Intro

Carle-Parra: 00:00-00:12

Honestly, my sport got cut, so the rest of them can come down with me. I don’t care. I’m so sorry if you’re not going to let me keep going, I’m not going to let all these other sports that do awful keep going either.

Interview

Camargo: 00:15-00:18

Hello, Gators! This is the Chomp podcast. My name is Diego Camargo, and I’m here with 

Carver: 00:19-00:20

Gabriel Carver.

Camargo: 00:21-00:31

And we’re here with Sabrina Carle-Parra. Today, we’re going to be talking about her track and field journey here at SF State. I wanted to get into why you chose to come here, and can you just talk about that process of being an athlete here?

Carle-Parra: 00:32-01:02

When I was choosing schools, I knew I wanted to stay in California, but I wanted to be far enough away from home that I could still be my own person without having my parents on me. I’m from San Diego originally. I was looking at a bunch of schools. I was looking at Chapman, San Bernardino, Cal State LA, SF State, Chico and ultimately decided San Francisco had an amazing program. The girls were amazing, the coaches were amazing. The city, just fell in love with it and the whole program itself.

Camargo: 01:03-01:16

You’ve been pretty successful since you’ve been here. Talk to me about your athletic journey here, the accomplishments that you’ve had. Give me an overview of your athletic journey here up until some events that happened last September.

Carle-Parra: 01:17-01:47

My journey here has been going really well. I came in fourth in conference my freshman year. Had a great indoor season my sophomore year, was able to compete all around the country. Went to New York, Albuquerque, Michigan. In my time here, I was able to PR four inches, which is big as a high jump athlete. It’s no easy thing to even be able to jump centimeters. So, to be able to have improved my jumping ability four inches is amazing itself. 

Camargo: 01:48-02:01

There’s a big controversy going around indoor women’s track and field. Can you just talk to me about your experience? We talked earlier last week. What were the rumblings going on last September? What surrounded SF State athletics last September when you guys first heard.

Carle-Parra: 02:02-02:41

We originally had gone to school, and when we’d gotten here, I’d found out that my coach had left. Track and field, there’s multiple events, so obviously there’s different event coaches. There’s the jumps coach, the sprints coach, the throws coach. My jumps coach had quit. So I already came into this year being like, “Wow, I don’t have a coach right now. Okay, let’s see what I can do with it.” So we’re a month in and I’m like, “Okay, the team’s trying to come together with what’s going on,” and then our head coach quits. And we’re like, ” Okay, well, what are we going to do now?” So we’re just left with no coach, and then a month later, they tell us right before our indoor season. Our indoor season was supposed to start December, 8 [2024]. 

02:42-03:21

On November 20, the athletic director, Brandon, he came down, he was like, “So your indoor season is cut. You guys are not going to go anywhere.” And the thing is, with track and field, indoor is so important to prepare yourself for outdoor. Just having that taken away, it was kind of like, “Wow, I already know I’m not going to do that good this year,” since I have no coaches, no indoor season. They took so long to hire a coach, and when they did, it’s like they didn’t tell us anything. Gave no announcements. They just said, “Okay, we’ll figure it out.” And then a couple weeks later, a new guy came in, which ended up being really good. I loved Coach A. He did the best he could with what he was given.

Carver: 03:22-03:30

How frustrating is that, how SF State doesn’t seem to take our track team as serious as other sports?

Carle-Parra: 03:31-04:12

It’s really frustrating because I don’t think people realize how good our team is. Macaria [Moore-Bastide] my teammate, she was an All-American last year, nationally ranked. This year, I was actually nationally ranked for about six weeks. I was in the Top 20 for D II. We have girls who have gone to big meets like I don’t think people realize some of the meets we were going to. Bryan Clay, Beach Invite. These are big D I meets that we’ve been able to qualify for. Comparing the other sports that are at this school, they’ve done well in our conference, but the difference between track and field, we’re not only doing well in our conference, we’re doing well at a national level, and people really don’t see that.

