VA INTERMONT FIRES COACH, ELIMINATES TRACK XC

Hi everyone.

I apologize for having to notify you of this through email, but we wanted to get the news to you as quickly as possible.

As you know, there have been discussions of restructuring within the college. The Board of Trustees has had to make some tough decisions in the last few days.

As a result, our men’s and women’s track/cross country and men’s and women’s soccer programs are being eliminated. Athletic scholarships for these specific sports have also been eliminated.

Please understand that these decisions were no reflection of you or your coaches, and that they were necessary for the financial health of the college. If you plan to return in the fall, contact the Financial Aid office for assistance with other forms of financial aid.

We will assist you with any transfer requests as needed. Contact me or Coach Holt in the Athletics Office with your questions.

Heather M. Conley

Athletics Director

Virginia Intermont College

1013 Moore Street

Bristol, Virginia 24201

phone: 276-466-7940

fax: 276-466-7164

so why are soccer and track the first ones to go for any school? just curious since at our school soccer, cc & Track, and Equine were the only programs which could go beyond the conference level(and this is NAIA people and our conference is probably the worst in the nation). Wouldn't it make more sense to cut the weakest programs and keep the ones that promote the school.

Let me just throw this out there because I know that MANY of you are thinking this...as sad as it is that the runners are not able to compete...this is what happens when a program like VIC comes out of nowhere. It simply was/is one of those flash in the pan programs that came out of nowhere with no stability to the program or the school. There is hardly one person that I know of out there in the NAIA who is either a coach or an athlete that could not say that this was just a matter of time. Here is a program in their first year wins an NAIA Championship when prior till then...nobody had ever seen them at the NAIA Championships. The programs that I see are the most respected programs in the NAIA are the ones that have built a program the correct way and that are always going to send teams to the NAIA Nationals and compete long after the VIC's, Lubbock's, Life's, and Cal Baptist's. Schools like APU, Malone, Cedarville, Indiana Wesleyan, and Westmont. These are the programs that are well established where athletes are recruited, get a college degree, compete at the same school all 4 years, and in the end have an immense loyalty to the school, to their coach, and to their team. These are the teams that are getting it done year after year. These types of programs are the ones that hold respect...NAIA or NCAA...flash in the pan programs just don't hold the respect that other schools do. So...because of this...their are a lot of people that our out there smirking because of the latest incidents with VIC that could already see if coming years ago.

Also...there was a post a while back that was trashing the NAIA as being a B grade (or whatever his statment was)in talent...Might I jog your short memory of a few NAIA folks in TF that have done well as of late...Jenn Stucynski of Roberts Wesleyan in the Pole Vault, Brian Clay of APU...I believe he had the silver medal in the dec at Athens, and another one that same Olympics would have been Tim Mack of Malone...gold medal in the PV. Oh...and does Mike Rogers have the fastest 100 time right now (or at least one of the fastest!)at 10.07!

vi runner wrote:

so why are soccer and track the first ones to go for any school? just curious since at our school soccer, cc & Track, and Equine were the only programs which could go beyond the conference level(and this is NAIA people and our conference is probably the worst in the nation). Wouldn't it make more sense to cut the weakest programs and keep the ones that promote the school.

Unfortunately, in the NAIA, a program that goes to nationals only costs the instituition more money because unlike the NCAA, the NAIA does not pay travel expenses. Also, in the NAIA, basketball and XC are the two highest scholarshiped programs. Not in total number of scholarships, but in percentage of athletes that compete at one time. i.e. 5 basketballl players on the court and 7 xc runners on the course. As a result, these programs which usually maintain a low cost of operation (travel only), have a very low level of "cash bring" to the instituition.

I think the situation facing VI sucks and in no way am I in support of the actions. I am trying to be objective concerning the nuts & bolts of the problem and shed some light as why some administrations look to xc & track first when cuts are considered. They are the two sports that consistantly send athletes to nationals due to the posibility of individual qualification.

iran wrote:

I hope you all sent an e-mail to the admin. about these terrible actions.

Why? What would that accomplish?

