Changes in Athletics Program Bring Women's Ice Hockey to Campus
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by Melissa Fassel
After several months of deliberation, the Department of Athletics has followed the recommendations of the UMass Boston Sports Sponsorship Committee and decided to make several major change in its intercollegiate program.
Women's ice hockey will be added as an official intercollegiate sport, while indoor and outdoor men's and women's track and field will be eliminated. Football also will be eliminated, a decision which was reached partly because the new Campus Center will be built on what is now the football field. Also, because of the nontraditional nature of the university's student body, it has become increasingly difficult to meet recruiting and participation demands of the track and football programs.
Should student housing become available on campus, a development that would attract more traditional students, the committee recommended that the reinstatement of the football program be considered. Other committee suggestions included building a bubble to enclose existing tennis courts, an artificial turf all-purpose playing facility, and a new baseball field.
Director of Athletics Charlie Titus reacted favorably to the committee's recommendations. He commented, “We have made every effort to assure success in our programs across the board over the past 14 years. I believe that the recommendations of our Sports Sponsorship Committee are very appropriate for an institution such as ours. Seven sports for men and seven for women (all 14 are so-called ‘low number sports') gives us an increased opportunity to achieve consistent excellence in all our varsity sports.”
Titus added that the timeline for a women's hockey program would involve hiring a coach and spending an academic year planning, recruiting, and scheduling to prepare for a club the following year.
Members of the committee included Paul Castonia, head football coach; Pat Gamelin, Student Athlete Advisory Board chair and baseball player; Stephanie Hartwell, sociology assistant professor; Jack Lambert, alumnus and former football player; Peter Lewenberg, Executive Office of Environmental Affairs and university trustee; William Linehan, operations director for the Boston Parks and Recreation Department and alumnus; Anita Miller, assistant vice chancellor for academic affairs; Dave Roberts, intercollegiate athletics coordinator; Pam Samuelson, assistant director of athletics; Charlie Titus, director of athletics; and Leverett Zompa, chair of the Chemistry Department.
An era has ended – one in which our university, nontraditional in virtually every sense, attempted to be athletically similar to institutions like Boston College and Harvard University. The changes in UMass Boston's intercollegiate athletics embrace programs which have mass appeal across genders.