CCU has made major cuts in athletics due to the coronavirus. These jobs were slashed
Coastal Carolina has made spending cuts across the university this year to combat the impacts of the coronavirus pandemic and declining enrollment, and athletics has taken a big hit.
The school has avoided eliminating any of its 19 intercollegiate sports, which is something numerous other schools across the country have resorted to, including in-state schools Clemson and Furman.
But it has cut at least seven assistant coaching positions and additional support staff jobs within the athletic department.
An analysis by The Sun News discovered assistant coach positions were cut in men’s soccer, women’s soccer, men’s tennis, women’s tennis, volleyball, men’s golf and women’s golf.
“We were charged with cutting 15 percent of our budget and that equates to close to $4 million dollars, so we’re working on a budget that is $4 million less,” said CCU director of athletics Matt Hogue, who declined to identify the specific positions and individuals cut. “Obviously that’s a combination of several things but one of those is personnel, and we are certainly shorter on personnel than we were a year ago in many areas. . . . Everybody has felt it.”
Assistant coaching positions that were eliminated or were vacated and not filled were those of 2019-20 men’s golf assistant Andrew Roy, women’s golf assistant Alison Hovatter, men’s soccer goalkeeper coach Lance Elicker, women’s soccer goalkeeper coach H.B. Lockwood, men’s tennis assistant Lonnie White, women’s tennis assistant Kurt Caster, and women’s volleyball assistant and recruiting coordinator Dottie Hampton, the research shows.
That leaves the four golf and tennis programs without assistant coaches.
While the football team retained its 11 coaching positions, the program lost a number of support staff jobs.
Football office assistant Judy Cooley’s position was among 36 announced campus-wide job cuts in July, and up to four support staff positions were open but could not be filled in analyst and assistant operations positions, according to head football coach Jamey Chadwell.
The football team was able to retain four graduate assistants that receive a monthly stipend through their graduate programs but are not paid through the athletic department.
Additional athletic support staff positions that are no longer filled, according to the research, are those of 2019-20 director of volleyball operations Kate Federico, men’s basketball video coordinator Travis Eaton, men’s basketball special assistant for quality control Warren Gillis, women’s basketball video coordinator Akeem Williams, and administrative special assistant Bonnie Middleton, who assisted volleyball, men’s basketball and women’s basketball.
“We had to reach that 15 percent number and unfortunately that meant we had to shrink in terms of our staff size,” Hogue said. ‘It’s not fun, it’s not something we wanted to do but that’s what the times required and that’s what we’ve had to get accustomed to.”
In sports information, Assistant Athletic Director for Media Relations Kevin Davis lost three of the four other positions in his department and gained a part-time position.
Assistant media relations director Darrell Orand was retained, but the assistant media relations director position vacated by Chris Henry last year was not filled, and the 10-month temporary media relations assistant positions previously held by Royce Dunnivan and Quentin Reed were eliminated. Former CCU SID Wayne White was hired as a part-time media relations employee.
In addition to the 36 job cuts in July, the school is requiring furloughs of up to 20 days for at least the majority of its employees, including those in athletics, as part of its cost-cutting efforts to combat the financial impact of the pandemic.
Capital projects have been on hold and the school has been exploring exiting some lease agreements.
Many in athletics are taking further measures to assist the university financially. Some athletic administrators and head coaches, including Chadwell, are taking additional voluntary furlough days in addition to their 20 mandatory days, Davis said.
Joe Moglia, who is chairman of athletics, executive director of football and an executive advisor to CCU’s president, is foregoing his annual salary of $177,000 for the 2020-21 school year.
Coastal sponsors 11 women’s and eight men’s programs, which is three more than the NCAA minimum of 16 for schools with an FBS football program.
Clemson announced this month it was terminating the men’s sports of indoor track, outdoor track and cross country to get down to 16. Furman cut men’s lacrosse and baseball, a program that played its first game in 1896, to get down to 18 sports.
Hogue has said cutting an entire program would be a last resort.
According to university statistics, CCU’s enrollment fell 1.5% to 10,484 last fall, and dropped another 3.5% this year to 10,118, including 9,500 undergraduate students.
Not all students are living on or near campus and attending classes, taking part in a meal plan, etc., this school year because of COVID-19 and remote learning opportunities.
Approximately 3,800 students moved into university housing in two phases between Aug. 12 and Sept. 4, according to CCU vice president for auxiliary services Steve Harrison.
For the 2019-20 academic year, CCU’s website listed 514 full-time faculty, 922 full-time staff and 1,288 student staff positions.
CCU’s intercollegiate sports
Men
- Baseball
- Basketball
- Football
- Golf
- Soccer
- Tennis
- Cross Country
- Outdoor Track & Field
Women
- Basketball
- Beach Volleyball
- Golf
- Lacrosse
- Soccer
- Softball
- Tennis
- Cross Country
- Outdoor Track & Field
- Indoor Track & Field
- Volleyball
This story was originally published November 18, 2020 at 5:01 AM.
