Efforts continue to save Boise State baseball, swimming; football team resumes workouts
Boise State Athletic Director Curt Apsey has repeatedly said fundraising is not an option to save the school’s recently disbanded baseball and swimming and diving programs, but the teams aren’t giving up.
The swimming team started an online campaign, which has already raised $220,000, Boise State swimming coach Christine Mabile said Monday morning. The baseball program’s GoFundMe page was up to $32,000 in donations as of Monday afternoon.
Together, the programs are attempting to raise $2 million, Mabile said, adding the amount is more than they should need.
“They’re all in, and they’re very, very resilient,” Mabile said of her team’s efforts. “We’re very determined not to accept the decision, especially since it wasn’t a discussion.”
On Thursday, Boise State announced it was cutting the teams as part of an anticipated $3 million reduction in the athletic department budget due to revenue lost because of COVID-19. Apsey said then that the department didn’t see fundraising as a sustainable answer, and he doubled down on that over the weekend.
Mabile said she and Apsey met Sunday to discuss the campaigns, and she was told for a second time that fundraising wasn’t an option.
“He has said this is a decision for the long-term health of the athletic department and it’s not feasible to ask coaches and athletes to fund raise for a program every year, because they can have a better experience somewhere else and we need to offer them an equal experience,” Mabile said.
Over the past three seasons, the total expenses for the swimming and diving program averaged $907,736, according to documents obtained by the Statesman through an open records request. Mabile said she has worked with a budget of $500,000 or less before.
Mabile’s first stop as a head coach was at College of Idaho, where she spent five years in charge of the men’s and women’s programs with a combined budget of just $20,000 a year.
She said Boise State’s decision not to give fundraising efforts a chance was disappointing, especially since most of the money raised came from small donations over just a couple days. The next step for her athletes, Mabile said, is to speak to bigger donors.
“We have been so focused on their experience and developing them as people and now all of a sudden we’re saying they can’t be part of the discussion or coaches can’t be part of the discussion to figure how to save this,” Mabile said. “We’re not ready to accept that.”
Mabile, who was hired in 2018, said she expected lost revenue from COVID-19 to result in budget cuts across the department, but the decision to cut swimming came as a total shock.
“I felt the weight of my dreams and 29 other athletes’ dreams crushed in that moment, and it was absolutely overwhelming,” she said.
An Idaho native who grew up in Post Falls and graduated from Boise State, Mabile said she hasn’t decided what she’ll do if fundraising efforts don’t succeed, but she’s keeping her options open.
“I have to decide if I want to stay in Boise and find a new career or continue my career as a college coach and not live in Boise, which is hard because I’ve been in Idaho for more than 30 years,” Mabile said.
Trying to save baseball
Boise State pitcher Gavin Gorrell spoke up Thursday during a Zoom call with administrators about the possibility of fundraising and brought up Bowling Green’s success in saving its program through a similar campaign. But he was given the same answer as Mabile.
“I don’t understand how you can just cut if off with no hope,” Gorrell said by phone on Monday. “I feel like Boise State is built around being an underdog and always fighting for something and we didn’t get that chance, but we’re doing it anyway.”
Gorrell immediately started a GoFundMe page, which quickly raised more than $400, but after he was told fundraising wasn’t an option, he took it down and refunded the money.
Boise State baseball coach Gary Van Tol’s daughter, Amaia, then took up the cause with her own page, which has attracted more than 280 donors.
In a video posted Sunday on Gorrell’s Twitter page, Van Tol thanked the community for its support.
“Bronco Nation, your response to the news has been overwhelming and truly inspirational,” Van Tol said in the video. “The time is now, in true Bronco fashion, to rise up and fight for another opportunity to play.”
Gorrell said the support speaks to how important baseball is to the community at large.
“People want baseball in Boise,” he said. “When I think about Boise State baseball, I think about all the young kids who could now dream of one day playing at Boise State. It’s not just players and coaches being affected by this. They’re losing out, too.”
After transferring from Northern Colorado, Gorrell was a member of the Broncos’ Dirty Dozen — the team’s first 12 signees, who enrolled in 2018 and spent a year on campus training and playing in a couple exhibition games before ever taking the field for a regular-season contest.
On Monday, Gorrell said Boise State’s promise to honor all scholarships will keep him at Boise State even if the program isn’t saved. He plans to complete his undergraduate degree and then hopes to finish his college playing career elsewhere as a graduate transfer.
Football restarts workouts
The Boise State football team restarted voluntary workouts Monday after the university’s campus was closed for two weeks following an outbreak of the coronavirus.
Players were in the weight room at 6 a.m., a team spokesperson confirmed Monday morning.
Boise State initially closed campus on June 23 after a string of eight COVID-19 cases. Just three days later, about 20 positive cases led the school to extend the closure through Sunday.
The NCAA voted to allow voluntary workouts beginning June 1. Boise State football and women’s soccer players arrived on campus that week, and on June 8, the university announced multiple athletes tested positive for the virus but declined to specify how many or which sport they played.
On June 24, the athletic department announced four positive cases out of at least 230 athletes, coaches and staff members who were tested. The school also said it would provide periodic updates on COVID-19 testing.
This story was originally published July 6, 2020 at 12:44 PM.
