At a time of the year when student-athletes should be wrapping up their spring season and preparing for the offseason, several Vandal athletics programs find themselves waiting on a decision from the Idaho State Board of Education (SBOE) that could eliminate their status as an Idaho athlete. 
Idaho women’s soccer, men’s golf and women’s swim and dive are at the mercy of the SBOE and its decision on the proposal put forth by President Staben that involves adding three new potential sports programs or eliminating three others to cover the $1 million deficit.
The budget deficit was made public in April 2017, yet Idaho Women’s Head Soccer Coach Derek Pittman said the announcement came as a complete surprise.
“The thought had never crossed my mind or my players or had any indication from our administration or President Staben before that meeting on Wednesday that we were even remotely being considered for elimination,” Pittman said.
Once the word was out, Pittman said he called his team together for an emergency team meeting to break the news to the team before they heard it from an outside source. In order to present the information as accurately as possible, Pittman said he met with President Staben who explained the proposal.
Red-shirt senior defender Josilyn Daggs said Pittman explained the proposal calmly and thoroughly before coming up with a plan to fight for the program.
“He was very upset, because that is his job, he has two wonderful daughters and a wife and he would choke up a little bit and all of us were tearing up because at that point you don’t know what to do. We were able to sit back and just be like, ‘OK, we are not going down, we just need to get through this together,’” Daggs said.
Pittman said he asked the team for two days to collect thoughts and come up with a plan to continue to fight for the Idaho women’s soccer team. The plan Pittman and the team are using to lobby for the importance of the soccer program was to write all individual members of the SBOE personalized letters detailing what the program means to the athletes and community, Daggs said.
“We personalized our own letters telling them what this university means to us, why we even came and like the impact that the community and what we’ve given to them and our support in other athletics, going to their games and everything, because we love that, and so we just wanted to express our love and that we want to keep this alive and we don’t want to go and honestly, our family on this team. We’ve come together so strong and that we don’t leave each other because that would be very devastating,” Daggs said.
Pittman said he quickly realized that the program needed support from the Vandal family, Moscow community and soccer community across the country. Less than a week later, a petition on Change.org named “Keep Women’s Soccer, Men’s Golf, and Swim & Dive at Idaho!” has already garnered over 9,000 signatures as of Wednesday evening.
The United Soccer Coaches showed their support April 11 on Twitter with a letter from the President of the United Soccer Coaches Lesle Gallimore addressed to the SBOE.
“We actually have had a lot of the community and alumni, Madi More, she is an alum, and she actually started a Change.org petition to save our program and so that has increased a ton,” Daggs said. “I know a lot of children are writing handmade letters, I know my brothers are, my cousin just wrote one, you know just anything that can impact and help us.”
The soccer program is not the only program with an uncertain future. Idaho Men’s Golf Head Coach David Nuhn said the announcement came as a shock to him and his team.
“I don’t think any of us really thought a whole lot at all ever about the possibility of the elimination of the golf team, so that was a pretty difficult thing for me to hear, and obviously to convey to them,” Nuhn said. “A lot of these guys are here to become better golfers, to work on the game of golf, to become professional golfers after school. The thought of losing that opportunity to finish their careers as Vandals and then move forward beyond their education was really troubling and upsetting to them.”
Idaho Women’s Swim and Dive Head Coach Mark Sowa said the announcement did not come completely out of left field, but he remains focused on understanding the plan and helping his athletes.
“We are in a different situation than the other two sports. There is always a little bit of a cloud of uncertainty around the program. I’ve always been prepared to answer questions to the best of my ability if anybody asks me but to our girl’s credit, they focus on the day to day aspect of being great in the classroom and getting better in the water.”
All three programs boast strong records on and o the eld. e three programs combine for a 3.28 GPA, compared to the 3.16 GPA for the entire athletic department. The women’s swim and dive team had a cumulative GPA of 3.43 in 2017 with nine perfect 4.0s and half the roaster on the Fall 2017 Deans List.
The Vandal women’s soccer team nished the fall semester with a cumulative 3.29 GPA, four with a perfect 4.0 and 11 on the Dean’s List. The men’s golf program nished with a cumulative 3.13 GPA, two 4.0 GPAs and three team members on the Dean’s List.
Pittman said it is this excellence on and off the the feld that makes Vandals soccer more than just a sports team.
“We feel like we’ve built a tremendous women’s soccer program here in the last four years, not only winning two Big Sky Championships but also being very very successful in the community, winning the community service award within our ath- letic department for the past three years, having a 3.4 GPA, having 100 percent graduation rate. We are doing all the things we are supposed to do as student athletes and we are winning onthefieldaswellaswinningoffthe field,” Pittman said. “Our players don’t deserve this, they deserve the opportunity to still compete here at the University of Idaho.”
Until the State Board of Education meets to decide on the proposal April 18, Pittman said the team will put their e ort into making every contribution they can to preserve the programs.
“We are doing everything we can to make sure that these three sports remain a strong piece of the Vandal athletic department for many many years to come,” Pittman said. “Our team’s focus is over the next 10 days to do everything we can to making it hopefully impossible for the State Board of Education to get rid of us so that we can keep winning championships and putting banners on the walls so many many student athletes can have the opportunity to continue playing soccer here.”
Vandal Nation will continue to follow this story.
Meredith Spelbring can be reached at [email protected]
UPDATE: This story was updated 10 p.m. April 12.