Consolidation of LI's college teams means fewer opportunities

The plan to consolidate three sports at Suffolk Community College is another harbinger of the changing environment of intercollegiate sports on Long Island. It follows the closing of Southampton College and the cessation of football at Hofstra.

Initially, the Suffolk initiative seemed innocuous. The merging of baseball, volleyball and men's basketball to one team for two campuses will affect, Suffolk said, only about 50 athletes and will create stronger teams.

But community colleges playing at the non-scholarship level have always been about opportunity, not necessarily athletic success. Countless athletes from diverse backgrounds have started athletic and academic careers at two-year schools. Now it has become about winning?

Secondly, one can not cavalierly dismiss the 50 or so athletes from the three abolished teams. That number will compound to 250 over five years, 500 in 10 years. And that assumes no other changes in the number of athletic offerings.

Suffolk's administration said a broader intramural program will be instituted and will serve, in theory, a larger population of the general student population. That may be so, but it is speculative.

In the early 1970s, Suffolk CC-Selden, the flagship campus, had a dynamic athletic program and a large intramural program. It was a commuter school (as it is today), but in those years, many students tended to stay on campus from morning until evening. There were fewer outside interests and distractions.

At Nassau CC, athletic director Mike Pelliccia said his school has a thriving intramural program but noted that it has not impacted the college's athletic teams.

"There are a lot of colleges that do [intramurals], but not at the cost of the athletic program or a sport or two here or there," Pelliccia said.

Pelliccia said he is concerned that Suffolk's plan will eliminate roster spots. "It reduces opportunity, that's the biggest thing I see," he said. "They had two great baseball teams over there. Now it's going to be one."

Eugene Farry, who had a 30-year association with Suffolk as an athletic director and coach, said, "There's two sides you have to look at, and as a former AD, I can see both sides. One would be budget concerns, the other is participation, which is very important. If you are a physical educator, then that part has a huge priority. That's what you are looking for the most."

On the matter of combining teams to create a stronger team with better athletes, Farry said, "Sure, everybody wants to win. But I think your mission is far more complicated than just winning, especially at a community college."

With fiscal issues always of primary concern, cutting back programs may seem mild compared to Long Island University's closure of Southampton in 2005. Stony Brook University tried to revive Southampton with an academic curriculum but recently announced it will pull most of its courses.

It was a grim reminder for those who went through the first shuttering.

"The closing of the school was tough on everyone," said former Southampton basketball coach Peter Quinn, now an assistant at Pfeiffer University (N.C.). "I know for myself, when I would return to the Hamptons after my seasons down here, it was hard to drive past the college without a flood of memories rushing through my head. I have so many good memories of the entire athletic department and college personnel. The team and I would always wonder, 'How can this school not thrive?' It seemed, on the outside, to be such a great place for a four-year education . . . I've been getting e-mails from [former] players and friends from other sports teams at the college in regards to the [Stony Brook] decision. We're all still very attached to the college and everything it did for us."

This fall, Long Island will be reduced to one full scholarship football program (Stony Brook) after the dissolution of the sport at Hofstra.

Hofstra said football was expensive, but if cost becomes paramount, overall survival for most sports will be in jeopardy.

What could be on the horizon? Before he left C.W. Post for Iona, basketball coach Tim Cluess wondered if a rumored consolidation of LIU sports would affect his job. Could LIU - with campuses in Brooklyn and on Long Island - someday elect to have one team in each sport?

LIU officials do not foresee a change. C.W. Post spokeswoman Rita Langdon said the school remains "committed to a strong Division II program."

But that does not come with a guarantee for the future.