PG article on Tennis program getting screwed
- Thread starter CrazyPaco
- Start date
Again, tough choice, but one I think had to be made IMO. But kinda crappy that she never went to a match. Seems supportive of every other program.
You can tell a lot by how the least is treated.
It's the execution of the decision and the treatment of the people in and around the tennis program. Unbelievably and inexcusably poor. It's not an isolated situation either.
Every story has two sides. I’ll reserve judgment until I hear the other side.
Admittedly, the P-G story is not flattering to Pitt generally, or Ms. Lyke specifically.
Admittedly, the P-G story is not flattering to Pitt generally, or Ms. Lyke specifically.
Anytime there is a negative impact on something, there is definitely going to be a bad view by those affected. Been there on both sides at work. I think this could have probably been handled better by Pitt/Lyke though.
However I have also read/heard many positives as well from Pitt/Lyke, and while not perfect (no one is) I think the overall feel is this has been one of the better athletic administration that Pitt has had.
Actually, in the case of Tennis, there was only one side at work. For softball, who knows. For the other people she canned, who knows.
The jury is still out on how good of an athletic administration Pitt has. We have yet to find out how any of her hires will play out long term and she's blown up an awful lot. There's a tremendous amount of fundraising to do before we see any Victory Heights payoffs and I have a suspicion Pitt about to take on some debt with athletics, something it avoided in the 2000s while fielding overall more competitive programs than we have now. I'm not easily dazzled by crayola colored uniforms.
There are a lot of potential positives, but Pitt's athletics have been so historically awful her first two years, it will take some time to judge. The best things I've seen so far are hiring Waldrum, firing Stallings and (hopefully) hiring Capel (although clearly she whiffed on her first choice), and partnering with NEP on the studio...oh, and not firing Fisher or Vidovich. Mostly its all talk, potential, and throwing the fan base brightly colored meat at this point.
BTW, I don't know if you saw the B12's deal for their championship games and Tier 3 rights with ESPN....just shows how those tier 3 rights are so lucrative...LMFAO.
Does it surprise anyone that the seven players on the team or some former players are pissed? What's more surprising is that the team only had seven players on it and the four of them were seniors. And none of them were from the United States.
If anyone reads those last two sentences and still can't figure out why they decided to drop tennis, well, you just can't fix that problem.
Saw that big 12 deal. Pretty much proves all the nonkooks right that those 3rd tier rights the kooks claimed were worth gazillions werent as lucrative as they thought.
Agree with you time will tell though on how Pitt admin will fair. Much too early either way. But I feel confident they will succeed more often than not. Just my opinion though. I also think gavin was a good hire.
Well I love Gavin so far and think he is building something strong, but he needs help$ and it is still early (the program's not even back to Rande levels yet, at least in the on-mat performance column). That said, I have a hard time believing his hire was some prescient epiphany on Lyke's part, especially since I know how the Santoro interview was botched and that additional experienced candidates passed on it first. That said, it wasn't like Jamie Dixon was a first choice or some carefully cultivated hire, and that ended up being the best athletic hire Pitt has made since 1973. Sometimes, you fall into luck. Better to be lucky than good sometimes.
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I read a few paragraphs and didnt care to waste my time reading the rest. Dropping a non-facility, non-TV, non-fan sport like tennis for a growing sport like lacrosse, who already has or will have a facility and whose games will be on ACCN is about the easiest decision an AD could ever make
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I wasn't going to weigh in here but felt the need to respond to a few of the comments. First off, SMF, swapping scholarships for lacrosse, although logical, was the not the reason for this decision. I asked that question directly. The staff felt that they could not maximize the "student athlete experience" without dedicated facilities. They did not see a way to attract better athletes without them and compete for a championship in the ACC. So if there is any questioning of the decision, that's where the focus should be.
And Joe, if you looked at the roster of most every US college women's tennis team you'll see that at least half if not more are international players. There just aren't enough US players to go around and the few that can compete at the highest levels go to blue blood tennis schools. You also make it sound like a negative to have international student-athletes. All of our schools, business, engineering, etc, are seeking more international exposure. Pitt is making a concerted effort to expand its brand across the globe. Are our other teams tainted because they have international players? Check the latest articles on our swimming team, or soccer, men and women.
No one is more involved with our tennis team than me. Our AD called me at the same time the news was being broken to the team. Although I was severely disappointed, my impression of Heather hasn't changed and I'll continue to support other student athletes.
And Joe, if you looked at the roster of most every US college women's tennis team you'll see that at least half if not more are international players. There just aren't enough US players to go around and the few that can compete at the highest levels go to blue blood tennis schools. You also make it sound like a negative to have international student-athletes. All of our schools, business, engineering, etc, are seeking more international exposure. Pitt is making a concerted effort to expand its brand across the globe. Are our other teams tainted because they have international players? Check the latest articles on our swimming team, or soccer, men and women.
No one is more involved with our tennis team than me. Our AD called me at the same time the news was being broken to the team. Although I was severely disappointed, my impression of Heather hasn't changed and I'll continue to support other student athletes.
Exactly. Which is why it was an easy decision to cut the sport. If there aren't enough Americans playing the game to supply all the college teams with anywhere close to the number of players that they need to sustain the sport then that tells you how low the interest level for that sport is.
There are plenty of Americans who could, for instance, fill out all college soccer rosters without any international players and the level of play wouldn't be seriously compromised. If there were no internationals playing college tennis the level of play would be drastically reduced. Because there simply are not enough Americans who care about tennis and are willing to put in the time to play the sport at a high level.
There is nothing at all wrong with Pitt targeting foreign students, if that is what the University wants to do. If Pitt has/does decide to target international students having a tennis team not only is not the best way to do that, it wouldn't even make any serious list of the choices.
Thank you for comments, which have more weight here than everyone else's combined. I understand their decision making process in prioritizing resources to have the best chance of success, I just wish they would have had an earlier private meeting to inform the team and staff before it went public, which is how most places would have handled this. There are ways to make such changes with more sensitivity, and I just cannot understand the logic in how they proceeded with this.
I also don't personally agree with killing the program just because it is difficult to compete now. If that was the case, nearly any one of our olympic sports could have been killed for similar reasons over the last 30 years. I have no idea if they tried to find additional support for tennis, if they reached out to any tennis alumnae, which seems not to be the case, which is also disappointing because it tells me little to no effort was put into helping the program or finding solutions to its issues by the current administration. They're flushing a lot of history, it may not be successful history, but it nonetheless destroys a lineage of tennis playing tradition in a sport that every single other university and peer university sponsors.
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I hope you can convey to those girls and Santos that other Pitt alumni and fans were also disappointed how things ended, but nonetheless, we are really proud and appreciative of their efforts in representing our shared university over the years.
Maybe a question for you, Pac - does this mean track could theoretically be next under the same logic? (I'm assuming Men's track here, as Women's is likely necessary as it's a big roster sport.)
There’s an indoor and outdoor track planned for in the master plan. Men’s track and men’s XC are probably the least-impact NCAA sports out there as far as Title IX goes, especially if the facilities are there - which they’re planning to build.
