After decades of storied legacy and athletic traditions, Sonoma State is shutting down all sports programs to help combat its $23.9 million budget deficit, the school announced Wednesday.
In an email sent by Interim President Dr. Emily Cutrer, she announced the deficit was larger than the original $21 million that was projected last fall.
“Sadness” and “disappointment” were used by mens basketball coach Richard Shayewitz to describe his reactions to the news.
“Unfortunately, steps to ensure that athletics would be a part of the campus community were not taken and here we are now, cutting 60 years of Sonoma State athletics traditions,” Shayewitz told The Star in an email. “It saddens me as an alum, a former-student athlete and a Sonoma State community member for almost 30 years.”
Seawolves womens soccer coach Emiria Salzmann agreed.
“It was a total shock, because no one in our department knew, so we had no time to prepare,” Salzmann also told The Star in an email. “It was a terrible and incredibly insensitive decision to handle the news in that way. After having sat in two meetings, my reaction now is upset and disappointed that the SSU administration was not able to succinctly answer the questions we had about how we got to this point.”
There are 11 sports at Sonoma State – mens and womens soccer, mens and womens basketball, mens and womens golf, baseball, softball, volleyball, track and field and cross country. These teams are filled with at least 210 student-athletes who are now left searching for what is next.
Sonoma State previously cut football in the year 1996 after its 20-year history.
Sonoma State has already been hit hard by a dip in enrollment, a 38% drop since 2015. Student-athletes who wished to remain anonymous said sports being dropped would further hurt enrollment numbers.
“My student-athletes were angry, confused and sad,” Shayewitz said. “They committed to a place where they thought athletics was important. Unfortunately, the actions today have shown that it is not as important as they thought.”
Sonoma State athletes were not notified of the program’s cancellation before the email announcement.
“They were upset about how the news was disbursed and that the timing is so bad that it essentially handcuffs a majority of them to Sonoma State through the Spring semester,” said Salzmann.
Dr. Cutrer added in the email Sonoma State will be committed to helping those student athletes who wish to transfer to another institution to continue their academic and athletic careers. Also, student-athletes who wish to stay at Sonoma State will remain eligible for scholarships, as long as they meet the current terms of the scholarship.
“The administrators are offering support services but really it is the coaches that are going to help the athletes matriculate to other institutions as we have the knowledge, connections, relationships and resources to help the student athletes,” Salzmann said. “ I think the administration offering to help matriculate the students is a generalized offer of help; I don’t see any administrator getting on a phone call, talking to another college coach about a specific athlete transferring to play there.”
Current Memphis Grizzlies forward Jaylen Wells and Pro Football Hall of Fame offensive lineman Larry Allen played at Sonoma State.