McGill Athletics and Recreation announced last November that it would cut 25 varsity and club teams across 15 sports, citing issues with human resource capacity and budget constraints. Since then, most of the 25 teams have worked with the Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) to reinstate their programs by shifting their organizational authority from McGill Athletics to the SSMU.
The McGill Nordic Ski Team is Canada’s first collegiate skiing program. The club president, Céléna Cossette-Chan, U3 Science, explained her initial shock that her team was cut in an interview with The Tribune.
“We never thought that [the cuts] would come down to the self-led teams. We train outside [of McGill], and we only store our equipment in a small closet that [McGill Athletics] gave us,” Cossette-Chan said.
Since the club is self-funded, its athletes were accustomed to handling finances on their own. Now, the athletes must learn to follow SSMU’s guidelines for creating a club, such as writing a constitution and transferring over their bank account.
“[The SSMU has] been really helpful and supportive. They sent a lot of emails, and they’ve been reaching out to let us know the deadlines,” Cossette-Chan continued.
SSMU’s Legislative Council discussed how to best assist teams after the topic was brought forward by the Council’s Athletics Representative. SSMU Vice President (VP) of Clubs and Services, Acadia Knickerbocker, explained the transition in more depth in an interview with The Tribune.
“At that time, the […] Council decided to integrate the [cut] teams as interim clubs until […] they were either reinstated by McGill Athletics or a more comprehensive solution was created at SSMU,” Knickerbocker said. “Then, the Council created a task force which addresses what that solution would look like, and that task force operated from the last academic year.”
The McGill Fencing Club, formerly associated with McGill Recreation, had to rename itself the McGill Students Fencing Club after the cuts.
“Since McGill owns the images and the name of ‘McGill Varsity,’ the teams have had to rebrand themselves as SSMU groups,” Knickerbocker said.
In an interview with The Tribune, the president of the Fencing Club, Claire Han, U2 Science, said the team’s biggest challenge has been managing its finances.
“We have a higher [rental fee], so we have to decide how to compensate our instructors and how much to charge for [our] registration fee,” Han said. “SSMU offered a discounted rate, but it’s still not a lot compared to when we were under McGill Recreation. But after some meetings with [McGill Recreation], we figured out a new deal that ended up working out, so they have been quite helpful on that end.”
For the baseball team, a former Tier 2 varsity team, off-field logistics now depend more on the athletes than on the support McGill Athletics previously provided.
In a joint interview with The Tribune, team captain Agastya Kushari, U3 Arts, and the team’s VP of Operations and Communications, Marcus Dela Cruz, U3 Arts, explained that interest in their team has not wavered.
“Probably 30 to 35 players have expressed interest in joining [the team], and we definitely don’t have that many spots, so [we are in a] good position,” Dela Cruz said.
Both student-athletes expressed that there are many unpredictable factors as they head into their first season under SSMU. On the other hand, they believed that the switchover helped the team to gain greater autonomy over their program, as well as to bond as athletes.
“We are planning out our budget, booking our field times, coordinating with Coach [Christopher Haddad] about our selection criteria,” Kushari explained. “These are things that we have never seen before, but it makes us [have] more ownership of the team.”
“I think that it’s honestly been a positive experience for [athletes] to […] promote their teams based on the hard work that they’ve done,” Knickerbocker echoed.
Regarding its transition from McGill Athletics to SSMU, the baseball team expressed some frustration with the information they’ve received from the former.
“Communication with [McGill Athletics] has been a test of our patience, to put it bluntly,” Kushari said. “I completely understand why it takes time, but it limits what we can do.”
For McGill Tennis, the cuts affected the former club team’s eligibility to compete on a wider scale. For the past few years, the team had been communicating with McGill Athletics to confirm its eligibility to compete at U SPORTS Nationals. Although Tennis Québec still allowed the team to compete in provincial tournaments after it was cut, the situation underscored McGill Tennis’s inability to compete at the national level.
Women’s team captain, Charlie McNeil, U3 Management, spoke to the team’s frustration in an interview with The Tribune.
“Last year at provincials, the men won and the women were finalists, so the men should have gone to nationals, and the women were very close. But now, it’s not even worth trying [to get the eligibility],” McNeil said.
“[The SSMU have been] talking to the competitions that [teams] intend to compete at and providing documentation [so they are] allowed to compete on behalf of SSMU,” Knickerbocker explained.
For McGill Women’s Rugby, November’s cuts stung but did not shock. Elisa Abergel, U3 Engineering, a fullback and one of the team’s new executive members, spoke to The Tribune about the restructuring.
“The school itself never really gave that many resources towards women’s rugby,” Abergel said.
What followed the announcement was less devastation than confusion, and a scramble by players to navigate the team’s uncertain next steps largely on their own. Rather than continue fighting for varsity reinstatement, the team registered with the SSMU, prioritizing certainty over a tedious battle.
“The longer we waited, the less certainty we’d have about a future season,” Abergel explained. “The SSMU hadn’t anticipated absorbing so many teams at once, and untangling the nuances tied to ex-varsity programs took weeks of back-and-forth, [but] we made it through.”
Senior members took on executive roles spanning hiring, finances and logistics, and running a student-led committee. They also brought in men’s rugby alumnus Nicolas Dube-Mercier as head coach. Registering as a club under Rugby Québec proved cost-effective, as many players already competed with the organization in the summer so their insurance carried into the fall. The team floats coaching, kit, and an independently hired physiotherapist through fundraising, alumni support, and sponsorships.
The rugby team is hardly scaling back. Three practices a week build toward an eight-game season against university and club sides, including Norwich University, Laval University, Université de Montréal, Sherbrooke University, Bishop’s University, and Carleton University, with the long-term aim of earning their way back into the Réseau du sport étudiant du Québec.
For Abergel and women’s rugby, that ambition is the story.
“Many students stepped up to make this happen, and it’s really exciting that we’re able to continue playing, continue competing,” she said. “It’s a new beginning, and [there is] a lot of potential for growth.”
As for McGill Field Hockey, the team negotiated with Carleton University and the University of Ottawa with the goal of competing as much as possible. Changes they face include sharing the field with other teams during practice.
Tess Schreyer, U3 Arts and Science, told The Tribune that the planning process has been “bittersweet.”
“It’s definitely nice to be in [collaboration] with my teammates and us having more of a role, but it’s hard when you have so much unknown,” Schreyer said. “[The SSMU] were very responsive, and it seemed like they were ready for a big turnover of a lot of teams.”
Knickerbocker emphasized the SSMU’s goal of supporting students and highlighted the importance of transparent communication with McGill Athletics.
“McGill has been responsive with all of our questions,” Knickerbocker said. “For us, the best-case scenario is open communication […] and that’s what we’ve seen so far from McGill.”
A McGill Athletics spokesperson stated that representatives from Athletics and Recreation, Student Life and Learning, and the SSMU have been working closely together to ensure a smooth transition in an interview with The Tribune.
“The priority for us was always supporting students, their well-being, and their goals,” Knickerbocker said. “Our focus was always to make sure that the students were able to [compete] […] safely, and to come up with a long-term plan so they could continue in the future.”
Managing Editor Clara Smyrski is captain of the McGill Women’s Field Hockey Club. She was not involved in the writing, editing, or publication of any parts of this article pertaining to the Field Hockey team.