Limestone College in Gaffney, South Carolina informed their swimming & diving teams on Wednesday afternoon that the school would be discontinuing the sport at the varsity level. The announcement is the latest in a busy summer for colleges cutting (or almost cutting) their swimming & diving programs.
The school says that they will honor all scholarships for students who wish to stay.
“This was a very tough decision to make,” said Vice President for Intercollegiate Athletics Mike Cerino. “Limestone Athletics has been involved in a campus-wide assessment and evaluation process, and it was through that review that this need for strategic redistribution of resources became evident.”
The move comes after a banner year for Limestone College, where their men’s team finished 3rd at the Bluegrass Mountain Conference Championships – the best finish in school history. The women’s team placed 4th at that same meet.
Sources tell SwimSwam that reasons given include lack of what the athletics department believes is a collegiate-caliber pool, and financial challenges within the athletics department. A later release by the school confirmed that “facilities and historically low participation factored heavily in the decision.” The Limestone College pool was built in 1976.
Limestone College competes in Division II of the NCAA. The men’s team has scored at the NCAA Championships 8 times in program history, with a peak of 4th-place in 2009. The women’s team has scored 7 times in program history, with a high-mark of 18th at the 2015 championship. The men’s team has also won 3 NCAA Division II event titles: the 200 free relay in 2008 and 2009 and the 50 free in 2009. The programs have combined for 145 All-America honors.
Athletes have been given their releases to transfer, albeit late in the recruiting cycle for the fall of 2018.
Update: Limestone College sent SwimSwam the following press release after posting.
At the suggestion of the Athletics Committee of the Board of Trustees of Limestone College, the board officially voted on Friday, April 20 to no longer sponsor the sports of men’s and women’s swimming effective at the end of this academic year. Facilities and historically low participation factored heavily in the decision. Both teams practiced and competed in an outdated facility that was constructed back in 1976.
Financial aid packages will be honored for the current student-athletes who wish to remain and complete their degree at Limestone. Any student-athlete that wishes to transfer will be granted their full and immediate release.
“This was a very tough decision to make,” said Vice President for Intercollegiate Athletics Mike Cerino. “Limestone Athletics has been involved in a campus-wide assessment and evaluation process, and it was through that review that this need for strategic redistribution of resources became evident.”
The pool will still be available for recreational use and agreements with the YMCA and Gaffney High School swim team will continue to be honored.
I wonder how much money Dance and Acrobatic Tumbling bring in each year??? Yes, these are two women VARSITY SPORTS at Limestone College. They now have 11 women’s sports and only 10 men. Wonder which men’s sport they will cut next??/
So, they had 26, now 24, “Varsity Sports”, including Cheerleading and Dance, Acrobatics and Tumbling (Are those NCAA sports?), 12 on the men’s side, now 11, and 14 on the women’s side, now 13. That is a lot of sports. And this is at a college of around 3500 students. I suspect participation is low in most of their sports. I wouldn’t say that 23 men is really “low participation”. The women show 9 on the team this year, which might be “low”. However, maybe it is a matter that the AMERICAN student participation on these teams is low. Of the total 32 athletes on the men’s and women’s swim teams, only 9 are from the US. That leaves 23… Read more »
3500 including online students??? 650-700 day students, and 87% of them are “athletes.”
Limestone gets $ by attracting paying students. The only way they get paying students is through sports teams.
The baseball team has like 200 people for this very reason. They only really care about wins v losses in the sense that it can help get more paying students. This past year the team was very small, which is all they actually care about.
They never offered coaches enough money for the coaching job to be anything more than something you take to get college coaching experience, so you can get a job coaching that pays a normal coaching wage. No coach has ever stayed more than 2 years and most left after 1 bc of this. Nobody wants… Read more »
The only way they get paying students is through sports teams.
If that’s truly the case, they should keep all the athletic programs and shut down the academics. (I’ll assume you’re exaggerating.)
Nope… 87% of the student body are “athletes.” The cost of the pool etc got higher than the income from paying students. Gone.
They can do whatever they want with the money and their donations, the main issue here is timing. Unethical to announce it when the semester is over and 17 recruited swimmers commited for next fall.
The problem at Limestone is the attention received from the athletic department, who has been antagonizing the swimming program for years, resulting in transfers and a coach leaving. I don’t understand how this decision, and the reason for it, is relevant when the facility is fine and the program is one of the most successful ones on campus. The swimming program together with soccer has really put Limestone on the map internationally. Sure, the Lacrosse program is outstanding with all their titles but swimming has produced a lot of All Americans as well. I guess it all came down to a biased decision from the athletic department that do not share the enthusiasm that the program deserves.
I have… Read more »
This was a shock for us as parents and who sent the kids to the United States to fulfill their dream. It is quite unthinkable that such a thing happens without warning, without the opportunity to plan the swimming career next autumn. He who looked so amazing to get along next season with good friends. The dream was broken in the middle of the exam and just before returning. This had never happened in our country. Shame to US and Limestone.
You can’t blame the entire country for this.
A lot of times the Athletic Director comes out of the football hierarchy, or is the head football coach, same in most high schools, the very person responsible/contol for the budget is the highest user of said budget….football.
the case here is ….. Lacrosse….
I was swimming DII against Limestone during their best years – 2008-2009. It even seemed then like it was a program in flux. They had a couple coach changes, and after their 4th place finish at NCAAs in 2009 literally all of their best swimmers transferred out – one to Minnesota, one of Arizona, one to Mizzou, two to CSUB (one of whom, interestingly enough, raced sans goggles).
I think a lot of their peaks and valleys came due to their reliance on international recruiting – that’s definitely a more volatile market than domestic, especially for a team that wasn’t well-established like Drury at the time or Queens now, who had Dave Marsh to kind of kickstart things.
How embarrassing it must be for the recruiters and the new folks that signed up to swim for them ….If i was an looking for a athletic future would not trust them with mine….and that maybe the case in the future for their sports dept overall. It says they are will be honoring current student athletes but what about all the new signers…..it is too late in season to visit and join any other schools….most all options for them now closed …..they should honor the incoming that just signed with them because they have committed by signing on both sides. Poor planning on administration, could have stopped the recruiters from bringing them on but now they should at least honor… Read more »
They did offer to honor the scholarships that were offered to incoming athletes. We weren’t interested in giving them any money after this so we contacted other teams that we had spoken with. Limestone also refunded the housing deposit and were actually very nice about it. I felt horrible for Eddie because he lost his job and had to deliver the news after he’d spent his time recruiting and unintentionally misleading athletes and their families.