‘This was my baby.’ Ex-UK coach picks up pieces after Akron eliminates his program.
The fallout from the coronavirus pandemic has infiltrated the world of college athletics as American universities grapple with an unforeseen set of new financial challenges.
The Associated Press reported last week that nearly 100 athletics programs at four-year colleges around the country have already been eliminated in the wake of COVID-19, and a former University of Kentucky coach is among the many affected by those cuts.
David Trainor spent seven years as an assistant with the UK men’s golf team, the last two as associate head coach, before becoming head coach of the men’s golf team at the University of Akron in 2011. After a successful run that lasted more than seven seasons, Trainor suddenly found himself out of a job.
In early May, the men’s golf team was among three programs eliminated by Akron as part of a plan to trim the school’s athletics budget by 23 percent. Under Trainor’s guidance the Zips advanced to the NCAA regional round three times and in 2016 George Baylis won the Mid-American Conference individual championship, but that string of success was not enough to protect the program. Trainor and his players learned of their fates when Akron Director of Athletics Larry Williams informed them of the program’s elimination on a video conference call.
“Obviously, it was an extremely difficult (meeting). They were shocked and blown away,” Trainor told the Herald-Leader in a recent phone interview. “I asked them to stay on afterward and I apologized profusely to them. This was my baby, this was my program. These kids are my family.”
Though his life is currently in limbo, Trainor’s first concern was the future of the young men he recruited to Akron. He has spent the weeks since the announcement working to help them find suitable landing spots. Their scholarships eliminated, Trainor’s eight rostered players must either pay their own tuition to remain enrolled at Akron or join another program.
“I’ve been working hard trying to get my kids situated and find them places to play. I still have a couple of guys who haven’t decided what they’re going to do yet but they’ve got some options … knock on wood, most of my kids are going to land somewhere with either some type of (financial) aid or a guaranteed spot on a team,” Trainor said. “I’m optimistic I’ll be able to get almost all of my guys placed at a school where they want to go. For the last 10 or 12 days that’s consumed the majority of my time, that and tying up loose ends.”
Once he’s confident the futures of his former players are secure, he’ll work on mapping out the next step for himself, his wife and his two young sons — 11-year-old William and 7-year-old Cian. Trainor hopes that step involves coaching golf at another school.
“It’s been my passion and obsession for 15 years,” Trainor said. “But that being said, I want to cover all of my bases and not throw all of my eggs into one basket. I’m casting a very wide net.
“I’m obviously focusing very hard on the collegiate aspect of it but with a wife and two children I don’t have the luxury of saying, ‘Well, I’ll wait until next year and the tooth fairy will pay our bills.’ It’s a little overwhelming, but I’ve got a lot of ideas spinning and a lot of people reaching out.”
Among those who’ve reached out is Trainor’s former boss, current UK golf coach Brian Craig.
“Brian is one of my closest friends and he’s the godfather of my youngest son,” Trainor said. “I’ve talked to him a lot. I reached out to him and told him my program was cut and he called my back almost immediately and said, ‘You’ve got to be kidding me.’ He was heartbroken for me and for my kids.”
Though he knew some difficult decisions were likely to be made in the wake of the pandemic, Trainor was nonetheless floored when word came down that the program he helped push to new heights had suddenly been shuttered.
The school also eliminated its men’s cross country and women’s tennis programs. Trainor told the Golf Channel that he tried to head off his program being scrapped by offering to raise funds for scholarships, trimming travel costs and withdrawing from one scheduled event this fall.
“I had heard rumblings that some sports were going to be dropped, but nothing concrete,” Trainor said. “I tried to downplay it as far as deciding, ‘you know, I’m not going to listen to the rumor mill. Let’s just see what happens.’ We put a good product on the field and a good product in the classroom. I truthfully never dreamed that this was going to happen. But here we are, and now it’s time to move forward.”
