Hopes dim for Cougar volleyball

The Columbia College Board of Directors will take a final vote in May to finalize the termination of the Cougar men’s volleyball program. Board members are meeting with a five-member subcommittee on sports to discuss the future of the team, but senior setter Mike Taylor and the rest of the Cougar team are not expecting things to change.

“With each meeting there is more frustration,” Taylor said. “They listen, but nothing comes of it.”

Taylor and middle blockers Kyle Green and Marvin Forbes met with Brouder on Tuesday, the first of several meetings to discuss the issues of both sides.

When asked whether the team stood a chance to play next year, Brouder said: “The final decision hasn’t been made, but the train is too far down the tracks to get anything done.”

Last month, athletic director Bob Burchard made the decision to cut the program to move the college closer to compliance with Title IX, a law for equity among the sexes in education.

Throughout the semester, outside consultants, hired by Columbia College, analyzed each department of the school to see what were the best ways to allocate funds. After the consultants’ analysis of the athletic department, the men’s volleyball program suffered the most. No Cougar players or coaches were involved in the decision-making process.

“I don’t see why other (Columbia College) teams weren’t affected in this process,” Taylor said. “We would have given up our trips to California and Chicago, but there was no discussion of this.”

Some team members were also willing to give up some scholarship money if the team continued play at the varsity level.

“Brouder was surprised when he heard this,” Taylor said. “But he would have known this if we were involved in this process.”

Columbia College fields several successful teams including the two-time defending NAIA champion women’s volleyball team, American Midwest Conference champion men’s soccer and men’s basketball team and a softball team that is consistently ranked nationally. These teams travel all over the United States, including trips to Hawaii, New Orleans and Wisconsin.

“Brouder keeps on saying that ‘We’re going to go through a lot of pain in this strategic planning process,’” Taylor said. “It seems a lot of this pain is focussed on us.”

The No.1 NAIA Cougars, champions of the MIVA Tournament last weekend, will head to Kansas City for the NAIA national invitational tournament April 14-15. The team has special motivation to win the tournament this time around.

“We hope we win it all and make them (athletic department) look like idiots,” Taylor said. “It would be the biggest slap in the their face to show them the big mistake they made.”

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