The Lumberjack



Students Serving The Cal Poly Humboldt Campus and Community Since 1929

Tag: Humboldt State University football

  • Football gets the boot

    Football gets the boot

    Early this afternoon, Humboldt State University announced that after this 2018 season the football program will be cut.

    “This [decision] is due to ongoing financial challenges within athletics and at the university as a whole,” Humboldt State University President Lisa Rossbacher said. “We cannot allow the budget deficit in athletics to continue or to deepen further.”

    This April, Rossbacher announced the two-year budget plan in reducing costs by at least $9 million and many hoped that the football program would not be a part of this cut. However, according to the HSU Athletic Department, the net cost of about $1 million annually became too expensive for the University to support and subsidize indefinitely.

    “It is the only realistic path for us to take,” Rossbacher said.

    Redshirt Sophomore Kyle Martorella called home as soon as he received the news. He said he was very surprised and upset after hearing the program would be cut.

    “I can really only see myself playing at Humboldt so it sucks,” Martorella said. “I thought we were guaranteed another five years and that was what the money was raised for.”

    Since December 2017, HSU boosters, alumni and community members put forth their utmost effort in reaching a goal of $500,000 that would have ensured another solid year of football at the Redwood Bowl. During that time Rossbacher announced if $500,000 was collected by January of each year, for the next five years, the University would match it with another $500,000 to keep the program.

    Although SaveHSUAthletics confirmed nearly $511,000 in pledges last fall, only $329,000 in cash donations were collected in June, according to Rossbacher.

    However, SaveHSUAthletics Co-Founder and HSU alum Jim Redd shared that in fact, a total of $410,000 was collected.

    “I know that a payment of $80,000 was scheduled to come in, and received on July 15th,” said Redd.

    The total amount of donations that were collected will be used for this last football season at HSU and all of the scholarships awarded will be honored to eligible players through the 2018-2019 academic year.

    “We are going to be very supportive of the current players and coaches this year,” Redd said. “The support is going to drop way off for HSU athletics as a whole.”

    Although several boosters donate to other HSU athletic programs as well, Redd and his fellow boosters believe cutting the program was all a part of Athletic Director Duncan Robins’ plan and because of that, many supporters no longer want to give money to HSU athletics at all.

    “There are a lot of donors upset and wanting their money back,” said Redd. “I just feel like Robins was hired to get rid of the program. It took him seven months longer than he would have liked but he succeeded.”

    HSU’s athletic department said it plans on providing as much support as needed for current players, whether they choose to complete their academic years at HSU or to transfer to another school and continue playing football.

    HSU junior and 2018 captain Isaiah Hall said he plans on “riding out” with a strong team for this last HSU football season and hopes to ensure his team that this decision should not interrupt what they have accomplished for the success of this season so far.

    “I always had a feeling that this was bound to happen,” Hall said. “When [Rossbacher] was on the podium talking about keeping the program, her words felt untruthful.”

    After this season, Hall is eligible to play two more collegiate years of football and after speaking with his family he plans to have a successful season and transfer to play at another university come spring.

    As for new recruits, Chris Quirarte from Buhach Colony High School and Braden Gordon from Independence High School, new beginnings have already come to an end. Both of the newly announced Jacks from Southern California said they were not sure what to think about the news and immediately contacted family for support.

    “I am stuck on whether I want to redshirt or play this year,” Quirarte said. “The decision changes my outlook on the season a little but I am not trying to pull the trigger on my decision too early.”

    Last year, HSU athletics held a deficit of about $750,000 in which the university covered; and three years ago that deficit was at $250,000. The rate of cost increases in the athletics department at HSU has been roughly double of the university costs in whole.

    Rossbacher said she still plans on maintaining a Division II athletics program at HSU and in order to remain eligible for NCAA Division II competition, the University is required to have 10 sports. According to the HSU Athletic Department To remain in the California Collegiate Athletic Association, HSU’s primary conference, the 10 sports are required to be chosen from a specified list, and football is not included on that list.

    After this 2018 football season, HSU will sponsor 11 sports: men’s and women’s basketball, men’s and women’s soccer, men’s and women’s cross country, men’s and women’s track & field, crew, softball and volleyball.

    “At this point we just have to come together as a team,” Martorella said. “We still have 10 games like any other season and we can still win a ring like any other season.”

  • Not going down without a fight!

    I hope that this letter reaches all of my former Humboldt State teammates, former Jacks that have worn the Green and Gold and all of the Lumberjack supporters out there. I will be sending this letter on to Dr. Lisa Rossbacher along with the rest of the leaders on the HSU campus and in the CSU. Football won’t be cut from Humboldt State without a fight.

    This past week some awful news, news that many inside the Humboldt State Athletic Department and University have known about and anticipated for years, was released. Instead of the focus being on the Humboldt State football team going on the road and taking down the No. 8 team in the country, rival Azusa Pacific, it was on whether there will be a football program in two short months. The outcry and response from the news that I have seen through multiple news outlets will hopefully force the administration to pause and think again before they make this decision.

