Howard High grad stunned by Duquesne decision

By David Driver
Posted: January 29, 2010

Late last year Northeastern and Hofstra, both members of the Colonial Athletic Association, dropped their football programs. On Monday another mid-major Division I program announced it was cutting athletic programs. Football was spared, but Duquesne announced it was cutting baseball, men’s swimming, men’s golf and wrestling. The baseball season is set to begin Feb. 19 at South Carolina, but after this spring baseball is over at the Pittsburgh school.

That is bad news for Howard High School graduate Matt Zarin, who has been part of the Dukes’ baseball program and is on this year’s roster. He missed the 2009 season with an elbow injury but pitched in 13 games as a freshman, with three starts, in 2008. The Ellicott City resident was fifth on the team in strikeouts with 22 and had four strikeouts in his college debut against Florida State, a national power.

Zarin’s father, Jeff, told me earlier this week that his son and his teammates were stunned when they learned the news on Monday. “He found out late yesterday,” Jeff Zarin said on Tuesday. “They had a baseball fundraiser scheduled for this Friday (tonight). I had intended to (make) a credit card donation to the program.”

The fundraiser was scheduled to include former Pirates manager Jim Leyland, now with the Tigers, and Franco Harris, a football star for the Steelers in the 1970s, according to Jeff Zarin.

Matt Zarin was a second-team all-county player and has been a dean’s list athlete in college. He also has been named to the director of athletics honor roll and to the Atlantic 10 Conference commissioner’s honor roll. Matt could not be reached for his comment, but his father said it is too early to figure out if his son will transfer. Duquesne was the only school he seriously considered, and he is on a partial baseball scholarship.

“Focusing on and strengthening a core group of sports will maximize our ability to compete at the highest level, enhance the student athlete experience, and better utilize existing funding,” Duquesne athletic director said Greg Amodio said, in explaining the decision on the school’s Web site. More than $1 million will be reallocated annually throughout the athletics program after baseball, men’s swimming, men’s golf and wrestling are eliminated.

“This action is in no way meant to diminish the dedication, effort or ability of these fine student-athletes, coaches and alumni. They have contributed greatly to Duquesne athletics and to the vitality and history of the University,” Amodio said. Here is more on the decision from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Why are schools dropping sports? For those that are not dropping football, the answer is … football. With schools mandated to have gender equity, that means the existence of a football program (nearly every player is male, of course) means that most likely there will be more female sports at that school since there are so many players on a football roster, even at the Division I-AA and Division III levels. And that spells bad news for male “minor” sports such as baseball, tennis, swimming, golf, wrestling, etc.

Comment on this entry • No responses