One of the few opportunities for females to get an athletic scholarship, they don’t get many sports with 85 scholarships.
Total female scholarships probably don’t add up to 85. How many other ACC schools don’t have women’s tennis?
One of the few opportunities for females to get an athletic scholarship, they don’t get many sports with 85 scholarships.
Total female scholarships probably don’t add up to 85. How many other ACC schools don’t have women’s tennis?
We needed to build a tennis facility and it was cost prohibitive when we looked at the numbers. Lacrosse was seen as more bang for your buck.
Very difficult, but it seems the department knows that it can't put it's full support (facilities, etc) behind this program long term, and it's best to move on. Probably overall the right decision.
you can't use a tennis facility for anything else. lacrosse fields can be used any day of the week you want for a variety of activities. no brainer.
we're dead last in the ACC. a historically poor program. you'd have to throw a lot at it just to be moderately competitive. not worth it.
Plus from a Title IX standpoint it's only an 8 person team. And recruiting is international so it cost a lot.
Just googled it Lacrosse gets 12 ships so the net gain is 4 ships for women.How does that compare to the number of lacrosse ships?
Just googled it Lacrosse gets 12 ships so the net gain is 4 ships for women.
i love the people moaning about this. give me a break. no one cares about women's college tennis. when the whole team is international also-rans, then what is the point?
meanwhile, girls all over are playing lacrosse, and the rest of the conference we are in cares about lacrosse a lot. this is a now brainer.
i defy anyone outside of friends and family of players to prove they ever attended a match.
i'm a lifelong tennis player and fan. and even i can admit that college tennis is dumb. unless maybe you're in a warm weather area that cares about the sport or one of the mega schools that participates in every sport.
Not family or friends of anyone on the team and I went to see them play in Harmar & on CMU's campus during the last Big East years. I went a few times just because one of the players was super cool and appreciative that I came out.
I like this move. Pitt should continue to drop non-TV, non-spectator sports like Track and Field, especially if there is no on-campus facility.
Not sure how old you are but my daughter plays D1 soccer and has had several older people that have taken a liking to her, and have gone out and supported her during her season. And as a result, they’ve become soccer fans!Not family or friends of anyone on the team and I went to see them play in Harmar & on CMU's campus during the last Big East years. I went a few times just because one of the players was super cool and appreciative that I came out.
Not sure how old you are but my daughter plays D1 soccer and has had several older people that have taken a liking to her, and have gone out and supported her during her season. And as a result, they’ve become soccer fans!
I’m not sure this is relative to this thread, but I think it’s really cool that you went out and supported an Olympic sport athlete. I’m sure the tennis player was happy to see you.
Do I really need to explain this? Lol. I’m a parent and she’s an adult. We are comfortable with the professors, admin or boosters and their support. It doesn’t extend beyond public gatherings.what the what?
Do I really need to explain this? Lol. I’m a parent and she’s an adult. We are comfortable with the professors, admin or boosters and their support. It doesn’t extend beyond public gatherings.
Do I really need to explain this? Lol. I’m a parent and she’s an adult. We are comfortable with the professors, admin or boosters and their support. It doesn’t extend beyond public gatherings.
I've been donating to women's tennis for over 20 years and have been pretty involved with the team the past 5 years. My son played tennis at BC so I saw first hand how little support a non-revenue sport can get from an athletic department. As I've said in my posts about wrestling, you don't have to donate much to make a difference in tennis. I wasn't happy reading some of the comments here, especially the character-attacking ones by Pitt90seven, but finally felt the need to offer the facts. One comment to Pitt90seven first. Before I post anything anywhere, I reread my comments and ask myself what my kids would think about me if they read them. You should think hard about that. It's not necessary for me to address your comments because you do a really good job of demeaning yourself all by yourself. So here are the facts.
