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Former WSU track and field coaches, athletes react to program cuts

Nobody wore a black armband to work, but the tone was funereal in the text exchanges and calls among Washington State track and field alums Tuesday. When it wasn’t just angry. “I feel like going over to the alumni center and chopping that tile with my name on it out of the floor,” said former […]

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Nobody wore a black armband to work, but the tone was funereal in the text exchanges and calls among Washington State track and field alums Tuesday.

When it wasn’t just angry.

“I feel like going over to the alumni center and chopping that tile with my name on it out of the floor,” said former Cougar coach John Chaplin. “I’m just so pissed.”

The reactions – from resignation to indignation – came in the wake of the school’s announcement on Monday that it was dropping the “field” part of the program and reducing, in ways unspecified, its numbers in the sprints and hurdles. The Cougars will carry on a program centered on distance running.

How many scholarships will be awarded, how much in budget savings will result and the status of assistant coaches have not been shared publicly. Athletic director Anne McCoy and head coach Wayne Phipps continued to refuse interview requests on Tuesday.

But one thing seemed clear. National regard for the once-formidable Cougar program will take another hit.

“The program has had such a rich tradition and heritage,” said Drew Ulrick, a Cougar discus thrower 20 years ago and now a real estate professional in Spokane. “It was more competitive in the ‘80s and ‘90s on the national stage, but even in my era you always knew WSU was at a meet – there were always a few stars out there.”

Like many, Ulrick was confused by the two-paragraph school statement that the cuts would give WSU “the best opportunity to remain competitive at the conference and national levels,” though it did specify “in the distance events.”

“I just wish they’d been up front and said, ‘We need to cut,’ and not tried to make it sound like this was a good thing,” said Debra Farwell, who coached throws at WSU for 20 years and was one of the pioneer athletes in the women’s program. “This is just sad and another sign that the college athletics system is broken.”

The school provided no rationale for the cuts. But the combination of existing athletic program debt, the collapse of the pre-2024 Pac-12 and the drying up of television money from that and, finally, the pressure the Cougar athletics will face navigating life after the recent House vs. NCAA settlement opening up direct payments to athletes suggests that it was solely a financial consideration.

The last WSU sport to take such a blow was men’s tennis, which was dropped entirely in 1994 after years of half-funding.

Cougar field events were not the first track-related casualty of the post-House world, either, with Colorado announcing last week that it was throwing more of its resources behind its renowned distance corps and axing two field events coaches.

“Sadly, there are probably many more to come,” said Cougar alum and hammer specialist Brock Eager, who competes on the professional level out of the Iron Wood Throws Club in North Idaho. “The whole scheme and layout of college athletics has changed completely in just the six years I’ve been out of college.”

While the Gerry Lindgrens, Henry Ronos and Bernard Lagats of the Cougars’ “Long Crimson Line” of distance runners put WSU track on the map, the field events were wildly underrated.

“The school record in the high jump is 7-foot-7,” noted Eager. “Ian Waltz threw 212 feet in the discus, Tore Gustafsson 255 in the hammer – I’m at 236 and that’s just third. All the other records are world class.”

Indeed, it’s been difficult in recent years for Cougar field athletes to even crack the school’s top 10s. But 14 of the school’s last 21 Pac-12 champions came on the field side.

“To lose that tradition is sickening,” said Farwell.

But what former athletes and coaches find more disheartening is the loss of opportunity.

“If I didn’t get a scholarship to go to college, I wasn’t going,” said Francesca Green, a two-time then-Pac-10 champion from Kennewick who now coaches at the University of Arizona. “Having (coaches) Rick Sloan and Lissa Olson take a chance on me was the opportunity of a lifetime, because my times in high school didn’t put me at the top of the country. So it was life-changing.”

It was a sentiment echoed by CJ Allen, a 2024 U.S. Olympian in the intermediate hurdles.

“If what’s happening with the program now happens back then, I don’t’ know if my life looks the same,” he said. “I won a conference championship as a freshman and used that momentum for the rest of my career, really. Put me in the SEC that year in a little more competitive field and maybe I don’t make the final.”

Allen would win another Pac-12 title before he left WSU, and made time gains each year post-collegiately through 2023 – until he’d become the 30th fastest 400 hurdler in history and No. 14 American.

“In the new scenario at WSU,” he said, “I don’t exist.”

It also puts into question, in the likelihood of similar cuts elsewhere, the impact to Olympic development if its feeder system shrinks. Green – “I’ve always been an optimistic person,” she said – believes elite athletes will always find their place and that it could be an iron-sharpening-iron outcome. But broad-based development could suffer.

