Florida Tech rowing alumni float proposal to keep men's, women's teams at varsity level
The Florida Institute of Technology's men's and women's rowing alumni have mobilized and introduced a proposed cost-sharing plan in a bid to keep the programs afloat as varsity sports.
On June 28, university officials abruptly announced that five fall varsity sports programs would be discontinued and transitioned into club sports. That included both rowing teams, the men's and women's cross country/distance track squads, and men's golf.
In response, Friends of FIT Rowing Association conducted an emergency meeting that night. President Craig McKay said he held two multi-hour meetings last week with Travis Proctor, who chairs Florida Tech's Board of Trustees.
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Monday morning, the Friends of FIT Rowing Association forwarded Proctor a 12-page proposal detailing how the group's newly proposed $93,000 fundraising-endowment campaign could defray the teams' combined $200,000 in projected annual operating costs.
McKay hopes to deliver a formal presentation by week's end to a small group of trustees, perhaps the executive board, in hopes of relaunching the rowing teams.
But it remains unclear if the effort will work. In eliminating the varsity teams, school officials said it was a not a cost-saving measure but a strategic move. On Monday afternoon, university spokesperson Wes Sumner said, “Florida Tech has no additional comment at this time."
"It's heartbreaking," McKay, who lives in Great Falls, Virginia, said of the June 28 announcement.
"There's no comparison between a club and a varsity," said McKay, who rowed at Florida Tech from 1977-81. He rowed as a walk-on freshman, then earned scholarships the next three years — and married his wife, Sue, who was a coxswain on the women's team.
"People go to a college for the academics, but they remember the sports team, the fraternity they were in. So my memories of FIT are not my ocean engineering degree. It's the rowing and the friendships that I made, the accomplishments that we achieved," McKay said.
"That's what we did on this proposal. We worked like a boat. We've worked as a team," he said.
In its June 28 statement, the school said demoting the five varsity sports to club level was "a strategic decision to deliberately increase our competitiveness within our Sunshine State Conference” because resources were spread too thin.
Florida Tech has now cut its athletic roster to 11 SSC varsity sports.
Men's: baseball, basketball, soccer, swimming and lacrosse.
Women's: softball, basketball, soccer, swimming, lacrosse and volleyball.
Athletics Director Jamie Joss said men's and women's rowing will join the American Collegiate Rowing Association as club sports. But in its 12-page proposal, the alumni group said high school rowers "would not be expected to even apply for enrollment at Florida Tech" if the sport was just a club.
Instead, McKay said high school prospects would choose Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Georgia Tech or other varsity teams. And fees for a Florida Tech club team could cost $3,000 to $5,000 per student because of travel to high-profile major regattas in the Northeast.
The alumni proposal outlines operating budgets of $110,000 for the men's rowing team and $90,000 for the women's squad. A three-tiered alumni pledge campaign could generate $30,000 per team, with endowments covering another $16,500 each. That would reduce the university's costs to $63,500 for the men's team and $43,500 for the women's team.
McKay said targeted fundraising for capital expenses, such as new boats, may perhaps bring in another $50,000 per year.
Rowing has a 54-year heritage at Florida Tech. According to the alumni group, the university's founder and first president, Jerome Keuper, established crew in 1968 with visions of creating a program as successful as rowing at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, his alma mater.
Proctor addressed the discontinuing of five sports in the university's June 28 statement. The founder of Artemis IT, he has served on the board since 2012 and was elected chair in March 2021.
"We have carefully considered this recommendation and the board voted to approve and support this decision as it is in alignment with the university's overall objective to devote our finite resources toward strategies that will drive the achievement of excellence," Proctor said in the statement.
"Certainly, we respect that such a transition can be difficult for the directly impacted student-athletes and coaches, and it is in no way a reflection of their individual performances or efforts," Proctor said.
"Moving the identified sports to club programs rather than eliminating them underscores the university's desire to celebrate the rich history of these sports at Florida Tech while also demonstrating its increased commitment to the importance of club and intramural sports on campus," he said.
Senior men's rower Mason Yaskovic launched a "Reinstate FIT Athletics" online petition that had garnered nearly 7,000 signatures by Monday afternoon.
Rick Neale is the South Brevard Watchdog Reporter at FLORIDA TODAY (for more of his stories, click here.) Contact Neale at 321-242-3638 or rneale@floridatoday.com. Twitter: @RickNeale1
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This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Friends of FIT Rowing Association tries to save men's, women's teams