Five years ago, Pitt hired Alex Santos to be our tennis coach from the Miami Hurricanes where he was named the top college assistant coach in the country. He fits the description of the kind of coach Heather would hire so this decision doesn't reflect on the coach. He knew the deal when he accepted the job, no facilities and the stigma of a second-class program. He was used to recruiting the top players at Miami, in the US and abroad. For those of you that don't know, college tennis teams typically have more than 50% of their roster filled with international players. Coach Santos is Portuguese, was formerly a top player and, prior to going to Miami, worked at the most prestigious tennis school in Europe, located in Barcelona, similar to the Bolletieri school in Florida.
He inherited a team that needed a complete makeover. His mindset was to win first and ask for facilities later. His only choice was to recruit internationally because no top-ranked American girl would come here. Coach has great contacts internationally and worked hard to get into the living rooms of the top players. His recruiting has gotten better each year but it's hard to show progress in wins and losses in the ACC. Last year we started to see glimmers - we beat the #1 ranked doubles team in a dual match, we had a freshman make real progress and enter this year as the highest ranked player ever at Pitt, we beat BC and came so close to beating a few others. Recruiting for next year was further advanced than ever, with 3 commitments, a fourth imminent and the real possibility of adding our highest ranked junior ever, someone who could go toe-to-toe with the #1's at Duke, UNC, etc.
So Coach Santos, against all odds, was beginning to deliver on his promise. Over the past 5 years, through 3 AD's, outside of Maureen Anderson, Kirk Bruce and a handful of others, there was no presence or interest shown by the athletic department. I thought that would change under the current administration, but it never did. The decision was made to drop the program because the athletic department did not believe they could compete for an ACC championship. I can say that was decided by individuals that never took the time to understand the progress that was being made but I'd be slighting the one or two that probably defended the program. Facilities would have been nice but that wasn't the issue here. A modicum of support would have. For me, it's a real sad moment to lose the friends that I've made, Coach Santos and the young women who you would be proud to know.
I will always say Hail to Pitt even with this disappointment.
I've been donating to women's tennis for over 20 years and have been pretty involved with the team the past 5 years. My son played tennis at BC so I saw first hand how little support a non-revenue sport can get from an athletic department. As I've said in my posts about wrestling, you don't have to donate much to make a difference in tennis. I wasn't happy reading some of the comments here, especially the character-attacking ones by Pitt90seven, but finally felt the need to offer the facts. One comment to Pitt90seven first. Before I post anything anywhere, I reread my comments and ask myself what my kids would think about me if they read them. You should think hard about that. It's not necessary for me to address your comments because you do a really good job of demeaning yourself all by yourself. So here are the facts.
Five years ago, Pitt hired Alex Santos to be our tennis coach from the Miami Hurricanes where he was named the top college assistant coach in the country. He fits the description of the kind of coach Heather would hire so this decision doesn't reflect on the coach. He knew the deal when he accepted the job, no facilities and the stigma of a second-class program. He was used to recruiting the top players at Miami, in the US and abroad. For those of you that don't know, college tennis teams typically have more than 50% of their roster filled with international players. Coach Santos is Portuguese, was formerly a top player and, prior to going to Miami, worked at the most prestigious tennis school in Europe, located in Barcelona, similar to the Bolletieri school in Florida.
He inherited a team that needed a complete makeover. His mindset was to win first and ask for facilities later. His only choice was to recruit internationally because no top-ranked American girl would come here. Coach has great contacts internationally and worked hard to get into the living rooms of the top players. His recruiting has gotten better each year but it's hard to show progress in wins and losses in the ACC. Last year we started to see glimmers - we beat the #1 ranked doubles team in a dual match, we had a freshman make real progress and enter this year as the highest ranked player ever at Pitt, we beat BC and came so close to beating a few others. Recruiting for next year was further advanced than ever, with 3 commitments, a fourth imminent and the real possibility of adding our highest ranked junior ever, someone who could go toe-to-toe with the #1's at Duke, UNC, etc.
So Coach Santos, against all odds, was beginning to deliver on his promise. Over the past 5 years, through 3 AD's, outside of Maureen Anderson, Kirk Bruce and a handful of others, there was no presence or interest shown by the athletic department. I thought that would change under the current administration, but it never did. The decision was made to drop the program because the athletic department did not believe they could compete for an ACC championship. I can say that was decided by individuals that never took the time to understand the progress that was being made but I'd be slighting the one or two that probably defended the program. Facilities would have been nice but that wasn't the issue here. A modicum of support would have. For me, it's a real sad moment to lose the friends that I've made, Coach Santos and the young women who you would be proud to know.
