The SBCC men’s tennis team has just been snuffed out like a cigarette on the sidewalk by a pair of football cleats worn by ex-college football player, and new SBCC athletic director, Ryan Byrne. Look for other SBCC “minor” sports to be dropped in the near future. The smoke screen that Mr. Bryne has put up in his defense of suspending the program is that intercollegiate men’s tennis has ”dwindling local interest.” Well, the same could be said of SBCC football when you look at their attendance figures. Recruiting violations, performance enhancing drugs, gambling, concussions, sky-rocketing expenses — they all follow present-day college football. The only winners are the big time college football programs who swoop down and snag the top JC players, and then make millions of dollars off them. If a player gets injured and can’t play any more, they throw them in a rubbish can full of beat-up and battered former players who can hardly walk and bend over. A fine educational institution like SBCC doesn’t need this second-hand smoke.
