Photo courtesy of Dustin Mollohan

“I’ve been here two weeks,” she said.

What she did not say, what she could not find the words for, what she was incapable of preventing herself from expressing via every nonverbal indicator simultaneously betraying her, was that a lifetime of dedication was now threatened.

Years of arduous training and conditioning and the deep consideration of which school to attend led each of them here to America, here to JU, here to play tennis, the sport they love.

They came from Recife and Sao Paulo, Brazil.  They came from Ontario and Vancouver, Canada, from Suzled, Germany and from Loures, Portugal. The only American hails from Georgia. “She,” could have been any one of them.

On Jan. 27, Jacksonville University’s Board of Trustees voted to eliminate tennis from the school’s athletics program. Due to fiscal limitations and waning support for the program, both men and women’s tennis will cease play at the end of this season. Those who chose to continue their education here will retain their scholarships. Those who do not are free to transfer without NCAA penalty.

Even on the condition of anonymity none of the tennis players or coaching staff were willing to go on record. But with the amount of speculation and conjecture sweeping over the campus last week regarding the seemingly abrupt termination, somebody needed to quell the controversy.

President Kerry Romesburg, Ph.D., sits high above Jacksonville University’s manicured campus and watches Dolphins traverse the quad tending to their day-to-day business. It is from this perch that he and his administration make some of the toughest decisions facing colleges today.

“Very few schools make money on sports,” said Romesburg, also one of the 10 university presidents that comprise the Atlantic Sun Conference Presidents Council. On a national scale, he surmised that more than 12 schools make money on sports, up to about 26 this year due to the expansion of the NCAA super conferences such as the Big 12 and the SEC.  “We are among the majority that lose money,” Romesburg said.

The questions on Jan. 27 remained—why tennis, why now?

“Why tennis, I couldn’t tell ya,” said Joel Lamp, associate athletic director for external affairs.

“Why now, because it’s a board meeting.”

Dr. Romesburg elaborated on Mr. Lamp’s levity.

“This isn’t easy for any one involved. I expressed that, when I met with the coach and when I met with the team, that there is no dissatisfaction with them or with the sport,” said Romesburg.

It has not been easy on the students or alumni either. Many have sent emails in protest and Jacksonville University Student Alliance (JUSA) President Zach Shacter spoke on behalf of the program personally at last month’s Board of Trustees’ meeting.

According to what Shacter was told in the meeting, we would need $8 million in reserve over the next 15 years to continue tennis. President Romesburg and Athletic Director Alan Verlander dispute this.

According to them, an endowment or donation of just a few million dollars would preserve the program, but for how long they did not say. What they did make clear was that this has been a long time coming.

JU has 21 sports programs if counting cheerleading; this is two more than our closest comparable A-sun conference opponent.  How we grew to include this many sports and are consequently faced with having to scale back is a story of time and money. As support for each new sport arose, and financial backing and community interest grew with it, JU adopted one after another. Due to waning support and community interest however, something needed to be eliminated for the school to be able to make budget in the coming years.

“Costs are rising and deficits are increasing,” said Romesburg. “We did a cross analysis of each sport and tennis came out on the bottom.”

The analysis took place in October. Prior to that, the JU president and his nine A-sun President’s Council counterparts had to meet and vote on rule changes to allow the schools involved to be able to eliminate sports at all and to also be able do so without penalty. Once the rules were changed, the decision process began.

Unbeknown to coach Justin Miles was the potential for a sword of Damocles to cut short his inaugural campaign as JU’s Head Coach of Men’s and Women’s tennis.  According to the JU athletic page, Miles left Georgia Southern after nine years with a mostly successful on-the-court record and having mentored his players to off-the-court achievements as well. Though he declined to comment, both the decision to cut the program and the manner in which he found out left an echo of despair in my ear when I hung up with him last week.

According to Verlander and President Romesburg, coach Miles did find out before they could meet with him that this would be the program’s final season.

President Romesburg conceded that the decision to cut tennis was known only to he and the A.D., and the other nine members of the A-Sun president’s council. The meeting held that determined this outcome was a closed-door session. He opted not to speculate further.

The administration also went on to say that this decision was in no way an indication that the university is in financial trouble. They also expressed that the recruiting of a new marching band and the growing support for Lacrosse did not influence the decision either.

According to the collegiate-athlete recruiting website Athleticscholarships.com, JU dispersed more than $3 million in scholarships last year, including those to athletics. The operating costs for the tennis program did not exceed the NCAA Division I-AA school average, but did break even when contrasted to the amount of revenue the sport brought in. JU administration neither confirmed nor denied the accuracy of these figures.

The JU Dolphin family, to include students, faculty, staff and alumni has expressed sadness at the loss of the tennis program. The Navigator has received emails and Facebook messages offering support. Unfortunately, that support has not yet translated into donations or pledges of a financial offering, to which the administration would lend considerable attention. Barring that, tennis at JU will see its last serves and volleys this spring.

“We tried to manage this the best way we could,” Romesburg said.