It seems though that even if they raised the money they are not allowed to go. Simmons is not allowed to officially enter in the meet as he is not a school representative. The same goes for travel. There are tons of liability issues to send people across the country with no representative from your school. That is actually against the rules. I am not trying to say they should not go but I am just wondering how this will work.

Are people going to get their money back when none of these guys even end up traveling to nationals? To everyone saying "email the administration", I think they are well aware people are not happy. However, they have slightly bigger issues to contend with.

People at VI shouldn't be emailing the administration in protest. They should be emailing JMU to transfer. And not just for running, but so they don't have a completely worthless degree from a school that no longer exists in a couple of years. Get out now while you can.

Employer: So, where did you go to school?

VIC alum: I went to Virginia Intermont College

Employer: Virginia Intermont? Haven't heard of them.

VIC alum: Well, the school closed down a couple of years ago. Had financial troubles. They didn't even let us go to nationals for track.

Employer: Hmmmm sounds like a fine institution. And you went there? Thanks for coming in [door shuts]

Sure, whatever - private schools businesses, and business owners know the reality of business "things don't always go as planned". I have worked for 2 companies that have gone out of business - employers know these things.Stop pi$$ing on VIC, you likely ran for VIC too, something bad happened and now you are a sour puss. This is just like guys who bash gays, most are simply fighting their own latent homosexuality.

no money no honey wrote:

Employer: So, where did you go to school?

VIC alum: I went to Virginia Intermont College

Employer: Virginia Intermont? Haven't heard of them.

VIC alum: Well, the school closed down a couple of years ago. Had financial troubles. They didn't even let us go to nationals for track.

Employer: Hmmmm sounds like a fine institution. And you went there? Thanks for coming in [door shuts]

Couple of interesting quotes in the newspaper article.

1. The programs were targeted because of operating expenses and the high levels of tuition assistance the athletes receive, he said.

Tends to support the thought that Simmons was overspending his budget in travel and/or scholarship aid.

Response from simmons

Scott Simmons, who coached the track and cross-country programs to a string of national championships, claims his athletes represented more than $500,000 in tuition revenue for the school.

Maybe so, maybe not. It costs approximately 25,000 in tuition to go to school there, so this would add up to 20 athletes paying full. THere are only 33 athletes total on the internet roster (48 according to the media guide which is no longer available online). But of those 48, 44 are from outside the area. AT LEAST 20 of these are from far enough away and have other assumed circumstances that would tend to make you believe that they have AT LEAST half, if not more, of their costs covered. Arguably, a certain percentage of the other 28 have 1/4 to 1/2 of their costs covered and a very small percentage are paying their own way. This scenario is one that exists at ALL schools, no matter what the tuition level.

SOOOOOO, when you do all the math, the Gross Revenue would be 1.2 million if all 48 were paying full tuition. If we go through a similar ratio that has been at the three schools where I have coached about 13 of these runners will be full tuition, 11 will be 75%, 9 will be 50% and 7 will be 25% and 8 will be getting nothing. NOTE - This is just tuition, your 100% scholarshiped athletes are also getting money for housing, etc... which is a cost out, but not an income in. When doing this math you get almost 700,000 of scholarship (therefore the 500,000 revenue figure given by Simmons).

BUT.... you have to take out salaries and benefits, cost of the program that does not include scholarship (travel, equipment, etc...), so in fact the school may be coming out ahead financially with the program. As well as these students are taking up spots in classes where professors need to be paid, etc... WIth a number of 48 on the roster, this is likely two full classes = equals two professor (simplifying the math) - so what does it cost for two full time faculty, benefits, classrooms, overhead, etc...

Aside from the math, I think I was likely generous the amounts of scholarship. IT would not surprise me that most if not all of the high end, high risk athletes were getting everything covered other than what their pell grants would cover. NOTE - international students can't get pell and their internet roster has at least 6 international athletes.

I am doing a lot of guessing here, wish there was a college adminstrator that understands cost benefits of students better to give a real picture of what each student costs a school versus what they bring in.

Only four athletes were international. Simmons never went a penny over budget.

I COUNT SIX.

