Zach Thiel dropped me a quick email yesterday to tell me that the Wisconsin-Lacrosse baseball program has been saved from being cut. Thiel started up SaveUWLBaseball.com which was part of the effort to raise close to $39,000 which was only $11,000 short of the goal. He previously posted the following article on July 3rd on this site which is available here.
Chancellor Joe Gow posted the following about the program on August 11th:
Dear students and colleagues:
I’m delighted to report that we’ve just learned that UW-L baseball and men’s tennis have both raised enough funding to be continued for the 2009-2010 season. Thanks to the generosity of so many donors who want to be sure these programs continue at UW-L both sports now have in hand the monies needed to compensate their coaches and pay minimal expenses for the coming year.
As of this afternoon, the UW-L baseball program has raised $38,927 and the men’s tennis program has raised $16,850. We can all be grateful to the many donors who’ve given gifts of all sizes in support of these two programs. What’s more, I encourage you to join me in thanking head Baseball Coach Chris Schwarz and head Tennis Coach Bill Hehli for their outstanding leadership of the fundraising efforts. And we can be particularly grateful to former UW-L head Baseball Coach Bill Terry for bringing his passion and life-long commitment to UW-L baseball to the campaign to continue his sport.
While we wish economic conditions had not forced us to end university funding for baseball and men’s tennis, I’m sure you’ll agree that it is inspiring to see just what can be done by the people so committed to these two sports. Thanks to their determination and generosity baseball and men’s tennis will live on in 2009-2010 here at UW-L!
