ASU Men's Swimming/Diving Cut

I normally ignore these posts of schools cutting a swimming program, as I didn't swim in college myself, and many times have no idea where some of these schools even are located. I think of swimming as an, "extra-curricular activity," where the focus of college should be on going to class and getting a degree. But in this case, there is so much more going on, and since I swim with the masters team at ASU, I'm commenting. The story about this was on the front page of the local newspaper today, "The Arizona Republic,": www.azcentral.com/.../0514boivinasu0514.html I think Paul Smith may have posted that same story, but wanted to re-iterate how this is HUGE news not only for ASU and/or swimming, but for the Phoenix area, and Arizona as a whole. Even in my office, where no one else even swims, I have heard people chatting about this. Swimming in the Arizona deserts is a natural function, which can evolve into a sport for many people. Kind of like ice skating or hockey in an area that gets cold and allows for natural frozen lakes. When you fly in or out of PHX, you see so many houses (about 1/3) with backyard pools....which exposes kids to the idea of swimming. When I first moved to the area some 13 years ago, it was almost like a culture change, with swimming being such a strong focus. While it is the goal of any person playing an olympic sport to get to the Olympics, a more realistic goal for many in the area was to swim for ASU. Before/during/after practice this morning, some of the folks who have lived in AZ longer said how all of their swimming programs were based on eventually getting onto the ASU swim team. It was very somber in the locker room as people discussed the whole cutting of the sport, and how it was done. Swimming was cut at NAU in the early 90s, now at ASU, which leaves only the UofA with a college-level swim team for the entire state. A state which is growing far faster than most others in the country. I struggle with the fact that the college I attended (Kutztown Univ, www.kutztown.edu), far smaller and in an area not known for swimming, is able to have a men's swim team even to this day, while ASU is not.

I normally ignore these posts of schools cutting a swimming program, as I didn't swim in college myself, and many times have no idea where some of these schools even are located. I think of swimming as an, "extra-curricular activity," where the focus of college should be on going to class and getting a degree. But in this case, there is so much more going on, and since I swim with the masters team at ASU, I'm commenting. The story about this was on the front page of the local newspaper today, "The Arizona Republic,": www.azcentral.com/.../0514boivinasu0514.html I think Paul Smith may have posted that same story, but wanted to re-iterate how this is HUGE news not only for ASU and/or swimming, but for the Phoenix area, and Arizona as a whole. Even in my office, where no one else even swims, I have heard people chatting about this. Swimming in the Arizona deserts is a natural function, which can evolve into a sport for many people. Kind of like ice skating or hockey in an area that gets cold and allows for natural frozen lakes. When you fly in or out of PHX, you see so many houses (about 1/3) with backyard pools....which exposes kids to the idea of swimming. When I first moved to the area some 13 years ago, it was almost like a culture change, with swimming being such a strong focus. While it is the goal of any person playing an olympic sport to get to the Olympics, a more realistic goal for many in the area was to swim for ASU. Before/during/after practice this morning, some of the folks who have lived in AZ longer said how all of their swimming programs were based on eventually getting onto the ASU swim team. It was very somber in the locker room as people discussed the whole cutting of the sport, and how it was done. Swimming was cut at NAU in the early 90s, now at ASU, which leaves only the UofA with a college-level swim team for the entire state. A state which is growing far faster than most others in the country. I struggle with the fact that the college I attended (Kutztown Univ, www.kutztown.edu), far smaller and in an area not known for swimming, is able to have a men's swim team even to this day, while ASU is not.