CALGARY – The University of Calgary Athletics Department is shifting resources and restructuring operations to focus on core sports, ensuring the long-term competitiveness of all Dinos teams.
Following one of the Dinos' most successful seasons in history, athletic department focus will be narrowed to eight core team sports - men's and women's basketball, football, men's and women's hockey, women's soccer, and men's and women's volleyball - along with the core individual sports of cross country, swimming, track and field, and wrestling.
“Our goal is to be the number one destination school in Canada in our eight core team sports and to continue to lead the country in our three club-based individual sports,” said Kevin Boyles, director of athletics. “In order to reach our goals we understand that we need to reinvest in those programs.”
Dinos teams won a total of 12 championships in 2008-09, highlighted by national titles in women's swimming and women's wrestling. The Dinos won seven Canada West championships – more than triple the number of any other school in the conference – including both football and men's basketball, while men's swimming and women's volleyball finished with national silver medals.
The University of Calgary has applied to elevate the Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference champion Dinos women's hockey program back to CIS competition from the provincial college league, with final approval from Canada West anticipated in early May. In addition, under the new model women's soccer will be elevated to fully-funded status.
Effective immediately, funding to the sports of men's soccer and women's field hockey has been eliminated. A final decision on the future of the programs will be made prior to the Canada West annual general meeting in early May, pending the exploration of alternative funding models by the associated soccer and field hockey clubs and communities. In addition, the non-Canada West varsity sports of tennis and golf have been moved to Competitive Club status.
The decision follows an extensive internal review, which demonstrated that the current funding model had become unsustainable.
“It became clear that we have been spread too thin, trying to do too much with the limited resources available,” said Boyles. “I am confident that we have made the right choices for our university and that we will build upon our successes from the 2008-09 season in the coming years.”
Men's soccer and women's field hockey have traditionally been the Dinos' least successful programs both on and off the field. During the review, each of the 15 Dinos varsity programs were evaluated on 13 criteria ranging from historical program success and number of participating schools to stakeholder support and annual scholarships provided to student-athletes.
“Without question this is a difficult day for the Dinos, and we all feel for the student-athletes who will be negatively impacted by these decisions,” said Boyles. “However, the review process demonstrated that without significant investment, the status of these teams is unlikely to improve. Regretfully, we are unable to commit those additional resources.
“However, we are optimistic that these changes will enhance the opportunities available to our student-athletes and position us well to achieve our goal of becoming a world-class athletics program and the top destination in Canadian Interuniversity Sport.”
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