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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 16, 1978)
Page 6 THE BATTALION THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 1978 focus Athletic funding—who first? A&M diving program one of the casualties By MARILYN BROWN “If we do any good at all, it’s on our own.” Ron Falkenberry, Texs A&M University’s top diver, summarized A&M’s springboard diving program. Although Texas A&M has grown too fast for the athletic facilities and intramural programs to keep pace, the low spot is probably springboard diving. The divers have no coach, inadequate facilites, and a budget which consists of the leftovers from the swim team. “The pools are al ready so over used — we need another one so badly” — swim coach Dennis Fosdick. And they seem to be on the low end of the totem pole where change or improvement is concerned. According to Marvin Tate, as sociate athletic director, funds are given to swimming coach Dennis Fosdick to use as he sees fit. Fosdick said he allots about $1,500 to pay his assistants, including someone to coach the diving team. For this rea son, he is dependent on a graduate student or someone who works loc ally to coach the divers in his spare time. Thomas Falkenberry, Ron’s older brother, who also dived for Texas A&M worked with the divers last year, while attending graduate school. Fosdick said he had hoped Thomas would return this year, and when he didn’t, Fosdick “just wasn’t able to find anyone else.” “We have a small community to draw from,” Fosdick said. “Most of the people who would be interested would be people working in the P.E. department, and they prefer not to have their people working as coaches. So that leaves us with find ing someone who just happens to be interested from another depart ment. Dr. C. W. Landiss, Health and P.E. department head, said his de partment adopted that policy be cause coaching and recruiting duties interfere with the classes a coach teaches. “When a faculty member leaves, another one has to take his load for free and this is unfair,” Landiss said. Fosdick said he places more em phasis on swimming because more points can be earned in swim meets since more events can be entered with the larger number of people. He said if more money were alloted to the aquatics program it would go to new equipment and more schol arships for the swim team before it would go to diving. Tate said, however, that the ath letic department already gave the maximum number of aquatics schol arships allowed by the National Col legiate Athletic Association. Falkenberry said they have had coaches on and off for the last eight years, when his brother started di ving here, none of whom were per manent or had any authority. “They’ve never tried to build a pro gram," Falkenberry said. This year the divers have an assis tant who comes in once a week, but he knows less about diving than the divers do, and many workouts have ended up with the divers watching him and telling him his mistakes. Falkenberry said that he and Bill Sammons, another Texas A&M di ver, coach each other, but after they watch each other long enough they start missing each other's mistakes. In diving a coach is especially im portant for motivation — to push the diver to try new things and call him out of his dives. Many of the schools who wont swim here use the shallowness as an ex cuse — swim coach De nnis Fosdick “If I had someone to push me I could go a lot further,” Falkenberry said. “I’m just now doing dives I should have done three or four years ago.” Fosdick said he isn’t qualified to coach diving, and doesn’t have time to anyway. He said the divers used the athletic department’s videotape machine for awhile, and that seemed to help them. He added, however, that it had to be shared among all the team, and at present is broken. “The divers have done a good job of coaching themselves — I wish there was something I could do for them,” Fosdick said. Fosdick stressed the need for a new indoor pool. He noted the rot ting ceiling of Downs Natatorium and the murky water. “The pools are already so over used — we need another one so badly — we could double our recre ation time, offer more P.E. classes, and have more time for the swim team to work out,” Fosdick said. The pool is presently in use from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. each week day, leaving little time to expand existing programs. Many schools will not come to Texas A&M for swim meets. The deep end of Downs is only 10 feet deep, at least 4 feet too shallow to do safe 3 meter diving. Texas A&M has the finest boards made, and the outdoor pool is deep enough, .but it is too cold during the swimming season to dive outdoors. “We have grown too fast to keep up with our needs and that encom passes more than our athletic program” — Marvin Tate, associate athletic director Many of the schools who won’t swim here use the shallowness as an excuse, Fosdick said. “Some of them look at the water and ask if it alway looks like this. Little do they know it’s often worse,” he added. Last year Downs was closed dur ing the winter months to be refil tered, forcing all swimming ac tivities to the outdoor pool. The cold was especially hard on the divers, who are constantly in and out of the water. Falkenberry said he averages about 40 dives a workout. Despite the sophisticated com puterized filtering system installed in the pool, the water is still cloudy, with a greenish tinge. One im provement has lasted, however. The pool tiles were regouted and the divers no longer cut themselves when they hit the bottom. There are also conflicts at workout — the divers must wait until the swimmers finish before they can start diving. Otherwise they must inconvenience the swimmers by moving the lane ropes and diving around the swimmers, which breaks the concentration and the rhythm of the workouts. The University of Texas and Southern Methodist University have the top diving facilities in the Southwest Conference as well as full-time diving coaches, and as a re sult most of the good divers go to those schools. The southwest has produced many of the nation’s Olympic divers, and SM U coach, Brian Robbins, was a former Olym a M T •. I* 1 C pic coach. Those schools also have separate diving wells as well as more boards to avoid conflicts at workout. Scott Rich, the