“Save Winthrop Tennis” was created by Winthrop community members to reinstate the men’s and women’s program to continue its legacy and the impact it had on them.
The organization was created in June due to the board of trustees voting to eliminate the teams.
“My players are very passionate about Winthrop and they don’t want to leave,” Vivian Segnini, former head women’s tennis coach, said. “[We were] raising money because that was the main reason why they cut the program.”
The group of alumni, coaches and community members worked together to raise money and create a plan to ensure the program could be self sustained for three years.
“The amount of money and what we are doing is we are developing a three year financial restructuring plan,” Clayton Almeida, a Winthrop tennis alumnus, said, adding that the group was told part of the elimination was the cost of renovating the tennis courts.
“By fixing the courts it can create revenue by hosting tournaments, doing summer programs and running the program properly. We decided to do it for three years because a lot of the players are now sophomores and we wanted to give these players a chance to graduate and play and stay there,” Almeida said.
“Save Winthrop Tennis” obtained the money to reinstate the teams through pledges, donationsnand community help. The organization raised $800,000 as of Aug. 19.
“We are hoping to raise enough money that by the time year 4 comes in there is some money left that Winthrop can use,” Almeida said.
Interim Winthrop President George Hynd announced that he is supporting the final decision the board of trustees made regarding the elimination of the university’s tennis teams in a letter on Wednesday.
“When you go into a budget cut scenario things are fluid so they change. For us there was a long period of time where we thought we never were going to be heavily hit by immediate or long term COVID impacts,” Hank Harrawood, deputy athletics director, said. “Discontinuing a sport is… a measure of last resort. This was something kinda unavoidable from a fiscal standpoint.”
Harrawood said that when the decision to cut tennis was also the least impactful on student athletes due to a smaller number of players.
“It is a shock. No one ever thinks or intends for this to happen. This is not something you take lightly,” Harrawood said. “Tennis has had unbelievable success; we had two unbelievable coaches. Our tennis programs have made contributions to the community and we will always honor that.”
The tennis program also left a lasting impact on its players.
“I came not being able to speak English and after two years I was already the team captain. As a senior, [I was the] president of the student athlete advisory committee. I served as an international ambassador,” Gabriel Dias, a Winthrop tennis alumnus, said. “All of that was possible because I had the chance to play tennis at Winthrop. To think that future student athletes would not have the chance to have the same opportunities that I have had is extremely heartbreaking.”
“One of the reasons why Winthrop is such a special place is because it’s a very diverse university. One important factor that the men and women’s team bring to the university is diversity,” Dias said. “We have about 18 student athletes and all of them are international students.”
Women’s tennis has won 21 Big South Conference Championship titles and men’s tennis have won nine regular season championships and seven tournament titles.
“We did put a lot of effort in and the team has won quite a bit for the university. I wish they gave us a little bit of an opportunity in the fall to save for the program but I have nothing against the university,” Abhimanyu Vannemreddy, a sophomore finance major, said. “That’s the most difficult thing right now is to practice and find people to practice with. It is a bigger challenge we have no other option at the moment.”
Vannemreddy added that many of his teammates including himself will be looking at transferring eventually to a different university to continue their tennis careers.
Image courtesy Winthrop Athletics