    First, to be clear, there is not a financial problem at Humboldt State, there is a leadership problem, starting at the top. Having known about the financial shortfall that was coming when the current President took the job, she has only let it grow and has lacked the decisive decision-making that is required of the position. HSU spent tens-of-thousands of dollars to bring in a consulting firm to help advise her in the process of finding solutions to the current financial problem which she COMPLETELY THREW OUT and ignored. She has also postponed making a decision several times which has continued to let the deficit grow.

    The President said a year ago that the “Humboldt State University strategic plan is focused on four key areas: supporting student success, providing a welcoming environment for our diverse community, ensuring that we have the resources needed to fulfill our educational mission, and expanding partnerships, both on- and off-campus.” In what ways will cutting the most successful program on campus be beneficial in serving your strategic plan?

    How is cutting athletic programs, specifically football, in line with your strategic plan for the University, which INCLUDES athletics. Getting rid of football is harming students and their pursuit of receiving a degree. It gets rid of the diversity that our University desperately needs that football provides and also will damage partnerships and relationships that have been cultivated over the past decades. There are countless donors and supporters that support the Athletic programs because of the impact sports has on student-athletes.

    Coming from a small town in North Bend, Washington, Humboldt State football helped build me into the man I am today. The relationships I made, the people I met, the lessons I learned are all 100 percent attributed to the Humboldt State football program. Coming from a high school that lacked diversity, I was thrown a major curve ball when I arrived in 2011 to a locker room that had players from every corner of the west coast. Oakland, Sacramento, Rocklin, San Diego, Poway, Compton, Los Angeles, you name it. I was able to meet, bond, connect, and work with individuals that I can now call my teammates and brothers FOR LIFE even though we all came from entirely different backgrounds. We all shared a common goal. No where else on campus does a group of students come together like they do in college athletics.

    A current report states that there are only 281 (3.41 percent) Black or African American students at Humboldt State University. How are you promoting diversity when a high number of these students are involved with college athletics? There is no question that this group is under-served and not represented properly at Humboldt State and in our community. How is cutting Humboldt State football and athletic teams helping with your strategic plan in promoting diversity when it does the complete opposite?

    Most importantly through this ugly situation, what about the kids? What about the coaches that may lose their jobs and their families? Announcing this decision in November will only allow students one month to find new homes before the start of the spring semester as they will no longer be able to pursue their goals and passion in college athletics at Humboldt State. You are in a position to SERVE our students. Announcing this decision in November may be what’s best for you and your colleagues, but don’t forget WHY you have a job and WHO’S best interest you should be considering. The fact that this news broke in the middle of another historical football season at HSU is beyond inappropriate and unprofessional.

    I have seen the number of “around 200-250 students” will transfer from the University if football is dropped. I believe that number is a low estimate as that is only the number of student-athletes that will be leaving. This does not include the other students at Humboldt that came because of football and the other athletic programs as they wanted to be a part of the special community too. With struggling enrollment that is showing no signs of improving, how is getting RID of more students going to help? The athletic teams continue to fill their rosters to the maximum number, what good is it to get rid of the schools best recruiters?

    What about Arcata and Humboldt County? Only five times a year do 7,000 and more people come together in the community and it is on Saturday nights in the Redwood Bowl. What will Homecoming weekend be like without football? What purpose will the weekend serve if it is not highlighted by a football game in the Redwood Bowl? The sense of community and togetherness that the football program and Humboldt athletics brings can not and should not be underestimated. It should also be noted the potential financial impact that HSU athletics and the football program has for the community, what about the local businesses?

    When you add the tens of thousands of dollars spent on the Strategic Edge Report, the hundreds of thousands of dollars missing from IRA fees of the “missing” students that were projected to be attending the University, and another $58,000 in the form of a cancelled Pepsi sponsorship, you have have over $250,000. Yes, with the major financial hole, the leaders on campus elected to not renew a sponsorship which had totaled $58,000.

    Seeing the overwhelming support for the program on social media has been special, but changes will have to come from within the University. Just this past spring, all of the Athletic programs were asked to raise money and as football raised over $100,000 which went directly toward athletic scholarships. Football raised their money and a portion of it even went to other teams.

    Before you think about cutting the football program, think about the long-lasting impact it will have on YOUR students, coaches, administrators, community members, local business owners and alumni. Cutting the football program will set the University back years and hundreds-of-thousands of more dollars. Taking the easy way out by simply cutting the “biggest” budget item is lazy, irresponsible and won’t be tolerated. The impact the HSU football program had on myself and so many others including your current student-athletes is irreplaceable and a better solution needs to be found.

    – Taylor Mitchell, Former HSU Football Player