Westminster College of Salt Lake City shut down its intercollegiate athletic program 25 years ago. Budget concerns at the small, private, liberal arts school near Sugar House made athletics a non-necessity that was expendable at the time. No more were the Parsons, as they were then known, facing competition from other institutions of higher learning on the court or the field.
Jump forward to today, and it's a whole different picture. Westminster, quietly and without much notice from the outside world, now sponsors 10 intercollegiate teams (eight varsity and two junior varsity).
It started slowly — just men's soccer in 1984 — then built gradually with women's volleyball being added several years later. In the past six years, there has been a mini-explosion of opportunities. Men's and women's varsity basketball, men's and women's golf, men's and women's cross country and men's and women's junior varsity basketball have all been instituted. It's gotten to the point that nearly 5 percent of the school's undergraduate population participates.
And more teams and better facilities for those teams are on the way.
"Athletics are important at Westminster — especially for the student-athlete," said the school's president, Michael Bassis. "We acknowledge that the learning students do outside of the classroom is almost as important as the learning they do inside the classroom."
The teams certainly aren't money makers directly, as the costs of fielding teams far outweigh the income brought in by them. The Griffins, as they are known now, are members of the NAIA — a governing organization much like the NCAA for larger institutions. But since there are no other NAIA schools in Utah, Westminster finds itself in the Frontier Conference with teams from Montana and Idaho. Long bus trips are frequent.
But having an intercollegiate athletic program has helped Westminster in several ways, according to athletic director/men's basketball coach Tommy Connor — not the least of which is enrollment. Many students come to Westminster to participate in sports. The athletic program also helps give Westminster a sense of community.
"Our athletic teams are made up of outstanding students and high-character people," said Connor. "We are proud of the fact that we have done as well or better than the rest of the student body in the classroom in terms of grade point average. We've added student-athletes to Westminster's campus that represent our college well."
There are no athletic scholarships given out at Westminster. The players, for the most part, are in the same boat as the student body at large, trying to get other academic scholarships, grants and loans to pay for a Westminster education.
"Some of our athletes are able to get nice packages to pay for school," Connor said. "But some of them have families that are paying a lot of money."
Success on the playing field has been varied — the men's basketball team has a couple of league titles and NAIA tournament appearances already, while the women's volleyball team won just one match this season.
But it's about more than wins and losses at Westminster.
"Our goal is not winning. Our goal is educating students," said Bassis. "That said, it's difficult to educate students if you have athletic teams that have a hard time being competitive and lose all the time. So we want to have competitive intercollegiate teams. If we win and become league champions, that's great. But the goal is learning — not just winning."
Toward that end, the school is breaking ground on a state-of-the-art Health, Wellness and Athletics Center this spring. It will replace the old Payne Gymnasium that has been around since the 1930s. The new facility will have a swimming pool, three gymnasiums, a climbing wall, exercise rooms, locker rooms and an indoor track in addition to housing the school of nursing.
"Upgrading our facilities will be a very positive step forward for our recreational, intramural and intercollegiate athletic programs," said Bassis.
Next to the new athletic center will be a new parking garage with 450 spaces. A full-size athletic field will be built on top of the parking lot — giving the soccer team an on-campus home once again. In recent years the soccer team has played its home games across the valley at the West Jordan Soccer Complex.
"That will be the first time in a long time that we'll have an adequate outdoor field," said Bassis. "We hope to add a women's soccer team. Plus, it wouldn't surprise me if we ended up adding club teams for both men's and women's lacrosse."
In addition, Bassis says, a Westminster strategic plan suggests skiing and snowboarding teams could be viable in the not too distant future.
"It will give us a broader diversity of sports," he said.
In the meantime, Westminster's current teams will continue to try to represent the school in a positive light, both in games and in the classroom.
E-mail: lojo@desnews.com