The cell phone buzzed once, twice, and a third time, awakening Clayton King on a Wednesday morning in mid-April.

King, a standout golfer and graduate of Uvalde High School, tried to tune out the sound. But when it was unrelenting, he concluded the alerts likely signified something serious.

“I didn’t really figure out why my phone was going off,” King said. “Then, I started reading all my text messages. And then, all the calls started coming in from my teammates.”

An hour later, via a video conference, the devastating news was delivered.

St. Edward’s University, citing lost revenue related to the coronavirus pandemic, announced on April 15 that it had eliminated its men’s and women’s golf, men’s and women’s tennis and men’s soccer programs. The school’s cheer squad was demoted to club status.

The move was part of an emerging nationwide trend where universities are trimming athletic teams to compensate for a potential financial downturn because of COVID-19 outbreak. It came weeks after the NCAA canceled the seasons for all spring sports because of the novel disease, which has killed nearly 98,000 and infected more than 1.6 million in the United States.

“We were all shocked,” said King, a junior who this spring earned NCAA Division II All-American honors. “None of us saw it coming. It was hard enough on us already with the season being canceled due to the coronavirus, but then we got this put on top of it.”

King is one of three former area high school golfers playing at St. Edward’s who were left stranded by the Austin-based institution’s decision. Romina Gonzalez, a Reagan graduate, and Kiersten Bryant, a Johnson product, are the others.

All three have to decide between finding a new home and remaining at a school that eliminated their beloved sport. The athletes, whose scholarships would be honored if they stayed at St. Edward’s, have until July 1 to choose.

The situation was made more precarious because most schools have already signed their recruiting classes for the 2020-21 season. With the NCAA granting athletes in spring sports an addition year of eligibility because of the coronavirus-related cancellation, roster spots are sparse.

“They’re putting the athletes in a really harsh situation,” said Gonzalez, who is on a partial scholarship at St. Edward’s and makes up the difference out of pocket. “I don’t know where I’m going to go for college. All the schools already know what their team is going to look like. Colleges aren’t giving out scholarships anymore.”

St. Edward’s is among them — a fact that has left coaches, athletes and alumni stunned, especially considering how this season was playing out.
The women were ranked No. 18 in the nation and the men at No. 25.

Bryant, a freshman who had four top-10 finishes, was second on the team in scoring average (75.82) and was tabbed for all-region and all-conference recognition. She has indicated she will transfer. Gonzalez, a sophomore, was third in scoring (76.7).

King, who plans to take online courses this summer to graduate early in December before seeking to transfer for his final two seasons, had three top-10 placements in five spring tournaments and a team-best 72.93 scoring average. He carded a 69 in the final round of the Las Vegas Desert Classic on March 3, the final tournament of the year.

“I’ve been playing golf my entire life,” Gonzalez said. “I’ve been working since middle school, constantly, to be able to play college golf. I don’t think (school administrators) realize how much work all of us put in to get to this level. It’s not that easy to just drop what we’ve been working on or go to another school.”

For their part, the golf teams are working for a reprieve. Nearly 20,000 have signed an online petition as a show of support. After a few meetings with administrators at St. Edward’s, a private school with an enrollment of about 4,300, an olive branch appeared to be extended.

Administrators told the golf programs they needed to raise $2.3 million by the end of this month to cover operational costs for the next five years and an addition $16 million to fully endow the teams. The mandated financial goals, perhaps a difficult proposition to achieve, come in a backdrop of St. Edward’s last week laying off 10 percent of its employees.

“It was pretty obvious that the school did not value the sports program,” said King, a three-time district champion in high school who as a freshman played at Division III Concordia University in Austin before transferring. “They could’ve told all the coaches and all the athletes, ‘Here’s the situation that we’re in because of the coronavirus, can y’all start fundraising for next year to help get through it?’ We would’ve all understood and we would’ve saved the programs. The school turned it down.
“It makes you not want to be a part of St. Edward’s.”

Gonzalez agreed, pointing out how swiftly things evolved. One moment, she was claiming a top-15 finish at the St. Mary’s Rattler Invitational at the Dominion Country Club. The next, she was crying along with her teammates during a video conference call after their coach informed them that the program had been shuttered.

“We were all so mad about it,” Gonzalez said. “It was really devastating. My team is like my family. When they canceled the program, a part of me lost motivation. I miss having that commitment with my team; that discipline. It’s like they say, ‘You don’t appreciate something until they take it away.’ How much I would do to have a 5 a.m. workout.”