eschwent Posted February 25, 2006 Share Posted February 25, 2006 hi It is a sad day for me. In December, I resigned as head mens and womens golf coach at SLU. I apologize to all former and current players if my resignation made it more convenient or precipitated in anyway this classless decision. We started womens golf two years ago, if I had known this would happen, that i would recruit these players to attend SLU, with no athletic scholarship money, I would never had recuited them. I have 4 other girls who were coming in as freshmen next year, I apologize to you as well. They say that they will distribute the golf funds to help up to "6 other programs". What a joke. My womens operating budget was $16,000.00 for the year. My mens operating budget was $26,000.00. They paid me (rounded up $26,000 per year to coach both teams). The women received no athletic scholarship money and the mens team got around $88,000.00per year or roughly 2.5 equivalencies. The NCAA limit is 4.5/year (and 6.0 for women} I wrote this note too publicly apologize to all former players and to the current players! Not to state how classless and incompetent this current administration is and how lucky we will be when Stanford calls (please call soon). Ed Schwent Former Head Golf Coach Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Billsboys Posted February 25, 2006 Share Posted February 25, 2006 >hi > >It is a sad day for me. In December, I resigned as head mens >and womens golf coach at SLU. I apologize to all former and >current players if my resignation made it more convenient or >precipitated in anyway this classless decision. We started >womens golf two years ago, if I had known this would happen, >that i would recruit these players to attend SLU, with no >athletic scholarship money, I would never had recuited them. > I have 4 other girls who were coming in as freshmen next >year, I apologize to you as well. > >They say that they will distribute the golf funds to help up >to "6 other programs". What a joke. My womens operating >budget was $16,000.00 for the year. My mens operating >budget was $26,000.00. They paid me (rounded up $26,000 per >year to coach both teams). The women received no athletic >scholarship money and the mens team got around $88,000.00per >year or roughly 2.5 equivalencies. The NCAA limit is >4.5/year (and 6.0 for women} > >I wrote this note too publicly apologize to all former >players and to the current players! Not to state how >classless and incompetent this current administration is and >how lucky we will be when Stanford calls (please call soon). > >Ed Schwent >Former Head Golf Coach Ed, thanks for the post. I personally know you and know you did what is best for you. No one blames you that knows the current situation in the athletic department. One warning for future reference, most of the guy's on this board don't really understand how things work in the athletic department. Don't take anything personal. It's actually amusing to listen to some of these guy's arm chair quarterback everything. My advice is to never come back on the board, you are to good of a guy to get caught up in this crap this board usually spouts off. Good luck in your new job and don't look back my friend! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davidnark Posted February 25, 2006 Share Posted February 25, 2006 What the heck is going on with the athletic department? This move makes zero sense from the perspective of someone with little understanding of the department. Will someone who understands the situation please post (anonymously) more information? This situation makes the AD look amateurish to outsiders. BTW, I thought the men's golf team just had their best season ever. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Billsboys Posted February 25, 2006 Share Posted February 25, 2006 >What the heck is going on with the athletic department? >This move makes zero sense from the perspective of someone >with little understanding of the department. Will someone >who understands the situation please post (anonymously) more >information? > >This situation makes the AD look amateurish to outsiders. > >BTW, I thought the men's golf team just had their best >season ever. Nark, honestly I don't have the time to get into it. Needless to say this is one more incident that is very troublesome. There is a long list of things that I could comment on. About a year ago I posted a very long post that outlined a lot of the problems but I was considered by the posters to have a negative perspective. The things that many don't understand that there is a lot of negativity in the department. You probably won't hear it at a billiken club meeting or any coach talking about it in public but it's there and the coaches and staff know about it. Enough said! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mystery_man Posted February 25, 2006 Share Posted February 25, 2006 OK, First of all, for those of you who believe that was Ed Schwent you are incredibly gullible. No coach would ever diss the institutution they were leaving like that because it makes it incredibly hard to get a new job, and secondly golf fans (and players) don't read this board so apologizing to them here would serve no purpose. Next, the reason for this move was to allow the cross country program to more effectively recruit. Cheryl announced this move 2 months ago at a Billikens Club meeting. She stated that the CC coach was having trouble recruiting because we didn't have a track team. For those of you wondering, we will have no sprinters and no field events, our team will focus solely on long distance (unless we get walk-ons to enter other events). Finally, what's wrong with focusing our money and time in a program that people actually care about (and support)? I supported the golf team because they were from SLU but how many people attended their matches? The basketball and (some years) soccer teams bring in the money so why not focus the majority of our funds in that direction? Also, we just started our women's program 2 years ago but there was no scholarship money so don't tell me we're ruining people's futures and this was a classless move. They can still play club golf and transfer if they wish, but they're not losing any scholarship money so it shouldn't affect their lives that drastically. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Billsboys Posted February 25, 2006 Share Posted February 25, 2006 >OK, > >First of all, for those of you who believe that was Ed >Schwent you are incredibly gullible. No coach would ever >diss the institutution they were leaving like that because >it makes it incredibly hard to get a new job, and secondly >golf fans (and players) don't read this board so apologizing >to them here would serve no purpose. Next, the reason for >this move was to allow the cross country program to more >effectively recruit. Cheryl announced this move 2 months >ago at a Billikens Club meeting. She stated that the CC >coach was having trouble recruiting because we didn't have a >track team. For those of you wondering, we will have no >sprinters and no field events, our team will focus solely on >long distance (unless we get walk-ons to enter other >events). Finally, what's wrong with focusing our money and >time in a program that people actually care about (and >support)? I supported the golf team because they were from >SLU but how many people attended their matches? The >basketball and (some years) soccer teams bring in the money >so why not focus the majority of our funds in that >direction? Also, we just started our women's program 2 >years ago but there was no scholarship money so don't tell >me we're ruining people's futures and this was a classless >move. They can still play club golf and transfer if they >wish, but they're not losing any scholarship money so it >shouldn't affect their lives that drastically. What you failed to realize is that Ed already has a job and secondly he does not need SLU for anything else. Lastly, it was a piss poor excuse to cut the golf program. I personally could care less if SLU had a golf program or not. To say they are going to use those monies to go to other programs is a joke. Soccer and BBall won't see a dime of that money. Seems like you are the gullible one. Track will cost more money and as stated before SLU has several current sports that are highly underfunded. The last thing we need is another underfunded program. