The Siena field hockey team was called Monday to the school’s athletics for a mandatory meeting, where athletic director John D’Argenio made the announcement that the school’s field hockey program would be cut.
According to the Times Union, D’Argenio cited a lack of funding and an inadequate field as the top reasons for doing away with field hockey. The Siena Saints have struggled since the team’s inception, going 134-419-9 since 1978. The team was 1-16 last fall.
"We were behind (in) scholarship funding, we were behind in operating funding, coaching support," D'Argenio told the Times Union. "We just felt we couldn't keep sending the team out there like that."
Siena said the team’s lack of success wasn’t a reason for cutting the program. Rather, the school is looking to save money to invest in other men’s and women’s sports.
"As everybody knows, when you have a strategic plan, you need to fund it, and it's not always new revenue because new revenue is hard to come by," D'Argenio said.
The school will still be in Title IX compliance, as the proportion of female student-athletes is still at just more than 51 percent. Siena has 12 women’s teams among its 21 remaining varsity sports.
The last team Siena cut was its football team back in 2004.