“You’re not going to have the walk-on, the football guy who tries the hammer and takes to it and becomes national caliber in four years,” said Eager. “You’re going to miss out on making the diamonds-in-the-rough into diamonds.”

But that’s a macro problem. Alums are more worried about WSU’s micro problem.

“I think about so many kids that won’t get the opportunity now,” said Farwell. “A kid like Tim Gehring – from Kettle Falls, a walk-on and with our development program became a national championship competitor who threw 63-10. He’s an accountant now in Pullman. We had so many kids like that. Maybe they only got a semester’s tuition or books, but that was incentive for them to keep improving.”

Most of the track and field alums grasp the realities of today’s college landscape, even if they don’t like it or understand. They’re more saddened than disgusted.

That doesn’t make this wholesale gutting of the program easier to swallow. Chaplin, a long-time donor as well as the builder of the program, insisted he’s taking the Rono statue project he’s ramrodded off campus.

“I don’t want my name attached to the university in any way,” he said. “I’m embarrassed to be a graduate of WSU.”



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DOE seeks public input on Baldwin High School master plan improvements : Maui Now

The state Department of Education has completed a draft environmental impact statement for master plan improvements at Baldwin High School. PC: Online draft EIS screen grab Public input is being sought on a state Department of Education’s master plan improvements for Baldwin High School, including sports facilities and classrooms on 42 acres in Wailuku. Proposed […]

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The state Department of Education has completed a draft environmental impact statement for master plan improvements at Baldwin High School. PC: Online draft EIS screen grab

Public input is being sought on a state Department of Education’s master plan improvements for Baldwin High School, including sports facilities and classrooms on 42 acres in Wailuku.

Proposed master plan improvements include construction of athletic facilities, including locker rooms, a weight room, a training room, track and practice field, and four physical education classrooms. In addition, a two-story building with 14 classrooms is proposed along with an agricultural education building and site.

“The proposed classroom buildings will reduce the need for portable classrooms currently in use and allow for a more robust agriculture program,” a project summary says. “In addition, BHS offers physical education courses and a variety of boys’ and girls’ Varsity and Junior Varsity athletic programs including, but not limited to, basketball, volleyball, football, soccer, baseball, softball, tennis, swimming, water polo, golf, wrestling, air riflery, judo, bowling, paddling, and surfing.”

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The high school has its own gymnasium, basketball courts and baseball and softball practice fields. However, the school primarily relies on adjacent Maui County facilities, such as the War Memorial Stadium Complex, to accommodate many of its sports practice activities and physical education courses. Most of the new facilities are on the high school campus.

Yellow highlights show Baldwin High School project sites for master plan improvements. PC: Online draft EIS screen grab

Other school upgrades include disabled accessible ramps on a portion of an adjacent 38.49-acre parcel. Additional site improvements to be implemented as part of the project will include utility installations, grading, drainage improvements, and landscaping.

The master plan improvements will be done in phases, depending on funding availability. The athletic facilities building is expected to begin construction in 2026 and take about 18 months to complete. The second phase is construction of the locker rooms. Construction is anticipated to start February 2027 and take about 18 months to finish.

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The draft environmental impact statement is available by clicking here.

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Public comments are due Aug. 22 and can be sent via email to project consultant Munekiyo Hiraga at planning@munekiyohiraga.com.



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Streaming and sports marketing: Here’s what the numbers say

In an era of cord-cutting and increased viewer fragmentation, sports sponsorships remain top of mind for marketers looking to reach consumers. Approximately 40% of CMOs plan to increase their sports spending in 2025 and 28% plan to enter the space for the first time, according to data from Forrester. However, despite strong interest from marketers, […]

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In an era of cord-cutting and increased viewer fragmentation, sports sponsorships remain top of mind for marketers looking to reach consumers. Approximately 40% of CMOs plan to increase their sports spending in 2025 and 28% plan to enter the space for the first time, according to data from Forrester. However, despite strong interest from marketers, 76% say they struggle to calculate return on investment (ROI). 

“Sports have always been an outsized part of our culture and sports are intended to be viewed live in the moment… and because of the fact that it is designed and engenders live viewing also means that brands have captive audiences,” said Mike Proulx, vice president, research director at Forrester. 

Forrester’s report, “Maximize The Value Of Your Sports Sponsorships,” evaluates best practices when it comes to sports sponsorships. The report uses both quantitative and qualitative data, including interviews with CMOs, survey questions from Forrester’s monthly consumer pulse survey and quarterly CMO pulse survey, along with data from the organization’s Market Research Online Community.