Camargo: 04:13-04:24

What is that experience like, especially with you’re a senior now. You have freshmen on the team. You guys have sophomores on the team. Can you just talk to me about, from your perspective, how they were feeling throughout all of this?

Carle-Parra: 04:25-05:10

Yeah, I felt horrible for the freshmen. They have no idea what to do. They were coming in thinking that this was an amazing program. They were going to travel around the world. Then, just to have the coach quit on them a month in. Me and the older girls, we were just trying to help them get into the transfer portal because we still wanted them to have a career in track, which a lot of them just wanted to quit, but it’s like, “No, keep going.” Especially for the sophomores, it’s even worse because they had to uproot their entire life, move to a completely different school if they wanted to keep doing track. It’s been really extremely hard. I’m thankful enough that I was able to graduate this year, but I was planning on doing my master’s here. I had applied to the master’s program and everything, and now I’m having to defer from that, since I’m not able to run here.

Camargo: 05:11-05:21

If you don’t mind getting into that — because when we talked and you talked about how it really uprooted your life — how impactful was that for you? You obviously had a plan. 

Carle-Parra: 05:22-05:51

Coming into school, I had a plan. I was going to graduate in three years and then I was going to do my master’s for two years. And this was a whole thing. Me and my coaches had talked about it. We knew that by the time I was done my third year, I would have hit marks good enough to get more money, more scholarship money for my master’s. So my whole plan was that I was going to have my master’s almost fully paid for, and be able to live here and everything. And once they told me track was cut, they said, no more scholarship money. 

05:52-06:26

It can’t be increased. So, I’ve had to completely redo my finances, figure out what’s going on with all my money in stocks with my parents, seeing how much I need to pull out for student loans, find a new master’s program, join the transfer portal. I specifically wanted my master’s in Public Policy, and they don’t have very many programs in California, so it’s completely made me do a 180 and figure out. Now I’m moving home, which is not what I wanted to do originally, but it’s what’s going to have to happen.

Carver: 06:27-06:39

I want to kind of touch on track and field this semester. [It] did get announced that it was getting cut. I do have a classmate that was in track. I just want to know from your perspective how that conversation went down. I know it was like a morning.

Carle-Parra: 06:40-07:11

Oh, my lord, yes. It was honestly one of the most unprofessional conversations I had ever been in when something that important is being said. They basically brought us in a room and it wasn’t just us; it was the men’s soccer team. They didn’t bother letting us have our own space to cope with what they said. But we were all put in a room, and the athletic director and two other people who — don’t know who they were, they didn’t say who they were — they came in and they’re like, “Your sport’s getting cut.”

07:12-07:44

We asked them specific reason. They said we looked at the spreadsheet and the data, and we just can’t keep it anymore. And they really told us nothing. What are we supposed to get out of spreadsheets and data? That’s words. Then, we were asking them questions and everything, and they were just giving us half-assed responses. Like, there’s obviously something more going on. We know there’s something more going on, but obviously, you’re not going to tell us, because they don’t want to face legal action.

Carver: 07:45-07:47

Is it true they gave you guys donuts?

Carle-Parra: 07:48-07:50

They weren’t even Krispy Kreme.

Camargo: 07:51-07:59

That’s when the day after you guys officially, officially got cut, but you said you guys got cut in December. Talk to me about that.

Carle-Parra: 08:00-08:29

I really don’t understand what’s going on with the whole “only outdoor,” “only indoors” getting cut, because we found out indoor was getting cut back in November. So when they came out, when Lynn Mahoney came out, with her email being like indoor women’s track and field, men’s soccer and baseball. It really made no sense since we found that out back in November. What she should have said is that she cut outdoor track and field. The only reason she didn’t say that is because the distance cross country girls are going to be able to run distance track. 

