ENMU suspends men's soccer program

PORTALES — Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Eastern New Mexico University has shelved many of its athletic programs for the last 12-plus months.

Due to what it claimed were concerns over budget and Title IX compliance, the school is shelving its men’s soccer team for at least the 2021-22 academic year.

Administration made the announcement Friday after making its case to the ENMU board of regents. There was no action item on the agenda regarding the men’s soccer program, and regents gave administration the latitude to suspend the program for at least the upcoming year.

A story posted on goeasternathletics.com Friday afternoon said the school was discontinuing the men’s soccer program, and made no reference to the team returning.

“This was a very hard decision for us to make as an athletic department and university as a whole, but was made with the long-term interest of all of our Eastern New Mexico students in mind,” Athletic Director Matt Billings said in a release.

However, regents noted in their Friday discussion they should hold the final decision on adding or cutting a sport based on budget and enrollment implications.

The university has not responded to an open records request sent by The News March 11 about email communications regarding the men’s soccer program since March 1.

The program has been without a men’s soccer coach since Jon Fridal left in December for Colorado Mesa. It is — or was — one of three ENMU head coach vacancies. Softball coach Kira Zeiter resigned Monday, and the university postponed four Lone Star Conference games this weekend while it searches for a successor or interim coach. Football coach Kelley Lee resigned his post March 2 to take an athletic director/football coach position at the Brownsville Independent School District, and Billings hopes to fill that position in the next few weeks from a field of 93 candidates.

Of the soccer team’s 31 student-athletes, Chancellor Patrice Caldwell said 17 have returned to school. Some of them followed Fridal to Colorado Mesa, and many others decided not to return to the United States. Out of the 31 student-athletes, 23 were international.

Now, they’ll just be ENMU students or some other school’s student-athletes.

“If they want to stay at Eastern, we will pay their scholarship all the way to their bachelor's degree,” Caldwell said. “If they don't want to stay, we will help them transfer. We have an international office that will help them transfer their visas to another state or another school. Their education comes first, but we know they want to play.”

In offering a financial justification for the suspension, Caldwell said the athletics budget is out of balance and the school has been “treading water” on various issues including transportation because state laws don’t allow instruction and general fund dollars to go toward athletics. Assuming the payout of scholarships, suspending men’s soccer would save the university $110,000 in the first year and eventually $212,000 annually.

John Crates, a budget analyst for the school, said individual athletic programs were too dependent on fundraising for basic items like team meals and charter buses, and the department would have a $650,000 hole if there were no fundraising efforts.

“They're not having to fundraise for a couple thousand dollars,” Crates said. “It can easily be $15,000 to $20,000 (for what a program needs), and that's just normal operating costs.”

Regent Lance Pyle asked what opportunities the school had looked at the curb costs, including savings from COVID-related event shelvings and possibly purchasing their own buses. Regarding the savings, Crates said the school probably had about $200,000 but that account needed some cushion to help a program if it makes a lengthy postseason run. On the buses, Vice President of Business Affairs Scott Smart said the school has had trouble finding drivers and maintenance locally.

Caldwell also mentioned the university’s need to comply with Title IX, which requires equal opportunity for male and female athletes. Caldwell said Title IX is mentioned in every LSC president’s council meeting, and there is national attention due to the NCAA’s recent embarrassment over the disparity between weight rooms for the men’s and women’s basketball tournaments. The fall 2020 student-athlete head count was 254 male and 207 female, and suspending men’s soccer would bring the school close to level.

Pyle said when the school was discussing adding women’s golf to help with Title IX compliance, it was said at the time canceling a men’s sport was not a viable option due to its impact on enrollment, and that stuck with him. The regents approved adding women’s golf, but it never came to fruition after the state clawed back budget increases for schools.

“I'm just really concerned we put in place adding golf, and now we're talking about suspending soccer,” said Pyle, who suggested a local committee help analyze the department’s financial issues.

Board President Dan Patterson agreed a committee was a good idea, but suspending the soccer program seemed to be the right move given the financial concerns and the difficulty in recruiting half a team over the next few months.

“I hate to cut a sport,” Patterson said. “I'm a big athletics supporter. But everything has fallen into place here for this.”

Suspending the sport would not jeopardize the school’s membership in the LSC, Caldwell said. The conference requires 10 sports for membership, and losing men’s soccer would put ENMU at 13.