(04-27-2021 07:01 PM)Florida tribe fan Wrote: (04-22-2021 09:48 PM)wmmii Wrote: This topic should not be the current focus of The College. We need time for the new AD to get our house in order and determine what are the most pressing priorities!
Am trying to figure out what is more important than determining where Tribe athletics can afford to compete, successfully. Section in linked quarterly report entitled "Excellence" worth a read for those who haven't seen.
https://tribeathletics.com/sports/2021/4...eport.aspx
In that "Excellence" section they seem to have drawn back from any mention of "X number of CAA championships within Y years". In fact, it appears that they now define "excellence" as merely competing at the highest level of intercollegiate sports. As worrisome as that is to me, these following two quotes are even more alarming:
"Our student-athletes and team produced many other extraordinary moments as we trained and competed as safely and
fiscally responsibly as possible." (Emphasis mine). Jeremy Martin, "From the desk of the interim Athletic Director", April 27, 2021.
"in order to support our current portfolio of sports within well-documented budget constraints, we will be
limited in the number of competitions we are able to schedule in most of our sports." (Emphasis mine). Jeremy Martin, "Quarterly Report, Excellence", April 27, 2021.
The first quote was right after Martin listed one Gymnastics All-American (Andrew Lyubovsky, kudos!) and one Swimmer (Annie Tuttle, who set two
school records) as the highlights of the W&M competitive year. No mention of any CAA Championships (because we haven't had any yet; I discussed some reasons for that in other posts). However, even in that first quote above, Martin admits that some of the scheduling issues were because of "fiscal responsibility".
The second quote implies that future scheduling will also be linked to budget constraints. It is one thing to not pay any upper tier basketball teams to come to Kaplan or to not pay the freight for top-notch OOC football competition (which we have been doing both of those for years) but it is another thing to not even play out full schedules in some sports (which happened this year under Covid). My worry is that such lame scheduling will carry over into future non-Covid seasons, under the cover of "budget constraints". However, I am heartened by the hope that the new athletic director will be interested in winning just as much as he is interested in raising funds.
Edit - Also, the word "most" in the second quote above indicates that Football and Basketball are probably exempt from this schedule manipulation. Unfortunately, many of the Olympic sports will be hampered by having reduced OOC games and thus may be hampered in gametime preparation for when the conference games start. Cross Country's ONE meet prior to the CAA Championships this year is an extreme example of what might happen to the competitiveness of the W&M Olympic sports.
Lastly, couldn't help but notice that the two athletes that Martin highlighted as athletic success stories this year both came from sports that were on the chopping block.