Students at Bryn Athyn College are disappointed after the school announced it is ending all 11 of it’s NCAA sports teams. NBC10’s Brian Sheehan reports.
A college in Montgomery County is cancelling all of their athletic programs at the end of this school year, according to a letter from the president.
Sean Connelly, president of Bryn Athyn College of the New Church, announced in a letter to the community on Wednesday, March 26 that all 11 NCAA Division III sports teams will be transitioned into clubs.
This mean, according to the letter, that 29 people on the athletics staff will be let go.
These changes will not take effect until the end of the 2024-2025 school year, the president wrote.
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Student athletes react
Students and their families told NBC10 that this came as a complete surprise and many are still trying to grasp what happened and what comes next.
One junior at the school, Tyler Cassidy, said he is devastated that and his teammates on the college's club hockey team will never skate on the ice again together.
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“It’s really hard. It’s ‘cause I’ve been playing hockey since I was at least ten years old and to get no final closure in hockey is really just something that doesn’t sit right with me. Especially coming this unexpected," Cassidy explained.
Hockey is the longest running sport at Bryn Athyn and the school's president wrote that he hoped to preserve it, "given its storied legacy. But even stripped of overhead, it’s cost remains too high.”
Tyler and other athletes met with leadership at the school on Thursday, but Tyler's mom said that their questions were not answered.
“It doesn’t make any sense. There’s no reason why we cannot talk about paying to keep this program going," his mom, Elizabeth Cassidy Bianco, said.
To read the president's full letter to the school, click here.
NBC10 reached out to Bryn Athyn College on Thursday but have not yet heard back.
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