Saint Francis student athletes react to switch from division 1
LORETTO, Pa. (WTAJ)– It came as a shock to many Saint Francis students, student athletes and alumni last week when the school announced that it would be transitioning all of the University's athletic programs from Division 1 to Division 3.
In a press conference last week University President Father Malachi Van Tassell cited a changing division 1 landscape including NIL and the transfer portal as the main reasons for the change. Last fall the Saint Francis football team garnered national media attention with the program's first win against an FBS opponent in program history, against Kent State. Month's later the men's basketball team qualified for March Madness for the first time in 34 years.
On March 25 several student athletes were either training or studying when they got the news via email.
'It said important announcement from Father Malachi Van Tassell, and I was like oh no,' Women's Water Polo co-captain Grace Raquel said. 'I clicked on it and it was addressed to all of the athletes, this was at 11:19 am. Then it said hey we're going to division three. Immediately our water polo group chat like blew up.'
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'My initial reaction was to start crying because I was so overwhelmed,' Field Hockey player Grace Reed said. 'I was like what is going on.'
Both Reed and Raquel said their teammates began worrying about what would happen to their athletic scholarships, as division 3 can't offer them like division 1 can.
'We were all in tears, a lot of us just assumed we were going to be here for four years playing a division 1 sport together and that was that,' Reed said. 'Now all of that is being kind of taken away from us.'
'So they can either have an athletic scholarship or play, which sucks,' Raquel said.
The official transition to division 3 isn't coming for another year yet. Both Reed and Raquel took to TikTok where the two would become the unofficial faces of frustration among Saint Francis athletes.
'I made one that got like 2.5 million views,' Reed said. 'It was just kind of shocking to see the whole entire like nation, the world respond to those videos and be like oh my gosh this is actually happening.'
In her TikTok, Raquel expressed her concerns about how the small university will remain open in the future, with an enrollment of around 2,000 students already.
'I've heard between 50 to 70 percent of us are student athletes,' Raquel said. 'Everywhere you go you see student athlete jackets. A lot of classes are going to have to close in the fall because of not enough people. They told us to expect one or more residence halls to close.'
Raquel and Reed said that the timing of the announcement of the transition from the University didn't sit well with them either, having watched the men's basketball team go on a historic run to the NCAA tournament after winning the Northeastern Conference.
'We made it to March madness, we had a great year and I felt like we did a great job just you know getting some money for the school too just by getting there,' Men's basketball forward Valentino Pinedo said.
Pinedo, the junior basketball player from Spain, was in the transfer portal before the announcement was made. Now all but one of his teammates have followed him there.
'For the people that are like sophomores or like freshman it's really going to affect them it's like going from d1 to d3, like that is not what they sign up for,' Pinedo said.
Head basketball coach Rob Krimmel announced that he would be retiring from his job two days after the announcement came out. Krimmel said he shared this message with his team after their historic run to March Madness.
'I told our guys that they'll be remembered as champions and that can never be taken away from them,' Krimmel said.
Krimmel clarified that his decision to retire was not impacted by the University's decision.
'I realized that it was time for me to be a dad,' Krimmel said.
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