2 more universities ditch swimming

Leslie, It is true that Rutgers is going to drop Men's Swimming after this year (along with 4 other mens sports and one womens sport). My daughter just started there as a freshman and she didn't consider any schools that didn't have a men's team for a number of reasons including the desire to train with them. She is quite upset. There is additional information at www.saverutgersswimming.org/ For all those living in NJ, please let your opinion be known. The Board of Governors will meet tomorrow but it is not clear who, if anyone, will be able to speak. The NJ Assembly Committee on Higher Education will meet next week to discuss the issue. So go to their website: www.njleg.state.nj.us/.../Assembly.asp and let the members of the committee know what you think. Also let your own representative know. Remember that a number of members of the Board of Governors are appointed by the governor and confirmed by the legislature to represent YOU! I have to be careful here since I am an officer of USMS and I believe that I can't turn this forum into a political vehicle to advocate for something that may turn political. You can guess where I stand, especially after I heard that the AD said that wrestling would be spared because wrestling is a much bigger sport in NJ! Leo

2 more examples of how Title IX needs to be updated - How old is that law anyways?! This is truly an unintended byproduct of compliance, and hopefully the NCAA will soon come up with some better compliance measures that do not have adverse effects on the rest of a University's athletic program. Also, think of this from the perspective of a male athlete at a small school... If you dont play football, basketball has room for only 12 players. After that, sport selection is slim pickings - maybe 1 or 2 others per season - and getting smaller. If only there were folks hanging around the NCAA Compliance dept who realized that swimming is one of the few sports where most of these collegiate athletes have a successful, popular, widely known amateur arena in which they may continue to showcase their skills for the remainder of their lives.

All I have to do is read your post a few more times the next time I complain about a 4 hour swim meet for my kids. Thanks for the information, must be the same all over. With soccer, at what age do they teach the kids to act like they were shot by a cannon and whine to the refs every time an opposing team player gets within 2 feet of them?

I am, whoops WAS, a travel soccer parent. But I refuse to drive a mini-van. There are some parents that grumble about the time commitment. I wasn't particularly fond of it myself. But, in my experience, I have found parents love travel soccer, they clamor around to get their kids on the best teams even if they have to drive forever. They know every team's record, how many goals have been scored against them the last calendar year and the team's national ranking. (I ask you, how can you meaningfully rank a soccer team with 10-11 year old girls?!). But to be good at soccer, you do have to practice a lot. The girls on my daughter's FORMER team are up to 4-5 practices a week and mandatory away camps in the summer. They now have mandatory Sat. morning video sessions where they review tapes and talk strategy. Daily juggling is not negotiable. I could go on. Suffice it to say, this year we reached the breaking point and my daughter picked swimming. My younger daughter will never play travel soccer as a result of the torture inflicted on me from that sport. I'm sure I'll be in trouble with other soccer moms too. Not a soccer mom, although my son played 3 years in HS(the bus took him to away meets, not me), but the time commitment for swimming is just as deep. Driving in from out of town 4-5 days a week, 3 day swim meets, with a minimum drive of 2 hours, because there just are not a lot of meets close, except our own. Spending 12 hours *3 days running our own meets. From what I see of soccer clubs and swimming clubs, pretty comparable on the time spent. And there are the swim moms, who know every competitor in their child's age group too, so again comparable. And to the subject at hand, one reason my son quit swimming was because the Universities he considered did not have men's swimming, so he did not see the point to continue the hard work, and chose other things to occupy his time. I hope someday he will do masters and swim a relay with me, because he would be quite good in Masters.

This is a possibly politically incorrect statement - but I think they should find a nice way to highlight how nice it is to train with attractive girls wearing lycra. Keep more older boys in the sport! Just an example of things they can do.... . This was one of the pluses my son gave for staying with the sport, when he was weighing his options! Leslie, I never was around the year round soccer parents, and the High School soccer parents were very nice. Most swim parents are nice, but there are always a few nuts in any sport.

Yeah, I was thinking Michael Phelps attracts the female swimmer more than the male. There are quite a few really cute swimming girls. I think the boys would have to be blind not to notice them!

I helped indoctrinate my boys about swimmer girls! I always liked them, even with broad shoulders. Not the 70s-era East Germans though. No muffin tops on the girls my boys seem to like..... I do think many girls like the looks of swimmer boys. They like lean bodies with broad shoulders and bleached out hair. That was my boy, now his hair is a lot darker, it was white blonde.

What's a "muffin top?" More importantly, as to John Smith's point, why is it that everyone in the US loves and watches swimming during the Olympics, but is utterly disinterested in it any other time? P.S. Swimmer boys are very cute. So are crew jocks (my husband).

I have no axe to grind for soccer. My kids all played it for several years. My two boys followed the typical path for swimmers - summer league for two years, start year round, now in high school. In general I favor any active sports for our otherwise fat population. I think the bigger problem is inactivity. We're not losing male swimmers to soccer or basketball. We're losing them to TV, video games, etc. My sons' high school swim team has 14 boys, 23 girls. One interesting thing is that there are more "fast" boys than girls based on swimming ability. Many of the girls are mediocre swimmers and seem to be on the team as much for the social aspects as the athletics. At least one or two are swimming to keep their weight down. Back to boys - I think USA Swimming is naive if they think they don't have a problem attracting boys to the sport. I'm not sure they think that. But I think we need to do much much more. We need more visibility for the sport. Phelps, Crocker, Peirsol, Cullen Jones, are all great for the sport. We need to do more to promote how fantastic swimming is - you CAN become rich and famous as a swimmer. This is a possibly politically incorrect statement - but I think they should find a nice way to highlight how nice it is to train with attractive girls wearing lycra. Keep more older boys in the sport! Just an example of things they can do.... These swimmers, and their parents, are the ones who will stay fans of swimming and give colleges a reason to think twice before they cancel another men's program.

What's a "muffin top?" More importantly, as to John Smith's point, why is it that everyone in the US loves and watches swimming during the Olympics, but is utterly disinterested in it any other time? P.S. Swimmer boys are very cute. So are crew jocks (my husband). Muffin top - think low waisted jeans that are too tight and blub hanging over like the top of a muffin over the tin.:D