiing that have pledged and donated to the program. It is very rare that a group of friends and alumni can fund an intercollegiate sport for three years.”

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