College athletes-No experience needed

[Bub]

Latest from UNH, cutting 4 sports including womens crew to save $. This quote from one of the crew co-captains:

co-captain of the women's crew team, said the team is "devastated," especially the freshman who came to UNH because of the rowing program. She said that because most high schools don't have crew teams, UNH offers students a unique chance to learn a sport while competing at a high college level.


Was this a scholarship sport? It struck me as odd that one could go to college and be an athlete, perhaps on scholarship, in a sport you had never participated in. Just wondering.

[Third and Long]

I have always wondered about hockey. How many high schools have hockey teams?

[Tod]

I can't speak for every western state, but I believe that high school hockey is pretty big in North Dakote, but it comes to a screaching halt right at the Montana border. I think it has to do with sharing a border with Minnesota, since Montana and ND both share the border with Canada. The combo does it. Just a hunch.

[walliver]

Was this a scholarship sport? It struck me as odd that one could go to college and be an athlete, perhaps on scholarship, in sport you had never participated in. Just wondering.

This is quite common, especially in women's sports where schools are trying to keep up with Title IX. I have read of situations where young women have been given golf scholarships if they promise to start playing golf and take lessons once they start school.

[UNH_Alum_In_CT]

Can't tell you if Women's Crew was a scholarship sport, will try to find out. I do know there were quite a few members on that team.

The cuts at UNH were to Men's and Women's Tennis, Men's Swimming, Women's Crew and 15 members from the Men's Skiing team. While obviously not huge on the national scene, Skiing is an NCAA Tournament Team for UNH and our AD called skiing the official state sport of NH so those cuts hurt.

UNH enrollment is 57% female which makes Title IX compliancy that much more difficult with the 63 football scholarships. Even having scholarship sports (volleyball, field hockey, lacrosse and gymnastics) with no male counterparts wasn't enough.

As for HS hockey, there are quite a few programs at the public high schools in New England as well as at just about all of the prep schools. Like Football though, the UNH hockey team relies primarily on out of staters.

[ngineer]

Not unusual for certain sports that don't have a hs base. Ice Hockey and Crew are two sports that don't have a huge hs base to pull from except for limited regions of the country. My daughter joined the crew team as a freshman without any experience, but took to it very well and ended up starting on the 'womens freshman eight' which placed at the Frostbite Regatta and one other on the Schuylkill in Philadelphia. Athletics provide a great outlet and avenue for students for the break from academic pressures. A number of schools have added crew for women to help balance out a Title IX imbalance, especially for schools with all-male sports (that don't have a female equivalent) like football and wrestling.

[TexasTerror]

Was this a scholarship sport? It struck me as odd that one could go to college and be an athlete, perhaps on scholarship, in a sport you had never participated in. Just wondering.

It's not uncommon...

There is a novice division in crew and this is where most of these athletes compete until they move up. I know a girl that was quite an athlete in HS and she had never been in a row boat or whatever they're called. Now she competes for SMU in rowing and she's loving it...

[AmsterBison]

I can't speak for every western state, but I believe that high school hockey is pretty big in North Dakote...

HS hockey isn't that big in ND, but it's bigger than it used to be.For example, there are only 18 hockey teams in the whole state now (it used to be 10 or 12) vs 48 wrestling teams and 100+ football teams.

However, those who like hockey,*really* like hockey. Like zombies like brains.

[bobcatfan06]

Title IX is a load of crap. That is all.

[ASU Kep]

Title IX is absolute s--t. There are now no college wrestling teams in the entire state of Georgia because of it. J Robinson (HC of Minnesota Wres) ran my wrestling camps through HS and used to tell us the ridiculous things his university had to do in order to keep their wrestling program. Since they had to spend equal $$$ on women's sports, often times the wrestlers drove cross-country to meets on their own dime while the university flew all the women's teams around the country (even sports where they indeed recruited freshman girls to play even if they had never before). It's horses--t and it's KILLING college athletics. I know wrestling and gymnastics (mens) have been hurt the worst, but it seems Title IX has reared it's ugly head elsewhere as well.

Although I think perhaps Title IX was drafted in good intentions (women should indeed have the same athletic oppurtunities as men) any reasonable person knows that per capita more men than women are interested in sports and participating in athletics on the collegiate level. Mens sports often cost more, but the interest and support are almost always significantly higher. This should be taken into account. If I remember correctly, it's the "proportianality" clause of Title IX, only enforced recently, that has been doing the most severe damage. Should women's sports be afforded the oppurtunity to participate in the same sort of tournaments and such that men do? Absolutely. But should a university have to field some BS women's scholarship underwater BB stacking team just so they can spend cash on a sport that at least some people appreciate like men's wrestling? It's ridiculous.

[Hammerhead]

I think you only had to win on play-in game to make it to the state hockey championships in N.D. when I was in high school during the 80s.

Hockey was always bigger in Minnesota in all sizes of towns with about 169 boys teams. Warroad and Roseau, up near the Canadian border, can usually be compettive with the largest Twin Cities suburbian schools even though each town has only a few thousand residents.




HS hockey isn't that big in ND, but it's bigger than it used to be.For example, there are only 18 hockey teams in the whole state now (it used to be 10 or 12) vs 48 wrestling teams and 100+ football teams.

However, those who like hockey,*really* like hockey. Like zombies like brains.