When Evan Moyer, a Southern California resident, was choosing which college to continue his baseball career at, he decided to reach out to Sonoma State University.
“I researched a little about the program. Didn’t know much about the athletics and everything, but I knew a good bit about the baseball program,” Moyer said. “When I came up here for a visit, not too long before the actual academic year started, I visited some of the small towns around here, and it was all pretty nice, and I loved the people that I met here, and I mean the community was great.
When he committed to Sonoma State, he thought he was set for the next four years. However, on January 22, Moyer and the Sonoma State community received an email with some unexpected news.
That day, Interim President Emily Cutrer announced that Sonoma State would be eliminating their entire athletics program.
Months later, about an hour down the road at SF State, President Lynn Mahoney announced that three sports teams — women’s indoor track and field, men’s soccer and baseball — would be discontinued as well.
With a reported 8% reduction in state funding and the debt schools face within the CSU system, difficult decisions regarding athletics had to be made.
But, when you take away athletics, what does it do to the community? For some in the community, sports are irrelevant. For others, sports are the anchor of the community.
“If you look at where we are today, again, to eliminate sports in any context is short-sighted,” said Dr. Harry Edwards, a retired UC Berkeley sociologist, who focuses on sports and society. “As divided as we might be, one thing is that at games, you see some of everybody all wearing the same jersey, cheering for the same team as a community in support of their athletic team.”
Edwards, who was inducted into the Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame in February, has worked with the San Francisco 49ers and Golden State Warriors, advocating for minority hiring and is the co-founder of the Institute of Study of Sport, Society, and Social Change at San Jose State University.
“That is an anchor to the community in the Bay Area,” Edwards said. “So when you cut sports, you eliminate that vehicle of expression of community beyond all others.”
Podcast Script:
[Eddie Monares] Isaiah, what would you say your favorite sport is?
[Isaiah Casillas] Mhmmmm…probably basketball. What about you, Eddie?
[Eddie Monares] Baseball, for sure.
[Isaiah Casillas] Alright, now imagine this. You check your email one day, and your sport is gone at your college.
[Eddie Monares] Now, that would be messed up.
[Isaiah Casillas] Well, for those at Sonoma State, that was reality. In January, the president announced that they have decided to eliminate their entire athletics program. Eddie and I decided to attend Sonoma State’s Alumni Day game versus Chico State to find out more.
[Eddie Monares] We’re here, sunny Saturday in Sonoma, first time being on this campus, right?
[Isaiah Casillas] Oh yeah, it’s very nice.
[Eddie Monares] We’re headed towards the baseball field now. Such a shame, all these facilities for sports, and they’re not going to have any sports anymore. It’s kind of crazy. The community’s going to miss this.
[Eddie Monares] When we got to the game, we saw three Sonoma State baseball players selling ‘Save Seawolf’ athletic t-shirts outside the stadium, one of which was Evan Moyer, a freshman pitcher from Sonoma State University.
[Evan Moyer] I mean it sucks because I thought I was gonna be here for the next four years …it’s terrible, how I mean, I’m just gonna have to figure it out from here.
[Eddie Monares] We wanted to explore Sonoma State’s campus, so we made our way to the gym where we saw a poster of NFL Hall of Famer, Larry Allen.
[Isaiah Casillas] Wow, Sonoma State produces pros?
[Eddie Monares] When the announcement was made, shockwaves were sent through the entire Sonoma State community.
[Marcus Zeimer] It was January 22nd. I got a text from one of my players with a screenshot of an email that said we’re cutting athletics. And he said, “Coach, is this true? Are we done?”
[Isaiah Casillas] This is Sonoma State men’s soccer coach, Marcus Zeimer, who has dedicated nearly 40 years of his life to Sonoma State.
[Marcus Zeimer] And I got on my laptop and saw it right away that I’d received the same email. Initially, I was pissed. First of all, just that they would do that, and they would notify me by email.
[Isaiah Casillas] Another person who received that same email is Jacob Garsez, the baseball coach at Sonoma State. And quite an unhappy one. Garsez just moved his family from Oregon this year to take the job.
