Game Cancellation Sends Men’s Soccer Scrambling

The 2011 men’s soccer team prepared all summer for its season opener against Division I opponent Jacksonville University on Sept. 1 at the Dolphins’ home field. Two weeks prior to kickoff, however, Dolphins’ head coach Mike Johnson canceled the game. According to Spartans’ head coach Adrian Bush, Johnson gave no explanation to accompany the decision.

“It’s unfortunate because I don’t think any consideration was given to the type of situation this puts us in as a university,” Bush said. “I think it’s wrong. I think it’s unprofessional.”

The game cancellation put UT in a difficult spot. The Spartans only had 14 regular season games on their schedule. Per NCAA regulations, a team must play 16 games to be eligible to play in the NCAA tournament.

The Spartans opened their season on the road against No. 5 Clayton State on Sept. 6. In an attempt to fulfill the team’s NCAA game requirements, the Spartans were able to schedule a game against Piedmont College. The difficult part for Tampa was that both games were scheduled at the same time, approximately 90 miles away from each other. This forced UT to play a virtual split squad during the regular season for the first time in program history.

The split squad would prove to be a feat that Tampa was not able to overcome as they lost both contests in overtime, falling 2-1 to No. 5 Clayton State (OT) and 3-2 (2OT) to Piedmont College.

Jacksonville’s coach described the situation as a major miscommunication. “There was a lot of communication that dated as far back as December,” Johnson said. “There is definitely two sides to the story, and Adrian never called me to talk about anything.”

Johnson mentioned that an agreement was never made between the two coaches.

According to emails obtained by The Minaret, coach Bush emailed coach Johnson asking for host hotel information, but never even mentioned that they had a game scheduled. Coach Johnson replied to the email stating scheduling conflicts had occurred.

“Due to scheduling conflicts that happened in the past week, we will not be able to play this season. I am sorry for the inconvenience that this causes for you guys” the email read. “I hope you guys have a great year and wish you the best of luck.”

The email was both upsetting and confusing to coach Bush. “If we never had a game scheduled, why did he cancel it?” Bush rhetorically asked.

Coach Bush responded to this email asking for any sort of reasoning and explained the dire situation this put the UT program in. According to Bush, a response has yet to be returned.

Since he has yet to hear from coach Johnson or the Jacksonville Athletic Department, coach Bush came to the conclusion that the game was canceled because if the Dolphins lost the game, it would drastically affect their RPI (ratings percentage index).

The Dolphins only have 17 games on their schedule and have a break from Aug. 26 to Sept. 4, which is what frustrated Bush further. “If they would have had 18 games or a game the next day and they had to move it, I could understand,” Bush said. “There was absolutely no reason for them to cancel this game. The only thing that is there is that it would affect their RPI.”

According to additional emails obtained by The Minaret, this is not a new occurrence for the Jacksonville soccer program. At least five head coaches indicated the same type of inconvenience was dropped on their respective programs with very little notice and no reasons given.
One email confirmed coach Bush’s suspicions about the program’s concern of a loss affecting their RPI. “I know the AD doesn’t want his school playing (and getting beat) by Division II teams,” the email read.

Bush went on to say that he contacted every Division II school in the country and heard from at least 10 coaches that the same thing has happened to them in the past four to five years.

“That’s the problem when you’re at the University of Tampa,” Bush said. “Most of your teams are solid, and people act like they want to play good competition, but when it comes down to it, no one wants to lose.”

Tampa athletic director Larry Marfise tempered the situation a bit, saying that the fault lies on both coaches. “We messed up. We should have made sure we had an ironclad contract of some kind, but we didn’t,” he said. “It’s just unfortunate for us because it puts us in a real bind.”

The Jacksonville Athletic Department did not return numerous messages left with the media relations department. The Minaret tried to talk with the athletic director, as well as other personnel within the department, but calls were not returned.

Kyle Bennett can be reached at kbennett.ut@gmail.com.