GEORGETOWN, Ky. — With the recent news of Georgetown College cutting some of its sports teams, alumni are recalling the cuts that were made a few years back.
What You Need To Know
- Georgetown College Alumni remember budget cuts from years prior
- Teagan Lilly was a former dancer for the College
- Georgetown College eliminated multiple sports because of a budget cut last week
- Lilly believes the college needs to find other ways to adjust their budgets
Georgetown College alumnus Teagan Lilly said hearing of budget cuts brings back strong emotions.
“It brings back a lot of sad memories and it just brings back just again heartbroken,” Lilly said. “I mean, I was heartbroken when they took my team away so I know exactly how they’re feeling.”
Georgetown College decided last week to discontinue the men’s and women’s varsity golf, archery and JV programs for both men’s and women’s soccer. Lilly said a familiar situation happened her senior year with the dance team.
“He basically told us that there was nothing he could do and that if we wanted to continue dancing. We were a club now and it would be up to us, so I took that as a challenge,” Lilly said.
Coaching the team for nearly three months, Lilly said being a part of a college sport is something to be respected for.
“I started when I was four years old, and did it all the way through middle school, high school and a lot of these kids work for that in high school. That’s their goal is to play a collegiate sport, and for them to be recruited, and then just say, nevermind, I mean, I just can’t even imagine,” Lilly said.
Sports made her who she is today, and Lilly believes the college needs to find other ways to make budget cuts than taking away from student athletes.
“‘Yeah, come play here, come sign with us and we’ll give you a scholarship and you’ll go to this great school.’ But now, just everything that they worked for has been taken away from them with no explanation,” Lilly said.
For months, Lilly said they fought to have their dance team recognized as a collegiate team on campus and eventually the school hired a new coach.
Lilly hopes the school will see the impact these cuts are having on alumni and student athletes in their community.
Spectrum News 1 reached out to Georgetown College Athletics Department for a statement on the recent cuts, and are still waiting for a response.