WSU takes the “field” out of Track & Field

In what may be a sign of more to come, WSU Athletic Director Anne McCoy this week announced that the school will eliminate all field events from its track & field program. WSU will also limit sprint and hurdle events.

Here’s the entire brief announcement:

Earlier today, WSU Athletics leadership met with members of the men’s and women’s track and field team to inform them that the program will be shifting to a distance-focused approach. This change gives the WSU Track & Field program the best opportunity to remain competitive at the conference and national levels in distance events in cross country, indoor track and field, and outdoor track and field. It does mean, however, that field events (e.g., jumps, throws) will no longer be supported, effective immediately, and the number of sprint and hurdle opportunities will be limited moving forward.

Impacted student-athletes will have their scholarships honored should they choose to remain at WSU. WSU understands the significant impact this decision has on Cougar student-athletes, coaches, and fans. Transition support and services will be provided to those student-athletes who choose to seek to continue their academic and athletic careers at other institutions.

That’s all we’ve heard from WSU and McCoy, as neither she nor track head coach Wayne Phipps have commented publicly.

John Blanchette, writing for The Spokesman-Review this week, talked to former athletes and legendary coach John Chaplin for their reactions. Let’s just say their feelings aren’t great, especially Chaplin’s:

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

And then this:

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.”

The brief statement—which, again, is all we’ve heard from anyone at the university—tries to put a positive spin on things: “This change gives the WSU Track & Field program the best opportunity to remain competitive at the conference and national levels in distance events in cross country, indoor track and field, and outdoor track and field.”

That’s a lot of digital ink that could have been spared and replaced with, “Look, we just don’t have the funds anymore.”

And that’s what this is all about (and why not just come out and be honest about it?). It’s not like the WSU brass woke up one day and felt the urge to gut the field events and become a distance-only school (much like Gonzaga). To remain Division I, schools have to field a minimum amount of sports. With the perilous financial situation WSU is in, cutting positions and spending is the only way out, but if they want to remain Division I, hard decision like this have to be made. It’s awful for the athletes affected by it.