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Taj79 Posted February 25, 2006 Share Posted February 25, 2006 First of all, decisions have to be made .... all the time. Those decisions will be good (to those that like the outcome), bad (to those that don't like the outcome) and indifferent (to those that have no stake in the decision, or don't care, or have other items in the tank occupying their limited supply of gas). It happens all the time. Dissension happens in all programs, all walks of life. You deal with it or move on. To be cliche, if you're not part of the problem, be a part of the solution. Yes, there are those in charge that made the majority of decisions and that's why they get the big bucks. Or so it seems. Decisions, like cutting hockey or dropping the program to a lower Division of play, can and have been met with outcry and reevaluation. Frankly, as far as golf is concerned, I don't recall us ever being a power and to some extent, even a nominal player. I don't know of too many schools located above the warm weather climes that are. I could be wrong but like I said, its probably the indifference. Is that sport at SLU because of Title IX or other considerations? Do we have to carry so many D1 sports for a reason? If so, then that's a wrong reason to have anything. As for track and field or even cross country .. again, call me in the indifferent realm. I sincerely doubt I would have a change in heart even if we won a national title in it eventually. But there have been some who welcome and trumphet the addition. Ho-hum, so what says I. I understand its tough to run a program on a shoe-string, and then be given a band-aid and two popsicle sticks and be told to use it as a splint. But know thy enemy and in this case, know the situation. Did someone expect something more? From a Division 1 basketball program that practices and recruits from a building who's only existence remains because of a national historic landmark designation? I know it hurts and I don't know Ed but have no ill will and wish him well. Does the alma mater have warts? Sure .. show me one that doesn't. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cheeseman Posted February 25, 2006 Share Posted February 25, 2006 Mystery Man - you raise an interesting point. Nark - you capsulized what happens everyday in life even at academic organizations not just business. Billsboy - you are correct, I have no knowledge of the inner workings of the AD dept at SLU but I did oversee the AD program for a major school district with four 5A high schools so I have a little understanding about how this works. I have seen new people come in and upset the apple cart and piss people off. Normally, what I have seen is that the apple cart gets upset because somebody at the top is not happy with the status quo and that is their perogative. I do believe that the reason SLU offered golf was to meet our NCAA requirements to be D1 - that is why we have to replace it with something. I also know several years ago, someone close to me who applied for the head golf coach job at SLU and even though he was selected, he did say that the way the job was set up it was always going to be a token sport which worked for his particular situation. It is always sad to loose a sport - I saw this when we decided to drop gymnasitics - you would have thought the world was coming to an end. While the money we saved was redistributed and did not seem all that much in the whole picture, I can tell you that the other sports who got even $1000 more were happy. If the SLU dept is full of people with low morale then they have options. I had a new boss once who was very difficult for me to swallow but I knew I had options - leave or soldier up. I soldiered up and eventually he stepped on enough toes to get himself in trouble. If CL is doing the same thing then eventually that will happen to her - nature of the beast. If her decisions are good that will in time win out in her favor. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LoveforVouk Posted February 25, 2006 Share Posted February 25, 2006 Once again SLU has showed that they are a joke. We won't to be good at sports without spending money or using effort. We want great players just to show up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MusicCityBilliken Posted February 25, 2006 Share Posted February 25, 2006 I had an opportunity to watch the Golf team at the CUSA Tourney last spring here on the Mississippi Coast. I happen to like and play golf. Univ of So Miss was the host and it was played at the Golden Bear (a beautiful course) in Gulfport. I did not think they were all that bad. They had some very stiff competition with Houston, Tulane, UAB and So FL. Now in the A10 (with schools that are in similiar climates and have similiar financial constraints), I think they be very competitive. Also, why dump the sport if it needs so little overhead? I think the person who wrote the above is not the coach (maybe a player) but I do believe the figures are correct. Its too bad we have to do this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheA_Bomb Posted February 25, 2006 Share Posted February 25, 2006 Changes in leadership always bring about adjustements for those in the administration. By adding track, we add more sports but have the same scholarship kids compete in those events thus saving scholarhsip money and running shoes are probably cheaper than green fees and clubs. Not that big of an issue as it is being made out to be. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Box and Won Posted February 25, 2006 Share Posted February 25, 2006 nm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trich Posted February 25, 2006 Share Posted February 25, 2006 This entire golf episode is certainly an interesting development and one I do not understand. For personal reasons I prefer golf but I do not know or pretend to know what is best for the school's atheletic program. I know Ed fairly well but have not talked to him since these developments. He enjoyed coaching the golf team and was looking forward to being in the A10 because he felt SLU could be more competitive. I know he also enjoyed his entire Billiken experience. Occasionally, when I would go to a basketball practice we would meet there and talk Billiken hoops. "MysteryMan" raises an interesting point about this being a bogus post by somebody with an agenda who is posting under Ed's name. I am not sure that can be ruled out because this is out of Ed's character. However, he may also be so frustrated that he wanted to post his side of the story. I do know the loss of Ed will be a loss to the University. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Billsboys Posted February 25, 2006 Share Posted February 25, 2006 This is true. If someone posted using someone elses name then they should immediately be baned. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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