[Jacob Garsez] One of the reasons why I accepted the job was because the coaches that have been here, have been here for a while. And, I thought that showed me something that this is a good place to be, and, you know, the community supports it.
[Eddie Monares] With all these sports being eliminated, how will this impact not only the teams, but the larger community?
[Eddie Monares] In an email sent by SF State President Lynn Mahoney, she announced that last year, the university formed an athletics task force to address the ongoing budget shortfall and formulate a plan to create a sustainable model for athletics at SF State. Mahoney made the hard decision to eliminate three of our teams: women’s indoor track and field, baseball, and men’s soccer. There’s a deep economic crisis going on within the CSU system and athletics is one of the first to be affected.
[Eddie Monares] About an hour down the road at San Francisco State, its athletics program is facing a $400,000 deficit, and that’s just on the operations side, says the university’s interim athletics director, Brandon Davis.
[Brandon Davis] We need to be able to plan for emergencies. We need to be able to do all these things. Unfortunately, the way the program is set up right now, we’re not able to do that the way we would like.
[Isaiah Casillas] But, was eliminating all athletics a financially beneficial move for Sonoma State? According to a budget report done by Dr. Daniel Rascher, a sports economist professor at the University of San Francisco, cutting athletics may not actually save Sonoma State money, and, in fact, may result in more of a loss than a gain.
[Daniel Rascher] When administrators looking at the financials of the athletic department, they just see a bunch of expenses. But, they forget that on the revenue side, they’re going to lose athletes, and they’re going to lose potentially regular students who want to come to a university that has all the bells and whistles.
[Isaiah Casillas] According to Rascher’s report, athletics actually gained $455,000 in 2023. But, Sonoma State President Emily Cutrer claims that cutting athletics would save $3.7 million annually.
[Eddie Monares] We reached out to SF State but they referred us back to the initial email. Sonoma State did the same thing. Like true athletes, these sports programs aren’t going to quit. Even if the clock is running out.
[Tony Schifano] I was angry. I was frustrated, confused. And then it moved to, “Okay, what do we have to do moving forward to keep the program?”
[Eddie Monares] This is Tony Schifano, San Francisco State’s head baseball coach, who’s been in the job for a decade.
[Tony Schifano] We’re going to be discussing some things with the San Francisco Giants and see if they want to step in and help the community here, and we’re going to take this to the mayor’s office as well.
[Eddie Monares] At Sonoma State, seven student athletes have even decided to sue the university, alleging that Sonoma State knowingly continued recruiting athletes while planning to eliminate athletics the whole time.
[Eddie Monares] I’m sure there’s people who don’t even watch sports and are thinking, ‘What’s the big deal?’ But for communities in the Bay Area, it’s a BFD.
[Isaiah Casillas] What’s a BFD?
[Eddie Monares] Let’s just say it’s a big deal.
[Isaiah Casillas] Dr. Harry Edwards, a retired UC Berkeley sociologist, who focuses on sports and society, would know how much of a big deal this is.
[Harry Edwards] Sport is one of the anchors to the whole sense and concept of community in the Bay Area. It always has been. And, if you look at where we are today, again, to eliminate sports in any context is short-sighted.
[Isaiah Casillas] Edwards was recently inducted into the Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame this past February, honoring his lifetime contributions to sports within the Bay Area.
[Harry Edwards] As divided as we might be, one thing is that at games, you see some of everybody, all wearing the same jersey, cheering for the same team, as a community in support of their athletic team. That is an anchor to community in the Bay Area. So, when you cut sports, you eliminate that vehicle of expression of community beyond all others.
[Isaiah Casillas] Back at SFSU, athletics is one of those anchors, especially for Sabrina Carle-Parra, a Track and Field athlete.
[Sabrina Carle-Parra] We don’t have a big Greek life, so when it comes to social events at the school usually sports are what you go to. These teams: baseball, track and field, soccer attract the most people, and without that, there’s gonna be no student spirit, no nothing to be here for.
