St. Francis School (Brooklyn) eliminates total athletic program
As a part of a restructuring program introduced Monday, St. Francis School (N.Y.) will get rid of its total Division I athletics program, efficient on the conclusion of the 2023 spring semester.
In a statement published to the St. Francis athletic website, the school mentioned the choice got here after a “strategic realignment plan” was not too long ago accepted by the school’s Board of Trustees. The school cited a rise of working bills, flatter income streams and plateauing enrollment within the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We wish to acknowledge that SFC has a wealthy legacy in aggressive athletics, and are pleased with our Terriers in the present day and in all years previous,” the varsity mentioned within the assertion. “This troublesome determination was guided by a dedication to preserving the School’s 164-year Franciscan mission to supply a top quality and reasonably priced schooling to working-class and first-generation college students.”
The Terriers will see the dissolution of 19 athletic groups in competitors. Basketball, cross nation, golf, soccer, swimming and diving, tennis, monitor and discipline, volleyball and water polo are provided for each women and men, along with a ladies’s bowling group.
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The school competes within the Northeast Convention. The Terriers had the oldest school males’s basketball program in New York Metropolis, created in 1896.
The school mentioned it could honor all present educational and athletic scholarships, even with the dissolution of the athletic program. It additionally mentioned that the employment of the athletic employees and coaches of the 19 groups would finish on the conclusion of the 2023 spring semester and that the school “will present data, suggestions, and next-step steerage to assist ease this transition.”
In a statement posted to the athletics web site, athletic director Irma Garcia, who grew to become the first-ever Latina to lead a Division I athletic program when she took the function in 2007, mentioned she was “heartbroken” by the announcement.
What’s St. Francis School?
St. Francis, a non-public, four-year school in downtown Brooklyn, was based in 1859 by a gaggle of Franciscan brothers and have become the primary non-public college within the diocese of Brooklyn. In September 2022, the school relocated its total campus to a brand new location, to The Wheeler Building in Brooklyn. Within the Might 2021 announcement of the campus relocation, the school mentioned the brand new location “doesn’t embrace a health club or pool on website” however that the school was “creating partnerships with close by establishments to share indoor areas for observe classes and competitions. St. Francis School will proceed to make use of numerous off-site taking part in fields and different areas for its outside sports activities.”
St. Francis lists an enrollment of 2,600 and 20,000 alumni. The school’s Terrier mascot was formally adopted in 1933.
