Wilmington College announced today that they are dropping three varsity sports, effective immediately. Wrestling and Men’s and Women’s Golf are the three discontinued sports. Cost and declining participation were given as reasons for the cuts. The move drops the OAC to six schools with wrestling. See the release below.
Wilmington to discontinue three varsity sports
October 25, 2011
In the face of declining participation levels, Wilmington College is discontinuing three of its varsity sports programs, effective immediately.
The affected sports are wrestling and men and women’s golf.
“These were extremely difficult decisions that were made after careful consideration of many factors,” said Terry Rupert, Wilmington College’s vice-president for athletics administration/director of athletics. “Our golf and wrestling teams have brought us local, regional and national acclaim, but in recent years we have seen a declining number of participants in these sports. In today’s economic climate it is imperative that we make sound decisions based on the cost effectiveness of our sports programs. Those factors weighed heavily in our decision to discontinue the sports.”
Wilmington College is an NCAA Division III member of the Ohio Athletic Conference.
Dropping the program two weeks before the start of the season? Wow.
That’s terrible news. especially for all of the programs seniors.
And its also a shame for the coach, he never even got to bring a team to a competition.
Absolute joke that it was based on participation and cost. For one you just hired a new coach this spring, All of the previous coaches were just FB coaches that got payed next to nothing and didn’t recruit. Pay someone a fair salary and they would have tripled the roster size and brought in more money. AND Wilmington just announced 11 days ago that they are going to start Mens AND Womens Lacrosse. Ohio isn’t exactly a hotbed of lacrosse.
Sucks that they lost wrestling, but on the contrary Bob, Columbus, Ohio is the single largest city for cultivating D1 mens lacrosse players. Columbus IS the hotbed of lacrosse.
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