Other programs
get budget knife
Her senior class was the last to wear a softball uniform at University of Vermont, a sad fact that Jeanine Connolly admits will likely not sink in until the end of the summer.
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"I told everyone it probably won't hit me till August and I don't have to go back to Vermont," said Connolly, a 2005 graduate of West Bridgewater High who led the Catamounts (8-38) in RBIs this spring.
Vermont cut its softball and baseball programs in February for financial reasons. And at other New England colleges, athletes from communities south of Boston have also been adversely affected by program cuts.
Apponequet Regional grad Ethan Lincoln was on the men's soccer team at Maine, which has been cut along with women's volleyball.
"It's still just as frustrating but it makes it easier to know other people are going through it, too," said Lincoln, who hopes to transfer to Montclair State. "But it hasn't reduced our anger towards what has happened."
At MIT, Bohan Liu of Quincy (pistol) and Canton's Jake Shapiro and Jacob Sharpe (men's gymnastics) were members of two of the eight programs that will be eliminated.
Maine and UVM will honor scholarship commitments to athletes on cut programs who wish to remain at school. They also granted permission to any school that wants to contact an affected athlete. The NCAA allows the players to transfer and play immediately without sitting out a year.
Last week, Connolly said most of her former nonsenior teammates, including sophomore pitcher Jocelyn Abaray of Acushnet, were still in limbo while four others have decided to stay at UVM.
"It's very sad, considering our team had two juniors and two seniors and the rest of the team was sophomores and freshmen," said Connolly, who plans to attend grad school for athletic training for physical therapy. "We had a very young team so it was heartbreaking for these girls."
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