SF State sports teams weathered the budget storm last spring and begin the fall semester anxiously awaiting the recommendation by the Task Force on the Future of SFSU Athletics. With the students voting down the athletic referendum in March, the administration had to cut $1.4 million from it’s budget and chose to eliminate five team sports and restructured the rest.

After cutting women’s tennis, women’s volleyball, women’s and men’s swimming and men’s track and field, SF State is left with 11 sport teams. Four of the 11 teams will be considered top tier, women’s soccer, softball, wrestling and baseball, with full-time coaches and the responsibility of recruiting, fundraising and academic monitoring. The remaining seven will be considered second tier with coaches workloads reduced by 40 percent and salary cuts.

The teams were rated top or second tier based on how economically and efficiently the teams operated according to a press release from the SF State Office of Public Affairs from last spring.

“I think we are holding up pretty well in the face of the budget situation as well as can be expected,” said Mike Simpson, SF State’s athletic director. “It was a tumultuous time at the end of the year. We‘re all a little nervous waiting to see how it‘s going to work. How are we going to do with part-time coaches? Can we, as a group, pull it together?”

A range of reaction rippled through the department over the cuts, according to Simpson, who thought the situation had brought the department closer together despite everything that happened. SF State did lose the women’s basketball coach and women’s track coach, who left in the off season for other jobs. Heather Sisneros, SF State’s former volleyball coach, unsuccessfully tried to save the volleyball program over the summer through petitions and emails to SF State President Robert Corrigan.

In the off season the remaining teams had a hard time recruiting new athletes with less staff and the uncertainty of the program. “We had to put a lot of things on hold,” said Simpson. “The whole process slowed down.”
Despite hardships and setbacks, the athletics department forges into the fall semester hopeful and awaiting the Task Force’s recommendation to Corrigan, who has the final decision.