Coaches, athletes react to cuts

Co-men's golf coach Tyler Madsen was on the phone with a potential recruit one week ago today.  Madsen had a 20-minute conversation with the recruit, who was deciding between Truman and another school.

The next day, Madsen's recruiting duties effectively came to a sudden end.

Athletic Director Jerry Wollmering and Linda Anderson, assistant athletic director and senior women's administrator, met with Madsen and co-coach Jim Berrey last Friday and told them the men's golf program will be cut at the end of the spring season.

The men's golf program is the largest reduction that an Athletics Task Force made from the athletic budget. The force appointed by University President Troy Paino last October, is phasing out University-funded athletic scholarships for men's tennis, men's swimming, baseball and wrestling (see story, page 1).

The scholarship reductions for the four men's sports did not come as a complete surprise for those head coaches. But Madsen said he and Berrey were "absolutely stunned" when they heard men's golf would be cut completely.

"We were expecting some kind of a reduction, whether it was in scholarships, or whether it was in our travel budget or whether it was whatever the case was," Madsen said. "But to be cut was just kind of really – Jim and I were kind of in a spot we didn't really even know what to say on Friday. So, it was a disappointment."

The men's golf team consists of 11 student-athletes, nine of which are underclassmen who potentially could have returned to the team next year. The team was told Monday afternoon in a meeting with Wollmering and the two coaches, approximately one hour before the University announced the cuts in a release.

Wollmering was part of the Task Force and therefore  was the one to tell the team during the meeting.

Madsen still is employed full time by the University as the Assistant Sports Information Director, and Berry is employed full time by Farm Bureau. Madsen has co-coached for two years, and Berrey has co-coached since 2006. Men's golf has been a University-sponsored sport since 1933.

"We offer guys promises that they can come here, play Div. II golf, get better at their game – a game that they love, and get an amazing education while they do it," Madsen said Tuesday. "And we're not going to be able to fulfill that promise now. When you take out all the intrinsic factors and everything, and you just look at the nine guys, and just look at their faces yesterday, it was literally just as though the carpet had been pulled out from under them. That's the toughest part of this whole thing."

It might be difficult for some men's golf athletes to transfer due to the timing of the announcement and little warning about men's golf being cut.  

Three of the coaches of the sports that will phase out scholarships reactions included acceptance as well as an increased determination to bring in private funding — which will become the only way to provide athletic scholarships for the four sports.

The four sports all currently have less than two athletic scholarships with $29,800 for baseball being the most. The teams received $69,100 combined in 2010-11, Wollmering said.

Every sport's head coach, including those who will not face reduced funding, met with Wollmering during the days before the release. The coaches then were responsible for telling the players.

"As long as we hold the line now, we'll be fine," wrestling head coach Dave Schutter said. "Maybe this will help us increase our scholarship to be able to fundraise more."

However, Schutter said this is "definitely not the path" he would have chosen if faced with cuts to the athletic department. He added there are multiple donors who will support the wrestling team if there is an assurance the program will not be cut within five to 10 years.

Tennis coach Pete Kendall said he had little reaction because the scholarship cuts will minimally affect men's tennis in the next couple of years. The team currently is composed of one senior, two juniors, one sophomore and six freshmen.

Kendall said the new budget will not have much effect on his recruiting and that he already has two recruits that he expects still will come to Truman.

"You can usually pretty much bet on that you can get a decent kid or two to come that has lots of academic money," Kendall said.

Baseball coach Dan Davis — who already brings in some private money for scholarships —  said he felt lucky that baseball still is intact and that he knew cuts were coming. He said the goal of winning the MIAA has not changed.

"We tell our student-athletes all the time on the baseball team that we have to control what we can," Davis said. "And what we can control right know is how we're going to approach the rest of the year, how we're going to approach recruiting as a coaching staff and how we're going to approach fundraising to make this thing work."