Saint Mary's eliminates track and field program
By KATIE McVOY
Assistant Sports Editor
At a meeting late Tuesday evening, Saint Mary's athletic director Lynn Kachmarik announced the Belles track and field team will be discontinued following the 2001 season.
"Some may feel that this is a step backward," Kachmarik said. "But it truly will give us the opportunity to improve our department as we continue to move forward."
Kachmarik called a special meeting of the varsity team Tuesday at Angela Athletic Facility to announce the decision and then publicly released information Wednesday morning.
The decision to eliminate the program was a presidential decision made by President Marilou Eldred upon Kachmarik's recommendation. The decision was a difficult one for the administration.
"It was a hard decision," Eldred said. "You never want to have to discontinue a sport."
Senior, team-captain Kara Bergeman spoke for the team early Wednesday.
"There wasn't a dry eye on the team [during Tuesday's announcement]," she said. "We're going to do as much as we can to keep the program. I'm not letting this go away. I'm not letting this end."
The decision to eliminate the funding came after a long process that began last spring. The decision was finalized Monday, the cut-off for notifying the Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association.
Despite the long decision process, athletes were unaware of the possible elimination of the program until Wednesday.
"We wish that we had been informed of the decision before [Tuesday]," team member Erica Burket said. "We were caught totally unaware."
Following Saint Mary's entrance into the MIAA, the athletic department agreed to move towards full-time coaches and improve athletic facilities. In order to do this, the first thing the department needed was money.
The track and field team was in desperate need of money for coaches and facilities.
"From a facilities standpoint, we have nothing to offer [the team]," Kachmarik said. "We'd have to put hundreds of dollars to even have a team."
The team lacks practice facilities, sufficient coaching and a track to hold meets.
The addition of a four lane track suitable for running would cost the College $350,000 alone. In addition to the cost of the track, the team would need a total of three coaches — one each for long distance, sprints and field events.
Currently head coach Larry Szczcho leads the team alone.
Practice facilities were another consideration taken into account when making the decision to dissolve the team. The team has no facilities to practice, making use of facilities at the Loftus Center at Notre Dame or Saint Joseph's high school. This year, the team's practice time at Loftus was cut from two hours a day to one hour. Kachmarik never approached Notre Dame administration about increasing practice time.
"We had to look at the liability of the athletes travelling back and forth," Kachmarik said.
Recent participation in track and field was also a consideration. Last year, after a large early season turnout, most players abandoned the team, leaving a core of only three or four regular competitors.
"Three or four women could be as important to this department as 30 or 40," Kachmarik said. "But we had to make the cut somewhere."
The administration guaranteed Kachmarik that the $13,000 saved by cutting track would be used to improve the overall athletic department.
"Much of [the money saved] will be used to improve salary," Eldred said.
Saint Mary's currently only employs two full-time coaches, basketball coach Suzanne Smith and swim coach Gretchen Hildebrandt. Both coaches also work as athletic administrators. Kachmarik hopes to increase the number of full time coaches.
For Kachmarik, Eldred and the rest of the Saint Mary's administration, this is a step in the right direction to improve Saint Mary's athletics and put them on par with the rest of the teams in the MIAA.
The members of the team feel differently.
"We understand [Kachmarik's] points," Bergeman said. "But we don't think the team had to be eliminated. She had to make a tough decision, though. We respect that."
"We want to raise the money to keep the team next year," Burket said. "We're going to contact alumni and parents and hold fund raisers for the team."
Despite high team efforts, it seems unlikely that the program will return in the spring of 2002.
"The program is dropped," Kachmarik said. "We would have to raise a lot of money to consider bringing it back."
Both Kachmarik and Eldred are optimistic that the team will return at some point in the future of Saint Mary's athletics but not 2002.
"I don't want to say that track and field is gone forever," Eldred said. "It is definitely a sport we would like to bring back."
All Sports Stories for Thursday, February 1, 2001