NCAA diving champion for the last two years, was enrolled at Texas A&M, but took one look at the facilities, withdrew and went to SMU. One of Nigeria’s top divers wrote to Texas A&M, but Fosdick sent him a reply that the University had nothing to offer him. “The divers have done a good job of coaching themselves — / wish there was something I could do for them,” — swim coach Dennis Fos dick. Fosdick does not try to recruit di vers, nor does he start the ones he has on scholarship. “We don’t have a facility for them — it’s not fair to recruit them heav ily,” Fosdick said. “By the same to ken, if a swimmer wants to major in art, I tell him this isn’t the school for him. Falkenberry, who earned a $500 scholarship this year, said that di vers must “prove themselves” be fore they receive a scholarship. Fal kenberry said he feels he has the po tential to be one of the top five or six divers in the conference. But at each meet, UT and SMU are the powerhouses, because of the programs which have been built at those schools. According to Fosdick, many people are interested in coaching the divers here, but not for the sal ary he has to offer. And he does not plan to increase that salary next year, because he plans to hire a permanent manager for the swim team. “Invariably, we 11 have to wait for the grad student who will come in and want to help, ’ Fosdick said. Tate said that his department does not have the income to spend on a sport which does not generate any. “We must make every dime we spend, Tate said. Although he recognizes the need for an improved aquatics facility, he said he doesn t know where the funds would come from to build a new natatorium. “We have grown too fast to keep up with our needs, Tate said, “and that encompasses more than our athletic program.” He cited the need,for a larger col iseum and another intramural gV ni, adding that “the administration would have to see the need for a new natatorium and find the dol lars. ” Fosdick said he felt the diving program had gone as far as it could with what it had. As for a coach next year, he said there would be one “if we can find somebody. "There are other things I d like to have a lot more, Fosdick said. Old programs take By PAIGE BEASLEY Battalion Staff Football, the only self-supporting sport, provides the financial base for all other sports within the athletic department of Texas A&M Univer sity. Over $2 million is generated by football through ticket sales and con ference surplus, said Wally Groff, assistant athletic director for busi ness affairs. Aggie Club donations for scholarships add an estimated $750,000, Groff said. Student serv ice fees, rental fees for Wofford Cain Hall, and ticket sales from basket ball baseball provide additional rev enue. He said it is still undecided, but the plan has been to eliminate Rind ing from student service fees, and have half-price ticket sales for stu dents. Funds are divided among the administration, the men’s program, and the women’s program. In turn, this is broken down among the indi vidual sports, Groff said. Distributionn of funds among the women’s and men’s programs are determined by their individual need,s and expenditures, he said. Coaches make requests and rec ommendations each year for fund ing. Needs and expenditures in clude salaries and wages, travel and lodging, food, scholarships, recruit ing, supplies, equipment, and mis cellaneous expenses, Groff said. Charles Samson, chairman of the athletic council, said that state dol lars can not be used for coaching salaries. Coaches set their budgets in ac cordance with past finances, experi ence, and records, Groff said. “If a particular sport asks for a large in crease in one area, we’d probably grant it if we could, if not, we ’ll go back to the one asking for the largest increase and cut. “We don’t base it on whether they produce anything or not, not at this point, Groff said. The men’s program supports the 3-year-old women’s program, since women’s sports have no income. Because “they are growing off the men’s program, the women’s pro gram is the larget expense item, he said. “In 1976-77, we estimated that we spent something over $214,000 in women’s athletics, Samson said. “This year, we anticipate the spend ing of something over $310,000. Next year we re looking at some thing probably over $420,000. ’’ est slice Samson said the athletic council doesn’t want the expansion of ex penditures for the women s program to be made at the expense of the men s program. “We determined this is about as much as the athletic department will be able to do, Groff said. “That doesn't mean we re not going to continue the growth of the women's program, but I think we re going to need some outside support. He added that the women s pro gram wants support to an extent, “without eroding the quality of the men’s program." , The men’s program consists of nine teams: football, basketball, baseball, tennis, golf, swimming, track, cross country, and waterpolo. The first eight are recognized by the Southwest Conference, and partici pate in conference championships, Samson said. Waterpolo is recognized by the athletic council on a year-to-year basis, with the understanding that no financial support will be given, Samson said. He said it would be better to maintain the financial base for the eight sports presently supported by the athletic department, rather than dilute the funds by giving financ support to others. “It would be ridiculous to fuels sports when you can t financy you've got now, Samson said Recognition of the waterpd team as a varsity sport makes itp) sible for the team to participate NCAA championships. Samson said that recognitiro club sports as varsity sports is substantial value and merit, butt the athletic department isnotp pared for additional funding. “If there are other sports in I future that feel they are stro enough to participate in I NCAA,” Groff said, "the team( approach the council a ’ 1 recognition. Samson said, "Wed 1 we didn’t recognize any team til has a chance of competing. The athletic department isi| ticipating an income of $3.5 mill for 1978-79, Groff said. All funds are placed intoej source. Then it is divided the individual sports and the id istration. These funds are also to pay the interest and prihcjpf Wofford Cain Hall, help expansion of Kyle Field, and topi for other facilities.