On streaming

While football remains the most popular sport to watch in America, the barrier to entry can be large. The cost of a 30-second advertisement for Super Bowl LIX was approximately $8 million. However, emerging sports are providing marketers with an opportunity to break into the space early, especially as streaming platforms increasingly turn to live broadcasts, according to the report. 

Younger audiences are more likely to watch sports on streaming services compared to older generations. For example, 46% of Gen Z consumers prefer to watch sports via streaming, compared to 15% of baby boomers and 22% of Gen X. On the other hand, 58% of boomers prefer to watch sports via cable or broadcast, compared to 24% of Gen Z. 

By the numbers

 

46%

The percentage of Gen Z consumers who prefer to watch sports via streaming.

 

15%

The percentage of boomers who prefer to watch sports via streaming.

“One of the reasons streaming services are lusting over sports sponsorship rights is because they’re able to offer live programming that are very advertiser friendly and expose audiences, especially in the U.S., to leagues that maybe haven’t penetrated the U.S. market as much in the past,” said Proulx. 

Streaming is especially conducive to emerging sports leagues, such as pickleball, the fastest-growing sport in America, according to the report. Thirty-four percent of Gen Z consumers enjoy watching pickleball, compared to just 7% of boomers. Cricket is enjoyed by 31% of Gen Zers, compared to just 4% of boomers. Younger consumers are also more likely to watch women’s sports. Nearly half of Gen Zers and 40% of millennials enjoy watching women’s sports, compared to 21% of boomers. 

A winning strategy

Gen Z is more likely to reward brands who sponsor their favorite athletes and teams. When it comes to athlete sponsorships, 42% of Gen Z consumers said they were more likely to trust a brand if they see their favorite athlete use that brand, compared to just 14% of boomers. Additionally, 41% of Gen Zers have purchased from a brand that sponsors their favorite athlete, compared to 16% of boomers. 

Team sponsorships have also been shown to sway younger consumers. Nearly half of Gen Z consumers said if multiple brands offered a similar product, they would more likely purchase from the one affiliated with their preferred team, compared to 24% of boomers. 

The benefits of naming rights aren’t as clear. Hearing a sponsored stadium name only makes 35% of consumers think of the brand. Seeing the brand logo doesn’t improve results, with 38% agreeing they take notice of a brand’s logo on the field. 

Ultimately, when it comes to a successful sports sponsorship, finding success goes beyond simple branding. For optimal results, brands need to work with athletes and teams to create impactful partnerships. 

“The best practice has to be a relationship that’s based on co-creation. It is easy to fill vessels with advertising,” said Proulx. “But that’s not going to necessarily reach and engage the intended target audience, and a relationship that is built on co-creation allows the brand and the property to expand the aperture of the creative canvas and to innovate new ways of reaching audiences.”



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Treasure Valley Community College gets new head coach for track and field | News

State AlabamaAlaskaArizonaArkansasCaliforniaColoradoConnecticutDelawareFloridaGeorgiaHawaiiIdahoIllinoisIndianaIowaKansasKentuckyLouisianaMaineMarylandMassachusettsMichiganMinnesotaMississippiMissouriMontanaNebraskaNevadaNew HampshireNew JerseyNew MexicoNew YorkNorth CarolinaNorth DakotaOhioOklahomaOregonPennsylvaniaRhode IslandSouth CarolinaSouth DakotaTennesseeTexasUtahVermontVirginiaWashingtonWashington D.C.West VirginiaWisconsinWyomingPuerto RicoUS Virgin IslandsArmed Forces AmericasArmed Forces PacificArmed Forces EuropeNorthern Mariana IslandsMarshall IslandsAmerican SamoaFederated States of MicronesiaGuamPalauAlberta, CanadaBritish Columbia, CanadaManitoba, CanadaNew Brunswick, CanadaNewfoundland, CanadaNova Scotia, CanadaNorthwest Territories, CanadaNunavut, CanadaOntario, CanadaPrince Edward Island, CanadaQuebec, CanadaSaskatchewan, CanadaYukon Territory, Canada Zip Code Country United States of […]

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Six Redhawks Claim USTFCCCA All-Academic Honors

Story Links Six Southeast Missouri athletes claimed U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) All-Academic honors during the 2025 season. Clara Billing (Environmental Science), Sullivan Gleason (Computer Science), Kenyon Johnson (Business), Paden Lewis (Cyber Security), Luis Schadlich (Geographic Info Science) and Anna Thomason (Business Administration) earned that distinction. To be named an All-Academic […]

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Six Southeast Missouri athletes claimed U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) All-Academic honors during the 2025 season.

