Wayne State College has announced the decision to suspend its men's and women's intercollegiate golf programs beginning the 2013-14 season.
            “The decision to suspend these programs was, of course, a very difficult one,” said Director of Athletics Mike Powicki.  “It came as a result of an ongoing review of how the institution was able to financially support these programs.  It was clear that since we do not have the budget to appropriately fund these programs in order to provide a quality student athlete experience that we could no longer sustain our current model of sponsoring men's and women's intercollegiate golf.  Wayne State College is extremely grateful to our current group of student athletes for their participation in our golf programs.”
            The suspension of these two sports affects 10 student athletes—(5 men, 5 women).  The suspension of these sports will move Wayne State College from sponsoring 15 intercollegiate programs to sponsoring 13 intercollegiate programs.
            Powicki said any student athlete who was receiving aid in the form of an athletic scholarship will maintain that scholarship through the 2013-14 academic year.  Men's and women's golf will still be sponsored at the College, but at a club level.  This will offer current participants the continued opportunity to compete if they so desire. 
            “With the changes that have occurred within the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference and the region within NCAA Division II, the institution's ability to invest and position these two programs for success was not realistic at this time.  We ultimately had to make a strategic choice on how to invest our resources in order to support programs in which we are providing a quality student athlete experience and have an opportunity to compete at a high level.  Any and all resources saved will be re-invested to support other programs within the Wayne State College sport sponsorship portfolio with an emphasis on women's programs.  I am hopeful that the remaining programs will emerge stronger and healthier, and overall that we will be able to meet our longer-term goals of being competitively funded.”