‘This can’t be real’: Furman players, recruits react to baseball program being cut
Jordan Starkes grew up going to sports camps at Furman, including baseball camp.
He was eventually recruited to play baseball at Furman, signed with the Paladins out of Northwestern High and earned a starting outfielder job for the Paladins. Starkes led Furman in hitting in 2020 with a .328 average, and despite the coronavirus outbreak cutting this past season short, he was excited to continue his career in Greenville.
Unfortunately for Starkes and for many student-athletes at Furman, the baseball and men’s lacrosse programs were eliminated Monday amid coronavirus budget cuts. Furman played its first baseball game in 1896. Nearly 125 years later, the program has been discontinued.
“I just really want people to know how much we’re hurt by this,” Starkes told The State. “My initial reaction was that this can’t be real. ... For some guys, this could be their last chance at playing baseball ever, and that’s not just talking about the seniors. Some people might not have the opportunity to go play at other schools. Furman gave them the chance and we’re getting that taken away from us because of money, I guess, that Furman doesn’t have.”
Starkes and his teammates received a text message on Monday informing them of a mandatory Zoom meeting at 2:30 p.m. with the entire 2020 team and incoming recruits.
During that meeting, Director of Athletics Jason Donnelly announced that the baseball and men’s lacrosse programs were being eliminated. The news was crushing and shocking to the Furman student-athletes.
“When we got to the Zoom call, you could see the pain in our coaches’ faces. That just really set the tone. We knew something was up then,” Starkes said. “Our coaches are normally very upbeat, energetic. They’re happy guys all around. It’s pretty much like family. Whenever we needed something we would call. We had no fear talking to our coaches. But we did feel fear when we got into that call and their faces were just sad.”
Drew Calhoun also was “blindsided” with the news Furman was discontinuing its baseball program. The Chapin High senior committed to play for the Paladins in July and signed his letter of intent in November.
Now, he’s forced to find another place to play baseball a few weeks before his high school graduation.
“Our coaches didn’t even find out about this until today,” Calhoun said Monday. “It doesn’t feel real. I had no idea this was coming. No one did. It was a complete blindside to the Furman baseball team. Now, I have opened my recruitment back up and am trying to find a new place to call home. Everything is on the table.”
Calhoun had been in constant contact with coaching staff on Zoom meetings and heard no rumors of anything like this happening.
In addition to current Furman baseball players and signees, former Paladins baseball players were also upset by the news.
Nate Smith, who was selected by the Angels in the eighth round of the 2013 MLB draft, had a former teammate text him and inform him that the baseball program was being eliminated. The news hit Smith hard.
“We all still keep in contact. We talk almost daily. With our time there we all built such a strong bond. We’re going to always be friends for life. We know what that program meant for us and what it did for us,” Smith said. “Just sad to see that other guys now won’t have that opportunity to play Furman baseball. ... We all had so many good memories. It helped form us into who we are today.”
This isn’t the first time Furman has cut a program in recent years as the men’s golf team was eliminated in the spring of 2014. Furman brought the men’s golf program back in August of 2017.
Unfortunately, that’s not expected to be the case with baseball or men’s lacrosse.
“It’s really not fair that golf at Furman got cut a couple of years ago but then they somehow raised enough money to bring it back. They just say we have no shot at bringing our program back. I just don’t think that’s fair,” Starkes said. “They didn’t tell us the amount of money it would take to be brought back, but they said that it was pretty much impossible.”
College baseball coaches from around the Palmetto State offered their reactions to the Furman news. South Carolina’s Mark Kingston, Clemson’s Monte Lee and College of Charleston’s Chad Holbrook were among those posting on Twitter on Monday.
“Thoughts go out to the coaches, players and staff of @FurmanBaseball. A sad day for baseball in our state,” Kingston tweeted.
Furman won four regular season Southern Conference titles and two SoCon tournament titles during its history. It appeared in the NCAA Tournament five times — 1965, 1969, 1976, 1991 and 2005. The Paladins finished the virus-shortened 2020 baseball season with an 8-9 record.
This story was originally published May 19, 2020 at 6:15 AM.
