The last six months have been a roller coaster ride, Layne Schwier, University of North Carolina Wilmington track and field assistant coach, said May 14.
In December 2014, nearly 100 UNCW track and field athletes were called away from final exam studies to be told by university officials their athletic program would be eliminated.
The decision became official in a Jan. 23 press release issued by Interim Chancellor William A. Sederburg. Recruits were released from their national letters of intent and current team members scrambled to decide whether continuing their running career at another college was worth the stress of losing credit hours and a network of classmate and professor relationships.
“I had to tell some of my fellow teammates that it would probably be better for them to transfer if they wanted to keep on running in college,” team co-captain William Bunch said, knowing as a rising senior, transferring wasn’t really an option for him to pursue himself.
Despite the apparent inevitability of the program’s elimination, many of the student-athletes chose not to transfer; and track and field supporters, parents and alumni banded together in a group called Save UNCW Track to raise money to continue the program.
Feb. 26, Sederburg announced he was impressed by the group’s efforts. He offered Save UNCW Track a chance to meet its goal. Funding issues led to the decision to cut the program, he said, so if Save UNCW Track were able to raise $250,000 by May 31, the track and field and cross-country programs could operate for one more season.
If it can meet the May 31 deadline, rising senior Meredith Bozzi said, it buys them eight months to search for a business or family to sponsor facility upgrades, because, to save the program for the long term, the group will have to raise a minimum of $800,000 by February 2016 to renovate the track and field complex.
And, Bunch added, they should be able to determine relatively quickly whether they can raise the required $800,000; either a major sponsor comes forward or it doesn’t. If it doesn’t, the student-athletes have time to search for alternate schools or come to terms with the decision, he said.
To reach the $250,000 goal, Save UNCW Track has been holding fundraisers during the past few months, such as an April 26 5k that raised between $17,000 and $18,000, Schwier said. The community support has also been tremendous, he added. Local businesses have all held events or donated part of their proceeds to Save UNCW Track.
Random acts of compassion help, too. During a recent track meet, he said, a UNCW assistant coach struck up a conversation with a parent of an athlete from another school and after the woman learned about UNCW team’s impending demise she pulled out her checkbook and donated $10,000 to the fundraising efforts.
UNCW’s opponents around the country have even put aside rivalries to rally behind the college’s track and field program, many empathizing with the fear of having their sport deemed not worth a school’s cost to continue.
One college started a petition to save UNCW’s track and field program and it was passed around to other institutions around the country, Bunch said. During a recent UNCW track meet, he added, the team’s opponents began stopping by the concession stand and paying $5 for a $1 candy bar when they found out proceeds would help save the program.
Schwier said he is hopeful Save UNCW Track will meet its May 31 fundraising goal, with several raffles ongoing and pledges still rolling in.
Bozzi said rather than being discouraged or distracted by the events of the last six months, the team has been motivated. The determination fueled by fighting to save their program carried over into their meets, she said. The fundraisers have only brought them closer.
She’s a rising senior, but that doesn’t lessen her desire to save the program, not just for her own senior year, but for her younger teammates’ senior years.
“What I’ve gotten from track, I’ve loved every moment of it, and if we don’t save the program I feel like they’re all so robbed,” she said. “What I’ve gotten from the program … is so special, I just hope that they can experience it.”
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