Recession threatens athletic trips

Each year, a number of varsity sports teams travel far from campus to prepare for their respective seasons. This number could soon fall, however, as current economic conditions necessitate tightening budgets, Senior Associate Director of Athletics Erin McDermott said.

“There may be fewer trips in the future. It remains to be seen ... [All] travel is contingent on funding,” McDermott said in an e-mail, declining to release any specific information about the cost of the trips.

“Expenses vary based on the number of contests played in each sport, the number of people on a team that travel, [and] the location of the competitions,” she said. “Regardless of those factors, we certainly travel in the most cost effective manner with mode of travel, lodging and meals.”

While the University does help subsidize local trips and Ivy League games, much of the funding for team trips to faraway sites comes from sources outside the University, like the individual teams’ Friends Groups. These organizations, composed of alumni, family and other supporters, donate money to specific teams rather than to the athletics program as a whole.

Kelly Harchut ’12 said that the women’s lacrosse team’s trip to Australia in December included several special excursions and activities funded by the Friends Group.

“The lacrosse team is very lucky in that the ‘Friends of Lacrosse’ funded the trip. Everything from airfare to almost every meal was paid for,” she said in an e-mail. “Activities including a team surf lesson, a sand boarding lesson during our day trip to Kangaroo Island, as well as a trip to a natural park where we were able to see, pet and feed kangaroos, emus, and many other animals native to Australia, were paid for through the Friends Group.”

In the past, such donations have also allowed the women’s squash team to take a training trip to Africa and co-captain Maggie O’Toole ’09 noted that the team has taken two international trips during her time at Princeton, one to Trinidad and Tobago in 2007 and one to Egypt last Fall Break. Though the trip to Egypt was partially subsidized by donations, the money for the trip to Trinidad and Tobago was completely raised by team members, she said.

Though the team does not expect to repeat such an endeavor for four more years, financial circumstances are not conducive to international trips at this time, women's squash head coach Gail Ramsay said, noting, “I think right now there would definitely be some limitations [to travel].”

McDermott explained, “Taking trips outside of our local area is contingent on having sufficient Friends Group funding. If the donations are not sufficient to fund trips, they will not happen.”

The lack of funding may have a significant effect on teams’ season performance, according to some athletes.

Sprinter Adam Hyndman ’12, who went to the National Training Center in Clermont, Fla., with the track and field teams over spring break, said that cutting back on these trips would likely be damaging to the team.

“Particularly for the track team, having a trip where we can travel as a juncture between our indoor and outdoor season is pretty critical,” he explained, adding that the warm Florida weather was important for the team’s practice routines. “We had seven guys qualify for regionals … and that wouldn’t have happened had we not been in Florida.”

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O’Toole said the squash team trip to Egypt also aided the team tremendously.

“When we went to Egypt, it was very different, including how they train,” O’Toole said. “It was different to see their style. I think all of us really improved while we were there. We hit so many more balls than we would have in one of our own training sessions.” After returning from Egypt, the team went undefeated and won its third consecutive national championship this year.