We Have Tribe Pride, Yes We Do
we have tribe, HOW ABOUT YOU?
ZACH LUTZKY // FLAT HAT MAGAZINE
Sept. 3 William & Mary announced the dissolution of 7 varsity athletic programmes. The magazine staff have talked with student athletes about their fight against the administration to save the teams.
Thursday, Sept. 3 at the College of William and Mary initially seemed to be a perfectly normal day, aside from the typical upheavals and uncertainties of 2020. Most in-person classes were being delivered remotely, many upperclassmen had moved back to campus, and on-campus COVID-19 spread was limited.
That Thursday, Colin Grip ’21, who is a part of the track and field and cross-country teams, had just filmed a series of videos with a few of his teammates the night before to show drills to the freshmen, with whom they had yet to share a practice. That afternoon, he saw something abnormal that made him uneasy.
“I was working on a lab assignment that I had to do at 5pm.,” Grip said. “Around 3:30pm, I got a text from my coach that went out to the whole team said, ‘You've got a mandatory Zoom meeting in 15 minutes, here’s the link.’ So, I emailed my TA, I said, ‘Hey, I’m not going to have this project done, can I get an extension, I’m being pulled out for whatever this meeting is.’”
Conor Sokolowsky, a member of the swim team and the class of 2023 president in y, received a similar message but was eager to be back on campus for the fall semester.
“We were excited to come back on campus,” Sokolowsky said. “We knew there most likely wouldn’t be a swim season to begin with. The freshmen already were debating gap years or not, if they wanted to use a year of eligibility. But we were prepared for whatever was going to be thrown our way.”
Collin Lillie ’21, a member of the men’s gymnastics team, had been watching with his teammates as the already-tiny number of Division I men’s programs had dwindled further as the University of Iowa announced the cutting of its men’s gymnastics program.
“We had a notification come up and it showed all the people who are in the meeting, and it said men’s gymnastics, all athletes, women’s gymnastics, all athletes, swimming, track and field, volleyball,” Lillie said. “And then I called one of my friends on the swim team, and he told me that he was in charge of their Facebook and Instagram and he had gotten removed earlier that day. And then I have access to our social media as well and I was kicked off and everyone else on my team was kicked off too. So then I was like, OK, it’s happening.”
Ellie Henry ’22, a member of the women’s swim team, was having her classes online that morning when she first heard a rumor about the unfolding developments at Tribe Athletics.
“I remember my roommate got a call from her mom,” Henry said. “She had heard word from the alumni associations and through connections that teams would be cut. We didn’t know which teams, we didn’t know when, but we knew that teams were going to get cut. And there was rumor that there was going to be a cut for men’s and women’s swimming.”
“There were two separate calls because there were so many athletes that they couldn’t be fit into one Zoom,” Grip said. “I was on the earlier call. When I logged in, there were some of my teammates and a bunch of other people from the other teams. And Athletic Director Huge kind of started off just saying, ‘Oh, you’re so brave, I’m so proud of you as athletes. You’re so valued,’ and I just knew, this is definitely not going to end well.”
“You could see reactions of students, just hearing the news and just getting incredibly distraught, angry, and you could visibly see it,” Sokolowsky said of the call.
The sentiment among student-athletes on the call was universal.
“I remember being on the Zoom call,” Henry said, “and just feeling numb. I didn't really know what to think.”
Adding to the pain of the announcement was the abrupt nature in which the news was delivered to the affected teams.
“There was no time for questions,” Grip said. “The call immediately ended, so no one had the chance to really grasp what happened. And then Samantha Huge wasn’t even present in the second Zoom meeting. One of her associates read an identical script.”
Almost all the athletes interviewed voiced their strong disapproval of the manner in which former Athletics Director Samantha Huge broke the news to the student-athletes, particularly in her initial delivery, which came with little warning.
“She just dropped the bomb and then left,” Lillie said. “It left a very disrespectful taste in my mouth.”
“Frankly, I think they’re disrespectful and I don’t think there’s any way around that,” Grip said. “I mean, I had to miss a class, miss assignments, just to take that Zoom call that was cut short without any time for questions. And then no one heard from the athletic director after that.”
Julia Brown, captain of the women’s volleyball team, said that she was stunned by the news, as were many of her peers.
“The immediate aftermath was definitely shock,” Brown said. “We were very surprised by the news and I think that that goes for most people.”
With the news broken and the Zoom meeting closed, the athletes had to draw on their own networks and support groups to process what had just ensued.
“That day was just total chaos,” Grip said. “Everyone was calling their parents, calling their friends, calling alumni and saying, ‘Oh my gosh, what happened?’ And then someone made a Facebook page for current members of the team and alumni, it was a combination of current athletes up to people who graduated in the ’60s.”
“Our coach sent us another message and was like ‘Hey, if you guys want to hop on a Zoom call right now, we can talk about what just happened,’” men’s gymnastics team member Christian Marsh ’21 said. “We hopped on the Zoom call and we all just voiced our utter disbelief at this decision.”
