Due to the enrollment shortfall this year, many Houghton departments and programs have had to trim their budgets significantly. One of the cuts directly impacting students is the elimination of both the men’s and women’s golf teams.
The golf teams were informed on September 10 that their teams had been eliminated from the athletics program. “I showed up for practice on Tuesday and our coaches were waiting there… I thought that maybe a tournament had been canceled – but it was actually the entire team,” said the women’s captain Hannah Fink, junior.
The decision “came out of the blue,” according to the men’s captain, Evan Castle, junior, “Basically we had two matches and were completely into our season – nobody knew that this was going to happen – and we showed up to our practice on Tuesday and we get the news from our coach.”
According to Dr. Robert Pool, Vice President for Student Life, the reason that the teams were informed in the middle of their season was due to the unexpected drop in enrollment in the beginning of the school year. “We thought – up until the end of July – that we would have been higher [in enrollment] than what we actually came in at. So it was, to many of us, a big surprise when we got to August and realized where we were with enrollment in terms of deposits.” This required the college to make emergency cuts for this fiscal year. “We had to cut somewhere,” said Pool, “A small piece of that was in athletics.”
The elimination of the golf teams is part of a larger amount of cuts that Athletics are being asked to make. In total, Athletics were asked to cut $60,000 out of their budget this year – the golf team taking a significant percentage of that number. According to Athletics Director, Skip Lord, “In a nutshell, every area on campus has had to make hard decisions relative to budgets this fall. That included athletics. This decision, along with other significant, but less visible cuts in athletics, were carefully weighed to accomplish the goal.”
One of the factors leading Student Life and Athletics to cut golf particularly is the relatively small number of students that it will affect. Both teams have about a dozen players combined, though this number varies between the fall and spring due to several players already involved in other seasonal sports teams. Another factor influencing the decision to cut the teams is that both the coach, Thomas Kettelkamp, and the assistant coach, Richard Halberg, are already employed as faculty members – so no jobs will be cut as a result of this decision.
Houghton introduced the golf teams last year when it made the move into the Empire 8 Athletic Conference, along with introducing other sports teams such as lacrosse, tennis, and baseball. The elimination of the golf teams should not impact Houghton’s NCAA D-III or Empire 8 standing.
Coach Thomas Kettelkamp and Coach Richard Halberg both expressed their dismay at the elimination of the teams.
“Personally I am a full time faculty and will not be impacted by the decision to cut the golf program but it was very, very difficult to tell the players that we are done,” said Coach Kettelkamp. Coach Halberg echoed Kettelkamp’s statement and said that he felt, “badly about ending our relationship with a great group of students.”
According to Kettelkamp, there were three prospective students looking into enrolling at Houghton to join the college’s golf teams, but he had to write to inform them that they should “look elsewhere for a college golf program.” Additionally, he believes that no one on the golf teams is currently intending to transfer as a result of this decision, but he said “if they ask me to help facilitate transferring to another college, I will certainly do so.”
Fink and Castle both lamented that they had not been able to complete the season as captains, the first time in these positions of leadership. “I had hoped to improve our record from last year. Individually, we all wanted to get better. Basically, improve,” said Fink. Castle said, “It’s a big bummer because I spent a lot of time with my teammates and my entire summer planning for this year. And it’s gone.”