Grays Harbor (Wash.) College this week made the decision to cut the school's men's golf and wrestling programs amid concerns that the school's athletics department as a whole is in jeopardy.
“In order to maintain and build on the strengths of our athletic program and comply with outside requirements, we have decided to suspend men’s golf and men’s wrestling for one year,” GHC Associate Vice President Kristy Anderson wrote in an email to The Daily World. “We will continue to work on the challenges in GHC’s Athletics program and will reassess as the year ahead unfolds. At this time, we believe that limiting our offerings, offering solid programs where students are supported in both their athletic and educational endeavors will strengthen the future of athletics at GHC.”
Cutting the two programs leaves Grays Harbor with just four athletic programs — baseball, softball, men's basketball and women's wrestling. The young school has cut a number of programs since 2019, including women’s basketball, women’s volleyball and women’s soccer.
“I am very sad about dropping men’s golf at GHC, but feel more sad for our players and recruits as I think golf was a successful program,” Chokers head golf coach Ann Swanson said. “I am working to help those players find a new school. GHC administration has to do what is best for the college and to have equitable opportunities for all athletes that hopefully will strengthen the future of GHC Athletics. … I have put my heart and soul into this program for the past 10 years and proud of what we have accomplished. I always tell my players to ‘enjoy the journey.’ And I have enjoyed my journey at GHC. I wish it could go on as I didn’t reach all my goals for the program.”
The school recently requested an audit by the Northwest Athletic Conference, which concluded in 2023.
“We are committed to building a comprehensive collegiate athletic experience for our student athletes that includes academic achievement, competitive athletics and opportunities to pursue interests and passions,” said Dr. Cal Erwin-Svoboda, former vice president of Student Services at GHC in a statement on the school’s website on June 7, 2023. “The changes announced today are part of a long-term effort to strengthen Choker athletics, which was impacted by the pandemic and has seen staff turnover in recent years.”
Anderson said the moves being made now are in response to the audit.
“One year ago, following an audit GHC requested from the Northwest Athletics Conference, GHC embarked on a project to implement changes in our athletics program,” she wrote. “The changes identified from the review are in-progress and are designed to improve the student experience as well as to allow GHC to comply with NWAC standards and to make our athletics program more equitable for all students.”
The Daily World reported that per the NWAC’s recommendations, the school acknowledged in the June 2023 statement the administrative focus of the athletic department will be to “shift to roster management, professional development that will include coach mentoring and training, evaluation of programs and facilities and a practical approach to recruiting student-athletes.”
At least one former head coach said the school has not implemented those changes.
“A year ago, the NWAC came in and said if you don’t right the ship, we’re going to kick you out of the NWAC,” said former Grays Harbor women’s wrestling coach and Grays Harbor County Commissioner Kevin Pine. “So they gave Cal (Erwin-Svoboda) a list of things that the school needed to improve on. Going into this year, they had done zero of these things and the coaches were blamed for a lack of recruiting.”
Pine said the suspension of what was a successful men’s wrestling program is a product of mismanagement by the school’s administration, and he fears the women’s team may be next on the chopping block.
“(Former GHC men’s wrestling coach) Joshua (Pine) resigned at the end of the season last year and it took them over two months to post the job opening and then they claimed nobody applied for the job,” Kevin Pine said, who added he knew of applicants that were rejected by the school due to an NWAC recommendation regarding applicants possessing an Associate’s Degree. “I finally got my assistant coach to apply for the job and they didn’t hire him until after school started. So that was one of the reasons we had such a small team. We could only do very little recruiting for the men’s team. They were looking for a reason to drop men’s wrestling last year. I think I got in the way.”
