Have you heard the news? Ohio State University has cancelled their men’s football program. That’s right, a university spokesperson said the football program was dropped due to cuts in the athletic budget that were necessitated by funding cuts throughout the university. All current scholarships will be honored, but the silver helmets and jerseys will be boxed up and sold. And in other news, the University of Kentucky has disbanded its basketball program. Again, budget cuts were cited as the reason that this program, winner of seven national NCAA titles, was cancelled.
Alright, so the Ohio State Buckeyes and Kentucky Wildcats will be playing their respective sports in the fall of 2004, but the West Virginia University Rifle Team, the most successful rifle team in NCAA sports history, was disbanded in April 2003 for the very reasons stated above – budget cuts. This was part of a decision at WVU that cut men’s indoor and outdoor track, men’s cross country and men’s tennis to save the university more than $595,000 annually. Athletes on scholarship will have their scholarships honored, however the programs were cancelled.
Since the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) began to sanction rifle as a sport in 1980, the West Virginia University Mountaineers have won thirteen national championships, a total that is twice as many as the next closest program. In fact,
65 WVU shooters have received a total of 292 All-American awards. Twelve Olympians are proud to call themselves Mountaineers as well. But the WVU program goes back even farther than the NCAA’s first recognition of the sport in 1980. There has been a rifle team at WVU for fifty years and Coach Marsha Beasley, a member of the CMP Board of Directors, has a picture that gives credence to the claim that a rifle team existed at WVU in the 1910s. It is clear that the sport of rifle shooting means a great deal to the school and to the people of the state of West Virginia. And it was the concerned and outraged citizens of West Virginia who demanded that something be done about the cancellation of the program.
This statewide show of support from the citizens of West Virginia led the West Virginia Legislature to take an unprecedented action. They added a line-item appropriation to the state budget to provide $100,000 per year that is earmarked specifically for the WVU Rifle Team. The appropriation was approved by the Legislature in late March and signed by Governor Bob Wise in April. Governor Wise affirmed his strong support for the reinstatement of the Mountaineers rifle team. Shortly after the Legislature and Governor acted, WVU President David C. Hardesty announced that the team would be reinstated as an NCAA sport as early as July 1.
The university’s decision to disband the team meant that it was no longer recognized by the WVU Athletic Department as a varsity sport, could not compete in the NCAA Rifle Championship, had no funding for travel and equipment and no longer had a paid coach. Some of the Mountaineer shooters formed a rifle club so they could continue to shoot during the current academic year. They were recognized by the university as a student organization, but their use of the rifle range was restricted by the athletic department to former team members. This effectively limited their club team to six members. Even though they could not longer contend for the NCAA Championship, the club competed in eleven collegiate events on their own. Senior Nicole Allaire was named by the NRA as a first team All-American in smallbore and a second team All-American in air rifle for Non-NCAA competitors.
Even though the actions of the Legislature and Governor led to a reinstatement of the WVU Rifle Team for the next academic year, the team still faces some daunting challenges. The team will receive the $100,000 appropriation from the state, but that amount will not cover the entire $163,000 yearly budget the team needs to operate. The WVU Athletic Department will not provide any funding and in fact has placed other items previously covered by other budgets onto the rifle team budget. These include services such as range cleaning and media guide production. In order to make up the difference between available funds and needed funds, the team is sponsoring a number of fundraisers and has begun to collect private donations. An endowment is currently being established that when fully funded could provide for the support of the rifle team even if state funding is no longer available in the future due to changes in the governors office and legislature.
Individuals interested in donating to support the WVU Rifle Team have four options:
- Send checks to the WVU Rifle Club, P.O. Box 6444, Morgantown, WV 26505-6444. Paperwork is being prepared to file for 501 (c) (3) status. Once the paperwork is in, the club will be given a “pending” status and can function as a tax exempt until a final IRS ruling is issued.
- Donations can be made out to “Mountaineer Athletic Club,” and addressed to the Rifle Team, P.O. Box 877, Morgantown, WV 26507-0877. Be sure to write “rifle team” on the check. MAC is an existing 501 (c) (3) organization.
- Tax deductible contributions can be made to the Rifle Team endowment fund. Checks should be made payable to “Athletic Endowment Fund – Rifle”, so that the rifle team can track the incoming money. Send contributions to Rifle Team, P.O. Box 877, Morgantown, WV 26507-0877.
- Purchase “2004 Rifle Team Benefit” tickets. This is a huge fund-raising benefit sponsored by dozes of West Virginia businesses. The benefit will take place on July 31 at the White Horse Education Center. Tickets can be obtained by making a donation of $50. The benefit offers over $250,000 worth of prizes, including an Orange County Chopper motorcycle, four Honda 4-wheelers, nearly 200 guns, cash and other valuable prizes. Prizes will be given away every two minutes on that day and ticket holders do not have to be present to win. Go to http://www.wvurifle.com for more information about buying a ticket in this exciting fund raiser or take a look at the Rifle Team Benefit flyer.
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