Last month, Valparaiso announced it would add three sports – men’s and women’s golf and bowling – to the school’s sport offerings beginning next academic year. At a time when many schools are cutting sports to save money, Valpo athletics director Mark LaBarbera called the plan to add teams a sort of “stimulus package” for the school. “It seems like it makes sense to cut things, but in a broader view anything that encourages kids to go to school is a good thing for everybody,” he said.

La Barbera talked with The NCAA News about the decision to add sports in the tough economic climate and his hopes for the future success of Crusader golf and bowling.

Q:Why did you decide to do this now?

A: We decided to do that because there was clearly an interest among students on our campus and students that are attracted to and interested in our school. We thought it was a good time to add them. We didn’t have club teams in any of those sports, but frequently I would get inquiries from students about golf particularly. As we looked at adding golf, we realized as we were doing the review, that bowling was very popular with high school students in our part of Indiana. We thought as long as we were adding two, we might as well add three. They just finished up the state high school bowling championships a few weeks ago, and the state champion high school team was from right here in northwest Indiana.

Q: More schools seem to be cutting sports than adding them right now. Was the economy a concern at all?

A: The economy is not a concern because clearly there were students and potential students that were interested in it. As a private school, our financial model is a little different than a state school. One of the things we realized is certainly kids come here because of our academic offerings, but a lot of them come here because of our academic offerings plus the extracurricular activities they can be involved in, in addition to their academic work. We really felt that we wanted to give students that were interested in Valparaiso just one more reason to come here in addition to the academics. That’s really proved out. We’ve got a lot of inquiries from people already, and we’ve been particularly pleased with the interest in the bowling team. We’re only the 58^th team in NCAA bowling, so those options are limited for young ladies. We’ve been quite pleased with the response.

Q: What has been the biggest challenge in this endeavor?

A: The biggest challenge on the front end was explaining to everybody how the financial model was going to work. One of the misconceptions about student-athletes is that they all get to go to school for free. Everybody thinks if you’re a scholarship athlete, you’re going to school for free. Since all three of these sports are equivalency sports, that’s not the case. It’s very rare for a student-athlete in an equivalency sport to get a full scholarship. It was helpful to explain how the financial model would work and how if these sports were to attract 20-30 new students to campus, that would be additional revenue to the school that could not only support the team but also other activity on campus. Once everybody had a clear understanding of that, it was an easy decision for the university to make. When we added anecdotal information of students from other sports, it made it even easier. There’s a story I like to tell about a young lady on our swim team, and she’s from Oklahoma. She wanted to study meteorology and keep swimming in college, so when she looked for schools that had that combination, there wasn’t a very long list. She clearly had in mind what she wanted her academic pursuit to be, and then the fact that we gave her opportunities in addition to that in the athletics area helped her make her decision to come here. She’s a great student-athlete who does well in the classroom and in the pool.

Q: What advice would you have for other athletics directors who know there is interest on campus?

A: Everybody’s situation is different. As a private school dependent on enrollment, the economy does play a part. We’re just trying to make the decision for young people and their parents easier on the side of going to college and choosing a private school like Valparaiso. I think that’s the way people need to look at it. Yes, student-athletes are primarily students first, but it’s a rare student that picks an institution just because of the academics. Most students factor other things into their decision. I would encourage people to take a broader view and realize that anything that helps students make a decision to go to your institution is a good thing.

Q: How will the school benefit?

A: We found that student-athletes when they get on campus graduate at a higher rate than the general student body, they get involved in additional things and civic engagement. I think they just add a lot to campus. They do well in the classroom. That benefits the entire university.

Q: What are your goals for the new teams?

A: Since golf is a Horizon League championship sport, our goal is to compete for the conference championship in golf. Our goal in bowling, honestly, is to compete for the national championship. The exciting thing for us is we think we can do it with women from here in northwest Indiana and Chicago. We feel like we can do it with a group of young women that is primarily local, which would be a great thing for the community.