I will always say Hail to Pitt even with this disappointment.
I think you're overreacting on this one.
Paco, always happy to read your comments. As for my measured responses, I've been around the block a few times, have heard and seen the highs and lows that some people can reach, and no longer feel the need to vent and stoop to their levels.
As to your other questions, I'm not aware of any attempt to reach out for private funding. The sad fact is only 3% of alums have donated to athletics and that includes football. Can't imagine there is anyone out there with a spare $10-15 million for tennis. But, Paco, that's not what we needed to keep the momentum going. The Oxford people have been great to Pitt. We have plenty of signage when we play, including a giant scoreboard. Coach Santos has begun doing clinics for members and their kids as a way of building a community following. What we needed at this point was practice courts closer to campus. The Mellon bubble up Forbes, even CMU's courts could have been an option. I never got the feeling that any priority was given to this.
Let me add a bit more to show the progress the team has made. Our out-of-conference schedule, played in the fall, is pretty daunting. It helps strengthen the team and we've actually started beating Penn State, WVU, Ivy's like Harvard and others. The ACC is ridiculously hard but we've started to rise as I mentioned in my first post. If the Athletic Department's measure is competing for ACC championships, I agree that will be hard to reach. Can we be middle of the pack in a few years, hell yes, especially with the 2020 recruits. When will Track be middle of the pack? Women's basketball? Baseball? Maybe within the same time frame as Tennis. Will they compete for ACC championships? I sure as heck hope so. Why cut Tennis now? I take our AD's comments at face value and, yes, I was given a heads-up. I don't like it but I didn't make my donations to get involved in the inner workings of the department. My joy comes from interacting with the coaches and student-athletes and sharing in their successes. Now, unfortunately, I'll share their pain.
The unintended consequences of "do gooder" gov't regulation which almost always creates a bad result!We're more concerned about the overall head count of men/women for Title IX purposes. The tennis only had 7-8 members whereas lacrosse has around 30.
People don't realize how devastating these decisions are to the coaching staff, players, and alumni. While I understand their rationale from a business perspective, there is no way for someone that cares about the athletic department and its athletes not to be very disappointed when you cut a varsity sport that has been around for 43 years and that all 14 other ACC schools sponsor. It is a very poor decision from the latter perspective, especially based on the progress of the program. We all know the colliegiate athletics game, but the hypocrisy of claiming to care about student athletes and then cut sports for business purposes is glaringly obvious to every student athlete and coach. As far as I know, there was no effort to save the program by targeted fundraising to boosters or alumni. This is a negative mark on Lyke, and there is no way around it.
Nish, did they give you the courtesy of a heads up explanation on this? I hope they did.
You've certainly have measured responses on here than I would; luckily many of the imbeciles have been on my ignore list for a long time so I have the benefit of not wasting a second on their drivel.
Are there any tennis-specifc endowed scholarships and what happens to those now?
I think we all know what motivates Bike Lane Bill. Unfortunately whoever was involved in the process didn’t know and wasn’t able to identify what his own personal win was and build the proposal into something that fit his agenda. But this isn’t the board for that. It’s too bad.No matter which mayoral administration there is, we seem to never be able to work with the city on joint facilities in Schenley.
The irony here is that it was Peduto's own staff that came to us with the proposal. If anyone would know his agenda, it would have been his staff, not Pitt.
That’s sales 101. Finding out what it was that truly was in it for him was not properly identified. Pitt should have guaranteed rainbow colored uniforms and special bathrooms that cater to the 100+ genders that we apparently have now. I’m not trying to make light of an unfortunate situation. But republicans and Dems alike would probably all agree that the plan simply wasn’t progressive enough.The irony here is that it was Peduto's own staff that came to us with the proposal. If anyone would know his agenda, it would have been his staff, not Pitt.