Kingsport's Adams affected by Marshall University's swim team cuts

Kingsport native Abby Adams had always dreamed of swimming at the Division I level. From her swimming origins in Washington state to moving to Kingsport in her teenage years, the aspirations motivated her to push herself to be the best she could be. That work allowed her the opportunity to swim for Marshall University. In her freshman season thus far, Adams has shown well for herself. In the Thundering Herd's most recent meets, she won the event's 200-meter backstroke and finished second in both the 100-meter backstroke and the 200-meter medley relay. However, the world of the Marshall swim and dive program changed suddenly. Last Thursday, what appeared at first to be a nondescript invitation to a team meeting turned into massive news. Marshall's athletic director, Gerald Harrison, informed the group of the school's intentions to cut the program. An email first obtained by Swimming World Magazine cited financial reasons for the cut. "Nobody knew anything that was happening," Adams said. "Our coach maybe knew the night before. But they gave us no indication that anything was going to happen. Then (Harrison) walked in, gave us a five-minute speech and left." Making the move even more befuddling to the student-athletes was the recent hire of a dive coach. On January 28, Marshall announced the hiring of Tom Huynh as the dive coach, who was previously at Purdue. "Our dive coach has been amazing," Adams said. "I know our divers have really enjoyed working with him. Nobody really understands that decision of why we hired him two weeks ago and then deciding to cut the team a few weeks after he was hired. It really doesn't make sense." The Marshall Board of Governors met at 12:30 on Tuesday afternoon to finalize the decision. University president Brad Smith stated in the meeting the decision came to Title IX alignment, financial stability, and infrastructure. The athletic department will instead sponsor stunt in place of swim and dive, which will save around $300,000 per year if both programs are operating at max capacity. The timing of the meeting comes in a bad place for the 28-person roster, as the Thundering Herd are preparing for the American Athletic Conference Championships starting on Wednesday in Greensboro, N.C. "It's difficult for all of us," Adams said. "But I think we've come together and agreed that we're swimming for each other. We're swimming for our coaches that have put so much time and effort into us. We're going to do it together as a team and push together. It's a struggle for sure, but I think we're going to try and take it off of each other's backs." Despite being out of town for the Tuesday meeting, the swim and dive team has continued to fight for the future of the program. After news of the program's cut became public, a Change.org petition to save the program went live. As of Tuesday morning, the petition had over 16,000 signatures. "Just seeing the numbers go up – looking at the comments – seeing how many people support us, it's so amazing," said Adams of the groundswell of support. "It makes me feel a lot better. It gives me hope that there are so many people out there that really care for our program and don't want it to be cut." Even though the move is happening outside of the Tri-Cities, Adams said she hopes the community will take note of the cuts. "I feel like in the time since I've come to Tennessee and lived there, the people have just been the nicest ever," she said. "They are such a community back in Kingsport and I feel like I am a part of that community. So I guess I would say that it would be amazing if they could do a tiny thing and sign that petition." Ahead of the afternoon meeting, the Kingsport native also had a word for the Board of Governors. "I would ask them to look over exactly what they're doing to us," Adams said. "There's major issues with Title IX issues. The fact that they are withholding so much information from us and they clearly haven't stated what's going on. Also, considering the fact they're holding the meeting at 12:30 when we're gone at our conference meet. "I would just ask them to look at their actions. Are they truly okay with taking off another women's sport? Cutting another women's sport and doing it so shadily. Are they okay with tearing apart a family like they are?"