Baylor’s equestrian team has a long-standing reputation of success and excellence and is continually striving for even greater achievements. These achievements are largely due to its ties with the NCAA, which provides a majority of the funds allotted to university athletics, including equestrian. It is therefore no surprise that when recent news leaked of the NCAA’s recommendation to remove the program from its list of sports for women. The whole team (as well as much of the student body) was utterly shattered. Not only does this mean that countless hours spent training and awards received would essentially go down the drain; but also it would have a devastating impact on girls who depend on the NCAA financially to continue participating in the sport they live for.
Kelsey Wolf, a sophomore on the team, is one of these girls. “If I was not an NCAA athlete, I would be unable to continue riding because of an extreme change in my family’s finances. My life has revolved around this sport for the past 12 years and to see it removed from the NCAA would be heartbreaking,” Wolf said.
Equestrian was established as an emerging sport with the NCAA in 2002 with expectations to meet the goal of 40 schools with similar programming by 2012. However, the expectation fell short—only 23 universities nationwide are currently sponsoring the sport. By NCAA standards, this is arguably not a fast enough rate of expansion to keep equestrian’s position as an emerging sport.
Though the NCAA is simply following certain regulations, the effect that this has on so many athletes is terribly significant. Like so many other student athletes, a huge reason why equestrian girls decide to come to Baylor is dependent on the opportunity they have to be on the team. Removing the sport from the NCAA list would mean that so many girls coming to Baylor with the sole purpose of being on the equestrian team would be left with nothing.
Alexis Humenik, a junior on the team, fears what could be if the decision is made in favor of discontinuing the program. “If the vote is accepted to remove the sport, it will leave hundreds of student athletes with their dreams crushed. [The vote] would become enacted in 2017, which would affect the freshman class right now. I personally would not be affected by this legislation, however my heart goes out to my teammates and the other student athletes at other schools,” Humenik states.
If you would like to help the girls of the equestrian team, you can sign the petition to continue NCAA equestrian by following this link: http://www.change.org/p/mark-emmert-vote-to-contin...
