Budget Woes Lead Dartmouth to Drop Swimming, Diving Teams

By Donald Mahler

Valley News Sports Editor

The Dartmouth College athletic department felt the first cuts in the planned college-wide budgetary reductions yesterday with the elimination of the men's and women's swimming and diving programs effective in March, at the end of this competitive year.

The cut will affect 53 student-athletes, nine of whom are seniors scheduled to graduate in June. Three head coaching positions and a part-time assistant coaching position also have been eliminated.

Yet, when diving coach Chris Hamilton and the other Dartmouth College swimming coaches were notified over the weekend of an 8 a.m. meeting yesterday, all possible scenarios raced through their minds.

All except one.

“The last thing I expected was to have the program dropped,” said Hamilton yesterday afternoon, just hours after athletic director Josie Harper announced the elimination of the programs.

“Right now I'm still trying to figure out what I did wrong,” he said. “It was hard to call my wife this morning and tell her I'd been fired.

“I've got a 3-year-old and a 1-year-old. How do I explain that I'm going to be out of a job as of June 30?”

The men's varsity swimming program has been a part of Dartmouth's athletic department since 1921. The women's program began in 1973. It is the first cut of a varsity sports program at Dartmouth since wrestling was eliminated in 1976.

“I feel terrible. It's the worst thing I have ever had to do professionally,” said Harper, who met with coaches Jim Wilson, Joann Brislin and Hamilton yesterday at 8 a.m. to inform them of the decision to eliminate the program.

“One of the considerations was the ability to be as competitive as possible,” said Harper, “But we've watched the program go horizontally in the '90s.

“Money is certainly an issue, but it goes deeper than that. Swimming is a numbers sport, and it has become harder to recruit the number of swimmers needed to compete.

“And then the pool is another issue. There is no plan for a new pool now or in the immediate future, and the humidity issue in the pool is an ongoing problem.” College officials estimate that bringing the pool up to modern, competitive levels would cost between $20 million and $25 million and require the relocation of other athletic facilities.

According to figures released by the college, the permanent elimination of the swimming and diving programs will reduce the athletic budget by $212,000 annually beginning in 2003-04. The athletic department is part of the dean of the college's area, which must make $1.15 million in reductions.

“I am very disappointed that the current economic environment forces us to make decisions of this sort,” said Dartmouth President James Wright. “I particularly regret the impact on our students and coaches. However, times like this require us to set priorities, and we must make some hard choices. I support Josie Harper and (Dean of the College James A.) Jim Larimore in this difficult decision.”

Projected deficits for both 2003 and 2004, resulting from the economic downturn that caused a net investment loss of 5.7 percent on Dartmouth's endowment last year, have forced college-wide budget reductions totaling $4.9 million for fiscal 2003 and $5.7 million for fiscal 2004.

“I got into this business because of the people. And it's hard because of the people,” said Harper. “The coaches are hurt, of course, but the kids were just devastated.”

The news came just one day after the men's and women's swimming and diving teams took one-sided victories over the University of Vermont.

“I appreciate the effort that the athletic department has put forth in facing this challenge, and I support this decision,” said Larimore. “These choices are never easy. Josie Harper, her staff and I have carefully reviewed all the options available to us, and ultimately, we believe, we made the best decision for the department to maintain the quality and integrity of our intercollegiate programs.”

An hour after she met with the coaches, Harper explained the situation to the 15 or 20 team members who were able to make a meeting that was posted to their e-mails yesterday morning. “Right now, we're all in a state of shock,” said freshman Yale Fillingham, who was in class when the morning meeting was held. “This completely blindsided us. Swimmers are wandering around the dorms going from room to room just looking for someone to talk to. There's not a person who isn’t in tears or furious.

“When I was recruited to come to Dartmouth, one of the reasons I chose it was because I thought it was a stable situation … that something like this couldn't happen.”

Ron Keenhold, who coached swimming and diving at Dartmouth for 38 years before retiring in 1999, was speechless after being called by Harper yesterday morning with news of the program's elimination.

“I'm just trying to stay levelheaded about it all,” said Keenhold later in the day. “You know, we busted our butt to be a winning program, and we had a strong history of success for the men's swimming program at Dartmouth. But the bottom line for me is the number of outstanding young people -- men and women -- I had a chance to work with over the years.

“There were so many great athletes.”

Fillingham, who won the 200-yard freestyle Sunday against Vermont, could relate to that. “I went to my first class, but after that, I just couldn't go anymore. This is ripping my life apart right now.

“I thought I was living in a utopia. The school, the teachers, the people, and the town -- they're all just wonderful. And the guys on the team, you couldn't ask for better teammates … supporting you in the pool and in the classroom.”

The elimination of the swimming program also will also affect prospective student-athletes who have applied for early-decision admission to the Dartmouth Class of 2007, to say nothing of the underclassmen already at Dartmouth.

“Some of the younger kids may look to transfer,” said Harper. “And some may stay and rally to swim as a club. And we're looking into what club-level opportunities there may be.”

But Harper was quick to put a stop to any hopes that a grass-roots effort to raise money for the program would put swimming back on the Dartmouth sporting menu.

“It's just not going to happen,” she said. “It's not just money; it's not just the facility. It’s the ability to be competitive.”

Karl Michael Pool, built in 1963, is now considered substandard in Division I swimming and diving. “We can't even host our own conference championships,” said Keenhold. “The other schools won't come here to swim.”

The other seven Ivy institutions still maintain a swimming program. And to date, there have been no other cuts made around the league. “But if you would have asked me a month ago (about cutting Dartmouth sports), I wouldn't have believed it, either,” said Harper.

“No doubt there will be other announcements after the first of the year, and it would have been easy to fold this in with them,” said Harper. “But that would not have been fair to the students who had been recruited by the coaches for early decision.”

As Hamilton and the other coaches pondered their professional future, their thoughts never strayed far from the student-athletes they recruited to come to Dartmouth.

“I can always find another job,” said Hamilton, who is in his fourth year at Dartmouth. “But for some of these kids, they may not be able to get over this.”

As Keenhold looked back on the program he inherited from Karl Michael back in 1970, he could think only of swimmers past.

On Harvard weekend (Nov. 2), members of the classes of 1959, 1960 and 1961 held their own mini swim reunion. As the Big Green and Crimson battled outside on the Memorial Field gridiron, this group of about a dozen former Dartmouth swimmers took to the Karl Michael Pool for an afternoon of aquatic pleasures.

“There were four or five All-Americans in the pool,” said Keenhold. “They were just having a wonderful time. How are these guys going to feel when they hear this news?”