“When something happens that shakes all of our worlds in the same way it was amazing to see how supportive every player was of each other, and the community that we’d built was really an important resource during that time,” Brown said.
Later that night, the impacted athletes met in-person to grieve the loss of their programs.
“After we got off the call, we were able to meet on the football field,” Henry said. “So there were a lot of us out there. And that was actually the first time that I met the freshmen. I remember just sitting there on the field for an hour, an hour and a half, getting calls from my family and my friends checking in if I was OK, I was getting calls from other athletes in the conference just letting me know that they were here behind me and supporting all of us on the tribe, in whatever endeavors we chose to do next.”
Huge released a statement, along with accompanying FAQs, on the Tribe Athletics website. According to the statement, the cuts were a part of Huge’s plans for a renewed focus on “revenue sports” such as football and basketball. In the weeks that followed, it emerged that large parts of it were lifted from a similar statement by Stanford University earlier this year.
If Sept. 3 was a day of shock and disbelief, it was not long after that the mood for many athletes shifted. Coupled with an influx of alumni and outside support, the gears of the opposition movement did not wait long to begin turning. “After the initial shock, we were sort of able to say like, OK, let’s settle down,” Grip said. “Let’s do something about this. We’ve got enough resources here, enough manpower, so let’s find a solution.”
Luckily, members of the impacted teams did not have to wait long or search far for support and encouragement.
“I’ve gotten plenty of people reaching out from friends who run at other, different coaches, old high school teammates, people reaching out, saying, ‘This is incredible like I can’t believe what’s going on. How can I help? Send me petitions send me people to email. I’ll get my whole team to do it and I’ll tell them to email all their friends and tell them to do it,’” Lillie said. “So I think we’ve been able to reach a wide audience and get a lot of public support.”
Reaction and mobilization from the community was swift and all-encompassing in terms of outreach.
“Almost immediately afterward, we had alumni, parents, donors starting to get engaged, literally, like right away, and I feel like we were able to channel our anger and frustration into [the campaign],” Sokolowsky said.
Many athletes were encouraged by the quick action of the Tribe community in assisting the members of the affected teams.
“It’s very clear that the students at this school take ‘One Tribe, One Family’ very seriously, because as soon as the news broke, we broke it to the alumni and we all began this very intense opposition to this decision,” Marsh said.
Moreover, the response from alumni specifically meant the world to the student-athletes.
“I’ve been so impressed with the alumni support and the community support,” Henry said. “It’s just really heartwarming to see. So many people come out, even travelled, to the rallies or protests we’ve had in person.”
“Our alums were able to pull together a lot of connections to make that happen,” Sokolowsky said. “And I know a lot of swimmers that actually just graduated in 2020 were heavily involved on that front in running the social media campaigns and everything, and then beyond that we had actual current swimmers, who would write the personal statements and stuff that we posted and shared.”
A massive and multi-faceted campaign erupted from many quarters of the cut teams and the College community. The “Save the Tribe 7” social media campaign quickly gathered steam, publishing a number of testimonials and statements from current and former athletes from the affected teams. The swim and track teams also started their own initiatives and websites to seek out donor pledges and to raise awareness about their respective sports.
ZACH LUTZKY // FLAT HAT MAGAZINE
“We started the Save W&M Gym Instagram and social medias, and then a few days after that made financial committees, social media committees, and our alumni, I’d say, have been a huge help with getting resources and legal stuff figured out,” Lillie said.
A petition on Change.org, started by 2020 men’s gymnastics alumnus Colton Phillips, garnered over 22,000 signatures. For many, the seven impacted teams seemed to find fellowship in their common cause.
“All of the athletes are sharing what the other ones are posting,” Sokolowsky said. “It’s a pretty big unified effort. And then I also know that a lot of the alums between the sports have really conglomerated to fight this decision and to get it reversed.”
Despite the adversity they had faced as a result of the cuts, the sense of community has been a silver lining for all of those affected by the decisions made by Tribe Athletics in these past months.
“I think between the teams that got cut, there is a sort of bond, an unfortunate bond, but there is a bond between the seven teams, and I think the amount of support we've all been giving each other is really neat to see,” Henry said.
With momentum building on their side, many students turned to other things they could do in support of their fledgling reinstatement campaign. Missy Cundiff ’22, a member of the women’s swim team, made the “Save Tribe Swim Rap” video (under the name of “Lil’ Mizzy”), which has since received over 10,000 views.
Sokolowsky, meanwhile, helped to galvanise support for the reinstatement movement in the College’s Student Assembly.
“I knew I was the only student athlete in the Student Assembly Senate right now,” Sokolowsky said. “So immediately I knew that I’d have to do something with my position as soon as I heard the news, so we got a whole task force to work on this resolution together, which was incredibly successful.”
The “For the Bold” resolution, criticising Huge’s conduct and the cuts in general, garnered over 1,300 signatures from students, faculty, and alumni. This all came in advance of the September meeting of the Board of Visitors, which was widely attended by the aggrieved athletes.