Cheromei - Kenya

Chipsorir - Kenya

Neff - Canada

Neff - Canada

Volf - Croatia

Lo - Hong Kong

Plus - there are 15 athletes on the media guide that is no longer viewable that are not listed on the online roster. Would guess that at least one or two are international.

ALSO

Not going over your bugdet doesn't necessarily mean you aren't costing your school money.

ESPECIALLY when national travel is usually NOT a part of the "regular" budget and the NAIA reimburses ZERO to schools for natioanl travel in XC, Indoor and Outdoor.

we have 2 assistant coaches that can be the representatives at nationals and from the e-mails we have received they are still employeed and working with the administration on nationals.

To the people doing all the math and stuff, please don't waste your time because intermont runners are extremly happy that they canceled our program. Some of us werent happy that they cut our budget couple of weeks before nationals but hey its life. It wasn't the best place for education as well. We just want to run nationals and move on from VIC. most of my teammates werent going to return next year anyways and there were no new recruits so it made sense for the school to dropt the program.

you forgot peter muldoon from Ireland

Quotinator wrote:

I am doing a lot of guessing here, wish there was a college adminstrator that understands cost benefits of students better to give a real picture of what each student costs a school versus what they bring in.

Dr. Michael Pugilisi reported xc/tf operating expenses of $74,920 for 05-06 with 37 total athletes (26 men and 11 women).

Average coaching salary for the department was $45,000 for full time and $9,000 for assistants. Average athletic scholarship for the department was $7900. (no specific numbers for xc/tf)

Simplified greatly-

Assuming xc/tf didnt go over the NAIA scholarship limits the team was not losing money in direct costs. Tuition revenue for 37 athletes is $925000, if they maxed out scholarship to the NAIA limits xc/tf would have scholarship expenses of $700000 leaving $225000. Subtract the ~$125000 for operating and coaching expenses and you are left with $100,000 (about $2700 per student). The question is what is the marginal cost of having 37 additional students at the school.

It looks like Intermont is scheduled (at least Elkanna) to compete at Georgia Tech this weekend.

Will that come out of the post-season fund or is Simmons paying his way?

A few guys will be running in Nashville this weekend too.

so who's going to nationals? where are the vi guys?

It is still being sorted out and you'll get better information from Scott Simmons and the web site

www.snakesonaplanetonationals.com

.

Note that the powers that be at Virginia Intermont College have eliminated Ms/Ws track and Ms soccer teams have been sacked. I'm surprised no one has noticed it and find it ironic that the campus will be lily white except for the basketball team which actually generates revenue by being the whipping post of the Appalacias for teams like Winthrop which need a pre-season tune-up. They are so underwhelming the VIC sprinters nearly beat them once in an impromptu scrimmage.

Sure it's easy to suggest financial difficulties, but it just makes me wonder what their ulterior motives are.

dont worry man, you'll see us at nationals

Friends and Donors of VIC Track,

First, on behalf of the Virginia Intermont College track team, I want

to

thank you for your donations and support.

As of this past Saturday, your donations supported the purchase of

round

trip air tickets for our entire team of 18 qualified athletes and two

assistant coaches. The team will be flying from Charlotte, NC to San

Jose

on May 22nd. The hardest part is done!

What remains is for us to raise around $3500 to cover local van rentals

and housing for the championships and the balance of air tickets on

Petra’s credit cards. If you or someone you know was hesitant to

give, or

give a larger amount because of a concern that the goal might not be

reached, we ask again for any support whatsoever. Donations are still

being accepted online at

www.snakesonaplanetonationals.com

Pass on the word that the Cobras will be in Fresno!

In other news, the Bristol Herald Courier News published my letter to

the

editor clarifying the situation and making a public appeal for funds.

Here

is the link:

http://www.tricities.com/tristate/tri/opinions/letters.apx.-content-articles-TRI-2007-05-12-0004.html

Recent results: Elkana Chepsiror wins Georgia Tech 800 in 1:48.72 and

Renata Volf improves her 1500 PR from 4:42 to 4:37.39

Thank you again for you donations. Your support shows the greatest good

of

the running community.

Scott Simmons & VIC Track Team