08:30-08:57

But that’s not outdoor track and field. If you don’t have sprinters, jumpers, throwers, that’s not a track and field team. So how are you going to say you’re keeping outdoor track and field with no field or track? It makes no sense, and it’s just basically, every time I’m like, “Oh yeah, like, I’m on the track team,” they’re like, “Oh, sorry about your indoor season.” No, my whole program got cut. I’m not allowed to be here anymore. And the fact that everyone’s just thinking it’s only indoor, they don’t see indoor as a big thing. They’re like, “Oh, it’s whatever,” but it’s not.

Camargo: 08:58-09:13

The question I have, I mean, you said you were going to go home. So what does your future look like now? You said it literally uprooted your life. You’re obviously very passionate about it. It’s affected you really hard. What’s next for you? After today, what’s next?

Carle-Parra: 9:14-09:56

So, originally I was just gonna quit and just live my old NARP life. You know, NARP, non-athletic random person, just live that. But I started doing really well this season. I’ve improved so much, so it seems so pointless to stop now. So I’m gonna move home. I live right next to the Olympic Training Center down in San Diego. So I’m going to train there, unattached. Going to compete next year. And then I’m gonna try and jump at San Diego State and maybe go D I. We’ll see, though how my marks ends up next semester anyway. I still have another year of eligibility for outdoor and I have two for indoor, so there’s no point of stopping, because I have so much time left. 

Carver: 09:57-10:12

How has this season been, knowing after the fact? Because I think you’ve had two or three meets since the cuts were announced. How do those jumps feel, from the ones beforehand to now? Is there any difference mentally?

Carle-Parra: 10:13-10:38

There is because, specifically, high jump, it’s such a mental sport, because it’s you against the bar. No matter how good you do, you will always end on a fail because you always end on the last bar. So every opportunity I’ve had, it’s the only one I have. So it’s like, I can’t be wasting attempts. I can’t be wasting jumps or meets. I can’t go to a meet and be like, “Oh, it’s okay. I’ll do better next time,” because there is no next time. 

10:39-11:13

And also, the environment with the team, after they told us we were cut, almost the entire team, they didn’t care anymore. No one even wanted to show up to practice. Our coach, you could tell his morale was down. It was really depressing, honestly. And it’s been really hard being one of, I don’t want to say one of the only people on the team who wanted to keep going, but being one of the only people on the team who really wanted us to compete more and do more meets. It was hard to try and fight for myself to have more meets to go to when no one else did either. So it’s been a real struggle this semester to even have the opportunity to compete.

Camargo: 11:15-11:35

I kind of actually want to go back a little bit. You guys officially got cut. You guys will have your track meets get cut. Even beforehand, before you guys got cut, you guys were getting neglected. Can you just talk to me about, even though you guys were performing, obviously, how the school neglected you guys, even before you guys got cut?

Carle-Parra: 11:36-12:08

Even before, again, when our coach quit, they put almost no effort into trying to hire a new coach. They had us try and find people. It was impossible. We were urging them. We were at their office every single day, like, “Please, we need a coach.” And it was just like we were invisible. We even like when they cut our indoor, we were like, “Okay, can we get a few more outdoor meets?” Since they canceled so many outdoor meets. We were supposed to go to LA two different times. We’re supposed to go to all these other big meets that we had entered and qualified for, but they just wouldn’t take us. 

12:09-12:39

Oh, it’s so frustrating. Stanford Invitational. It is an amazing opportunity to compete at Stanford Invitational. We probably had four girls qualify, me being one of them. He didn’t want to take us. It was 20 minutes down the street to Palo Alto to go to Stanford, and the cross country coach refused to let us go because he’s the director of track and field. So it’s just like, when they’re prioritizing other athletes that aren’t even in season, it gives you no motive to want to even keep going or want to do better. 

Carver: 12:40-12:55

What criticisms and what would you want to be different? If the program, how it was ran, and if there is a future, one day, for it to come back, what would you want to see out of it?

