By: Sydney Franklin Photo by: Staff
Nearly 40 percent of all traditional undergraduate students are involved in intercollegiate sports at Milligan College. This week, the Stampede sought to measure the impact of athletics on campus life.
Of the estimated 1,200 students enrolled at Milligan, only 813 are considered full-time undergraduates. To be eligible for athletics, all students must meet this requirement.
Over 10 years ago, Milligan was nine sports short of the 22 it now offers. Since 2000, roster numbers have grown 56 percent. With the addition of men’s club volleyball in 2014 and a target goal of 15 players, Milligan will be 41 percent full of student athletes.
Currently, baseball maintains the highest roster with 48 players and cycling the lowest with seven as of fall 2012. The men’s and women’s soccer teams have 31 and 28 players respectively.
Milligan has a total 316 athletes on campus, some of those competing in more than one sport each year. Most of these students receive athletic scholarships, but the exact number of students can’t be published due to proprietary laws.
Vice President for Student Development Mark Fox said that Milligan gives financial incentives to recruits in order to attract the best players.
“It’s important to us that in every athletic program we do, we do well,” he said. “The worst we could do is have an unsuccessful athletic team.”
But Fox said that individuals scholarships are given based on the team’s overall budget. Coaches give individual contracts to players within the budget given to the team for that year by the school.
Each sport’s team’s budget is dependent upon several things: the size of its roster, the amount of equipment required, the amount of travel throughout the season, the length of the season, and the number of competitions played.
“Sports are major not just in enrollment here at Milligan, but in campus life,” said Fox. “I think that’s what people forget.”
Fox described Milligan athletics as an integral part of the community, not just for athletes but for non-athletes as well.
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