Clara Billing (Environmental Science), Sullivan Gleason (Computer Science), Kenyon Johnson (Business), Paden Lewis (Cyber Security), Luis Schadlich (Geographic Info Science) and Anna Thomason (Business Administration) earned that distinction.

To be named an All-Academic Athlete, individuals had to have a minimum 3.25 GPA, must have completed two semesters at their institution, and for the most recent Indoor Season must have finished the season ranked in the top 96 in any championship individual event (or in the top 48 in any championship relay event), or for the Outdoor Season, must have participated in any round of the NCAA Division I Outdoor Track and Field Championships (the Preliminary Championship Competition and/or the Final Championship Competition), and must have finished the season ranked in the top 48 in the East or top 48 in the West for the most recent outdoor season. 

SEMO’s men and women were also deemed All-Academic Teams. The Redhawk men’s and women’s teams posted the highest GPAs in the Ohio Valley Conference. SEMO’s men’s team had a 3.46 GPA, while the women accumulated a 3.63.

 





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Illinois volleyball ninth in preseason Big Ten poll | Sports

CHAMPAIGN — Illinois volleyball finished eight in the Big Ten in 2024, sixth the year before that and seventh in both 2022 and 2021. Middle of the Big Ten pack. That’s essentially the expectation again for the Illini heading into the 2025 season. Illinois was picked to finish ninth in the Big Ten preseason poll […]

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CHAMPAIGN — Illinois volleyball finished eight in the Big Ten in 2024, sixth the year before that and seventh in both 2022 and 2021.

Middle of the Big Ten pack.

That’s essentially the expectation again for the Illini heading into the 2025 season. Illinois was picked to finish ninth in the Big Ten preseason poll released Thursday afternoon. The poll is voted on by the conference’s 18 head coaches.

Nebraska was voted as the preseason favorite in the Big Ten with reigning NCAA champs Penn State second. Wisconsin, Minnesota and UCLA rounded out the top five.

Zero Illinois players were among the 20 selected to the Big Ten’s preseason all-conference team. Unanimous picks included the Nebraska trio of Andi Jackson, Harper Murray and Bergen Reilly and the Penn State duo of Izzy Starck and Kennedy Martin. Just eight of 18 Big Ten teams were represented among the preseason all-conference selections.

2025 Big Ten preseason poll

  1. Nebraska
  2. Penn State
  3. Wisconsin
  4. Minnesota
  5. UCLA
  6. USC
  7. Purdue
  8. Washington
  9. Illinois
  10. Michigan
  11. Indiana
  12. Oregon
  13. Ohio State
  14. Michigan State
  15. Northwestern
  16. Maryland
  17. Iowa
  18. Rutgers

Preseason All-Big Ten

  • Allison Jacobs, Michigan, Gr., OH
  • Julia Hanson, Minnesota, Sr., OH
  • Mckenna Wucherer, Minnesota, Sr., OH
  • Rebekah Allick, Nebraska, Sr., MB
  • Andi Jackson, Nebraska, Jr., MB
  • Harper Murray, Nebraska, Jr., OH
  • Bergen Reilly, Nebraska, Jr., S
  • Gillian Grimes, Penn State, Sr., L
  • Kennedy Martin, Penn State, Jr., OPP
  • Izzy Stark, Penn State, So., S
  • Phekran Kong, UCLA, Gr., MB
  • Cheridyn Leverette, UCLA, Sr., OH
  • Maggie Li, UCLA, Jr., OH
  • Marianna Singletary, UCLA, RS-Jr., MB
  • Adonia Faumuina, USC, Jr., OH
  • Kierstyn Barton, Washington, Jr., OH
  • Julia Hunt, Washington, So., MB
  • Carter Booth, Wisconsin, Sr., MB
  • Mimi Colyer, Wisconsin, Sr., OH
  • Charlie Fuerbringer, Wisconsin, So., S





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MSOE student-athletes awarded for academic excellence | News

MSOE is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission (800) 621-7440, (www.ncahlc.org). Additional program accreditation includes the Engineering Accreditation Commission of ABET, the Applied and Natural Science Accreditation Commission of ABET, (www.abet.org), Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education (CCNE), Commission on Accreditation of Allied Health Education Programs (CAAHEP) and Accreditation Council for Business Schools and Programs (ACBSP). […]

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MSOE is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission (800) 621-7440, (www.ncahlc.org). Additional program accreditation includes the Engineering Accreditation Commission of ABET, the Applied and Natural Science Accreditation Commission of ABET, (www.abet.org), Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education (CCNE), Commission on Accreditation of Allied Health Education Programs (CAAHEP) and Accreditation Council for Business Schools and Programs (ACBSP).





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