Mens Soccer Coach Resigns

[BossTerrier]

Who cares about Furman?

[terriers]

I believe this problem, at least in the immediate future, is going
to have to be handled by our individual affluent alumni who,
either played soccer or have a passion for the game. I'm sure
that is how Furman is financing their soccer program because
our Terrier Club is giving virtually the same amount as the
Paladin Club. With an alumni force half the size of Furman's,
we still have to finance ten more football scholarships to reach
the maximum. Soccer must follow the path of golf and finance
their own scholarships.

[oldT-Dog]

Agreed. There is a reason the Furman playing field is called Eugene Stone Stadium. His family fully funded the program several years ago.

As I have said I have no problem w/ the Terrier Club funding formula. My problem is the administration does not let the Coaches of non-revenue sports request direct funding for their program. The only thing they can do is promote the Terrier Club and they get in trouble for stepping outside of this party line.

My experience with Soccer has been that you have to dig into the issue and ask a bunch of questions to get the answers. Then you have to do the work on your own to get the alumni involved. It really comes across as the administration tolerating your work to try to raise money for the program and not backing your efforts.

[BossTerrier]

It's all about controlling the $$$. If individual alums donate to specific programs, then essentially that's less the Terrier Club will get to spend as it sees fit. That is the issue as I see it.

[beacon_fan]

What does it cost to fully endow a scholarship at wofford these days?

[Rowdy]

What does it cost to fully endow a scholarship at wofford these days?

That's a great question. I don't know the answer, but one can safely draw down 4% of a well invested fund each year while preserving the principal and accumulating additional monies for inflation. So with that, I'd guess $1 million is the number for a full scholarship. That gives you $40,000 per year the 1st year and a little more the next if you earned, say. 8% on the endowment. That number makes a big difference when you begin comparing the privates to the publics.

[oldT-Dog]

The # that has been quoted to me is approx. $700,000 but that was in '06.

[Rowdy]

The # that has been quoted to me is approx. $700,000 but that was in '06.

$700K could certainly be correct. Just depends on how aggressive or conservative you need to be with the money. I lean on the conservative side. $700 K is closer to a 5.7% drawdown. And I'm not in the financial business, but I'm sure the folks managing this money are. Anyway, it's a pot full of cash and is two to three times the size needed by most of our competitors to do the same thing .......... put good players on the field/floor.

[oldT-Dog]

It's all about controlling the $$$. If individual alums donate to specific programs, then essentially that's less the Terrier Club will get to spend as it sees fit. That is the issue as I see it.

This was the same mentality about the Terrier Club when I was there 20+ yrs. ago. It is viewed as a zero-sum game and that is where I think we are due some innovation by the administration.

From my experience with soccer I can safely say the athletic department would end up with more dollars total from the collective soccer alumni if they promoted the endowed scholarship and/or direct giving along side the Terrier Club. The great majority of the soccer alumni do not even know the endowed scholarship exists as an option.

Endowment should at least be promoted as a choice for those who have a history of choosing not to give to the Terrier Club, and it is not. In the long term endowment takes pressure of the year to year Terrier Club funding.

[beacon_fan]

Please excuse me for being ignorant, but we we say that we have 4.5 soccer scholarships, does that mean we have 4.5 endowed soccer scholarships? or is that the number that the athletic department has determined that we can afford each year, and pay it out of pocket? I really don't have a clue.

[oldT-Dog]

Those are not endowed. There is an endowed scholarship that was started in 1989, but the balance is only approximately $50,000. To my knowledge it has never been promoted by anyone affiliated with the college to the soccer alumni.

[beacon_fan]

So are they paid by the terrier club?

[oldT-Dog]

Not really buying your claim of "ignorance", but yes they are paid by the Terrier Club.

[beacon_fan]

haha. I do know a lot about the athletics side, but not too much about how everything is paid for. seriously.

[lawdog]

Soccer is a sport in which Wofford should be able to compete with success. The key is to get a coach who has tie- ins to the excellent high school soccer talent in NC, Ga. (esp. the Atlanta area) and Fla. Raleigh, Charlotte and Greensboro have a lot of excellent players, and the high school competition is first rate. For example, Wake Forest just beat Ohio State with six starters from NC high schools (Ohio State, in comparison, had five or six foreigners starting). The present team has some excellent young talent, most of it regional (eg, they played USC a very close game). Wofford is the kind of school that could be successfully marketed to talented soccer prospects: soccer is a bit of a chess match and emphasizes skill, speed, intelligence and effort over bulk and pressclippings.