Carle-Parra: 12:56-13:38

I’d like to see complete financial transparency between the coaches and the athletic directors. I’d like to see coaches who aren’t going to quit, people who are in contract to stay for the full year. Obviously, we need some new equipment, but that’s another story. But, just honestly, a program in itself where the coaches and the school have a good relationship and it’s not like a battle between the directors and the athletes. Because at the end of the day, we’re all one team, and when the school and the team is separated, it’s impossible. How are you going to have an environment to do well when you don’t even feel like the school you’re trying to represent is trying to support you?

Camargo: 13:40-14:46

For sure. There’s that IRA survey out right now. I don’t know if you had any thoughts on that?

Carle-Parra: 13:47-14:01

My thoughts are, you might want to cut this out, but honestly, my sport got cut, so the rest of them can come down with me. I don’t care. I’m so sorry. If you’re not going to let me keep going. I’m not going to let all these other sports who do awful keep going.

Camargo: 14:02-14:12

For sure. How I see it from my perspective is, what if they had done this a year ago? It’s like, why are we doing it now when sports are getting cut?

Carle-Parra: 14:13-14:50

If they had done it a year ago, honestly, would have been better for me. I could have transferred into a new school, had more years to compete, gone to a better program. And the fact they do it to us now too. When they had announced it, originally, they had announced it when we only had two meets, meaning if they had announced it one week prior, all of us could have petitioned to the NCAA to get our season back, but we couldn’t, because they decided to wait a week to announce it, even though they had announced it for baseball the week before. So if they had told us that track and field is being cut when baseball was being cut we all could have gotten our season back and had another year of NCAA eligibility, but now we can’t.

Carver: 14:51-14:54

Yeah, we found out baseball before anything. Did you kind of have a feeling? 

Carle-Parra: 14:55-15:07

Oh, absolutely. Well, after they told us indoor was cut back in November, I totally saw track coming. I really don’t understand why they waited that seven days. We all could have gotten our season back.

Camargo: 15:08-15:20

For the rest of the athletes that are still going to be here. What do you say to those that are still here? Obviously, we still have the IRA stuff. What can you tell other athletes to expect, especially over the next couple years?

Carle-Parra: 15:21-15:53

I really hope all the athletes here put their all into what they have, because being an athlete at this school is a privilege now. It’s not something that you can just take for granted. I want you to put your all into everything. Keep your grades up. I don’t want to see any 2.0 average between the sports. I don’t want to see no last in conference. If you have the opportunity to be an athlete at SF State, take it. Because, look at me, I don’t have that opportunity anymore. So if you do, I want to see you train hard, work hard, play hard, do your best.

Carver: 15:54-16:09

We see Sonoma State. Obviously, they cut all their athletics. It’s fair to say that we may be heading down that same road. How do you feel about a college, a university with just no sports?

Carle-Parra: 16:10-16:37

It makes no sense. That’s called a preparatory academy. A university, especially in San Francisco, where it’s already a commuter school, and there’s already not much, we don’t have very much. We have Greek life, but obviously it’s not as much as other schools. We don’t have a football team, so the sports that we do have are essential to keep Gator community alive and to keep that morale on campus.

Carver: 16:38-16:52

You go to the gymnasium and you see all this history that we have with this old school. Like you said, the football team got cut. I agree, there’d be nothing to do. I feel like it’s kind of hard to get people to go to sporting events, but —

Carle-Parra: 16:53-16:54

It is, exactly.

Carver: 16:55-16:57

If we have nothing, then what are we? 

Carle-Parra: 16:58-17:08

Exactly and the school is already facing so much loss in enrollment. People aren’t gonna enroll here if they don’t have anything to go to. So it’s like, what are you trying to do? 

Outro

Camargo: 17:09-17:11

All right, so that’s it for us today. My name is Diego Camargo. 

Carver: 17:12-18:13

And this is Gabriel Carver.