“We all had that day circled on the calendar pretty early on, and we encouraged the whole team to show up and speak their mind if they have anything to say,” Grip said. “Before the meeting, there was a rally outside made up of all the teams that were cut as well as a lot of people from around the town, a lot of other students unaffiliated so it was great to get support there.”
Many of the athletes from the cut teams shared their stories with the board and the community during the listening session, which ran over an hour longer than scheduled. .
“For myself, going into it, I honestly didn't expect to be listened to too closely,” Grip said. “I sort of viewed my two minutes at the mic as just a chance to take up their time, to let them know that people are upset and that real students are impacted by the decisions that were made.”
The Board met in its full session Sept. 25, when Student Assembly President Anthony Joseph ’21 presented the resolution. A week later, Oct. 2, Huge sent an email to all students pledging to engage with the athletes and to broaden transparency. Members of the Student Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) were told that Huge would meet with them the following Monday; that meeting was then pushed back a day. The next day, Oct. 6, College President Katherine Rowe’s office sent an email to students announcing Huge’s immediate resignation. That evening, the SAAC representatives had their meeting as scheduled with the new interim athletic director, Jeremy Martin.
“I think that it was going to happen eventually,” Henry said of Huge’s dismissal. “It was just a matter of when and how.”
While the reaction to Huge’s departure was generally positive among the athletes, they still hoped to see more progress from the new management.
“He has to fill the role of somebody who has just lost the trust of an entire community, so it's going to be really hard for him to rebuild it, but I think as long as he really engages the community discussion and makes movement on that front, it might work out,” Sokolowsky said.
The cautious optimism of the student-athletes will remain until Martin can prove himself to the community.
“I would like to see change,” Marsh said. “I don't want them to pretend to listen to us and then have nothing change from that. I think that there are extremely valid cases for reinstating each and every single one of the teams they’ve cut, and I think that they need to listen to us.”
Marsh, who as a member of SAAC met with Martin on his first day, was not without concerns.
“He made sure to say that they were committed to having an open dialogue, but I personally did not get the impression that either he or the athletic administration desire to reinstate the teams, which is incredibly disheartening,” Marsh said.
In the weeks that followed, Martin held meetings with the individual teams. Meanwhile, the Title IX lawsuit threatened on behalf of the women’s teams proceeded, parallel to the developments on campus. The suit ultimately resulted in a settlement requiring that the College reinstate the three cut women’s teams. Student-athletes on the suspended women’s teams were informed of their reinstatement Oct. 19, less than two weeks after the departmental leadership change.
“The announcement of our reinstatement has brought on a range of different reactions, and it varies from person to person,” said Brown. “There is some relief, excitement, and also a lot of sympathy for the teams who have not been reinstated. It’s hard to see anyone going through this especially after we have just been through the same thing.”
Many of the other athletes also welcomed the changes, while maintaining their interest in reinstating the men’s teams.
“During the call, Jeremy Martin gave us the space to process the information, while responding to questions and other comments we had throughout the call,” Henry said. “This was a very stark difference from what we experienced earlier this semester on Sep. 3. There is still so much left up in the air. I won’t consider our team fully reinstated until the men’s team is also reinstated. After all, we are one team, one tribe.”
Martin stressed the importance of gender equity in the calculations surrounding the final decisions for the men’s teams in the two livestreamed Q&A sessions that he conducted toward the end of October. This assertion caused some consternation among the athletes.
“Since Jeremy Martin took over as interim AD, it has been communicated to the track and field team that Title IX compliance is the primary reason we were cut in the first place,” Grip said. “This is just more proof to us that the administration is either not telling the truth about why they decided to cut the teams or didn’t bother checking to see if their action would even solve their problem. I am very happy for the women who have been reinstated, they absolutely deserve it, but this also proves to me that the reasoning for cutting the men’s programs can’t be trusted.”
As October neared its end, the momentum continued to mount. The women’s track and field team signed a public pledge not to compete until they saw their counterparts restored. And then, two weeks and three days after the announcement of the women’s reinstatements, a sweeping announcement came from the president’s office: all cut programs would be reinstated, including the men’s teams, through at least the 2021-22 academic year. Yet, the specter of program cuts still looms. Fundraising targets have been issued to the teams that had sought out reinstatement through donor pledges, and Martin’s final report maintains that “the status quo is unsustainable with respect to finances and mission.”
The long-term future of Tribe Athletics remains uncertain, but for now, despite all the uncertainties that this year has brought, the student-athletes of the seven teams can keep training.
“We’re still cheering for each other,” Sokolowsky said. “It’s loud on deck, and it’s inspiring. Honestly, when I’m in the pool, I don’t even remember the cuts. The thought hasn’t crossed my mind. You’re just in your own bubble in there. It’s really nice, it’s a great escape.”
Martin wrote in his final recommendations that the school would reach a decision on the future of Tribe Athletics, encompassing both gender equity and financial sustainability, by next fall. In the meantime, the students seem to have the same optimism that they had throughout their ordeal.
“We are some of the brightest individuals in the country and I am entirely confident in our ability to find creative solutions to this issue,” Marsh said.
ZACH LUTZKY // FLAT HAT MAGAZINE