The Wyoming House of Representatives met in Casper on Tuesday, March 3 to discuss Senate File 119, a bill with $160 million in appropriations for state-funded capital projects, including $25 million intended for the University of Wyoming.
Construction of Corbett Pool, where the Wyoming men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams train, is one of the potential projects the $25 million could be appropriated for.
However, House District 35 Representative Joe MacGuire proposed an amendment to the capital construction bill that directly impacts the pool’s chances of getting worked on.
MacGuire’s amendment requires that the funding for the swimming pool “only be expended upon the men’s swimming and diving team roster and the women’s swimming and diving team roster attaining a student athlete enrollment ratio of not less than fifty-one percent (51%) of enrolled student-athletes who are Wyoming residents and graduates of a Wyoming high school.”
In other words, MacGuire wants more local residents competing for the swim team if they’re going to put so much money towards the pool.
“If we in these challenging times are going to spend a massive amount of money to build a new pool then it seems like at least half of the students who participate in the athletic programs involved with that pool should be from the state of Wyoming,” MacGuire said.
In a handout MacGuire gave to his fellow representatives, it showed 9/43 (21%) athletes on the women’s swimming & diving team are from the state of Wyoming, while none of the 25 on the men’s team are.
MacGuire also said he spoke to a local high school swimming coach in Casper who told him the university doesn’t recruit from their team.
“I went to the coach at my local high school,” said MacGuire. “He said, ‘We can’t even get a look from the university.’”
House District 36 Representative Art Washut agreed with MacGuire’s proposal: saying it would “give our Wyoming swimmers a decent chance to have the opportunity to swim at the University of Wyoming.” Washut also said that he was more concerned with giving Wyoming students the opportunity rather than see the team’s performance decline.
There were, of course, several Representatives against MacGuire’s amendment proposal.
“I just don’t think it is the legislative body’s position to be deciding what a recruiting class should look like for an athletic team,” said House District 38 Representative Tom Walters.
“I can’t imagine any other state would contemplate a condition like this,” added House District 20 Representative Albert Sommers. “I just think this is the wrong way to go. I think it is poor policy.”
House District 08 Representative Bob Nicholas said that the pool is currently too small to meet the needs of the teams, and that’s what they should be worrying about.
“What is amazing about our UW swim team is how many hours these guys put in,” Nicholas said. “Because the pool is so small, they have to rotate through the day just in order to get their practices in.”
“Let’s fix the problem first. We need a new pool.”
House District 11 Representative Jared Olsen also said he has concerns that the proposal could be seen as discriminating against people based on their place of residency, which means it could be challenged against Title IX rules.
You can read the full article from Oil City News here.
By enrolling at this university, out of staters are bringing in money to the state…swimming is a sport where there’s no gray area, fast times equal opportunity. In state swimmers would have the same opportunity if they went as fast or faster, this shouldn’t be a debate. Would the legislature rather these kids go elsewhere and bring down the competitiveness of the whole team? Wack
Somebody’s child didn’t get recruited.
Seems incredibly shortsighted and heavy handed of the legislator. There are surely better ways to build a strong WY swimming team that is inclusive of local talent. Maybe more funding should go to the WY LSCs or ensure that they have access to the facility.
This is dumb. Wyoming is a small state (population-wise) with barely a half million people. No way they could field a competitive team if forced to reserve half their roster spots for in-state swimmers.
Is representative MacGuire prepared to make the same demand of the football and basketball teams?
Representative Washut also said that unlike the football team, “people don’t tend to follow Wyoming’s swimming teams closely” (from the article) — essentially his reasoning for agreeing with MacGuire and only enforcing this for the swim team because a decline in performance wouldn’t matter like it would for football.
If you think no one cares, and you want to set the team up for failure, why give $25 million in the first place?
I think it would be smarter to push for some pool access for non university local residents such as a club and a masters program
Do they hold the HS State meet at this site? How about practice access for local HS and/or club teams? This guy is way off base. Scholarship limits preclude all team members getting a full ride and doubt if the men’s program is even close to being fully funded. So one has to assume that most of the 25 guys and 34 women “out of staters” who are in the program are paying more than the average Wyoming undergraduates who are attending the University.!
Soooo you’ll build them a new pool but limit their recruiting to a point that they won’t be successful. Makes sense.