Sports sponsorship: West Virginia University has announced it will reinstate its men's and women's rifle program beginning with the 2004 season. West Virginia President David C. Hardesty Jr. said an outpouring of public and private support for the program, including a $100,000 commitment from the West Virginia Legislature, will allow the team to return to NCAA status. Hardesty noted that the university made a "painful and difficult decision" last spring to eliminate rifle and four other varsity sports. But he stressed that the decision was based on the constraints of the dwindling budgets and support. "The athletics department at the time had little choice and made an appropriate, good-faith decision," he said. West Virginia Athletics Director Ed Pastilong said, "Our charge is to field competitive athletics teams while remaining self-sufficient. Increased operating costs, including increases in tuition, forced us to make the difficult decision that many institutions have had to make in reducing the number of sponsored sports. This legislative funding will provide an immediate operating budget for rifle, and potential fund-raising efforts may allow us to increase the sport's funding in the future." West Virginia had won 13 National Collegiate Men's and Women's Rifle Championships team titles from 1983 through 1998 ... The University of Vermont announced an athletics realignment plan to substantially increase scholarship support, strengthen recreational sports opportunities, provide more adequate operational assistance to teams to help with their recruiting and travel expenses, and eliminate a tier system that previously set different expectations per sport and allocated resources accordingly. "The goal with this plan is to create a culture of excellence, both in the classroom and on the field, that is conducive to student-athletes having an exceptional experience at the University of Vermont," said Athletics Director Robert Corran. "Under this plan, we will set higher expectations for academic and athletics success for all varsity sports, but we will also be in a better position to establish more equality in the way we support those programs." Corran said scholarship support will increase from 82 scholarships totaling $2.4 million distributed primarily across eight sports to 124 scholarships totaling $3.7 million distributed across 20 sports in five years under the plan. The realignment strategy will result in the reinstatement of men's indoor and outdoor track and field and the elimination of men and women's tennis, men's golf and men's swimming. Program eliminations will affect 45 student-athletes. The reinstatement of men's track and field will bring 30 student-athletes back into the program. Corran said team eliminations, while extremely painful to the student-athletes affected, are a necessary component of the overall strategy. "Unfortunately we don't have the resources that would be needed to support those programs adequately," he said. "Maintaining programs that are not funded at a Division I level and don't have a reasonable chance to succeed is not in the best interest of our student-athletes." ... Robert Morris University will add women's ice hockey to its varsity athletics offerings beginning in 2005-06. The Colonials, which will play their home games at the RMU Island Sports Center, already have begun a search for a head coach. The addition brings the school's total of Division I sports to 23, including the previously announced addition of men's ice hockey, men's and women's lacrosse, and field hockey, which all will start intercollegiate competition during the 2004-05 year. "Women's ice hockey is the logical next step in the development of our athletics program," said Robert Morris Athletics Director Susan Hofacre. "The program will complement the new men's ice hockey team as well as our existing sports. Women's ice hockey is a growing sport in the NCAA and it's exciting to be part of that growth." Robert Morris and Mercyhurst College, located in Erie, will be the only Division I women's ice hockey programs in Pennsylvania.

Milestones: Bradley University baseball coach Dewey Kalmer became the 40th coach in NCAA Division I history to win 900 career games when the Braves downed the University of Wisconsin, Stout, 6-1, in the first game of a doubleheader March 1. As of April 5, Kalmer's career record stood at 906-792-5, including a 716-650-4 mark in 25 years at Bradley and a 190-142-1 record in 11 years at his alma mater, Quincy College. In his 36th season overall as a collegiate skipper, Kalmer coached his 1,700th college game March 28 at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, a game that ended in a 7-7 tie due to darkness.

-- Compiled by Gary T. Brown