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December 15, 2000
BYU-Hawaii Drops Men's Soccer
Laie-The Brigham Young University-Hawaii men's soccer program is being
dropped from the ranks of varsity sports at the school. The decision to
drop the program was partially based on a similar decision made by Hawaii
Pacific to terminate their program. HPU was the only other Hawaii school
to offer men's soccer. Another contributing factor was the recent withdrawal
from the Pacific West Conference of most of the other soccer playing schools.
Of the remaining six schools in the conference, only Montana State-Billings,
HPU and BYU-Hawaii had soccer programs, making any kind of conference
arrangement difficult and prohibiting the conference from qualifying for
an automatic bid to NCAA II postseason soccer competition.
BYU-Hawaii Athletic Director Randy Day said that a decision on a sport
to replace soccer will probably be made sometime in January. The school
is required to maintain at least two men's team sports in order to compete
as a division II school. The other men's team sports that would qualify
include football, baseball, volleyball and water polo. Day said football
is the least practical of the options and that he would like to add a
sport that other Hawaii schools participate in. Currently, Hawaii Pacific
and UH-Hilo offer baseball and Chaminade has water polo.
Day said BYU-Hawaii will continue to offer men's soccer as a club sport,
provided the interest remains to do so. The school will also honor soccer
scholarships through the next season.
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