FORT SCOTT — Fort Scott Community College is suspending its upcoming women’s basketball season.
College President Jason Kegler announced the suspension to college trustees this week, and subsequently notified the Jayhawk Conference.
A number of factors led to the school fielding only four scholarship players on the roster, Kegler noted.
Two coaches left the college over the summer for a program that had only one returning player, anyway, Kegler noted.
“Let me be clear,” Kegler said. “The current staff had nothing to do with the situation. They were brought into an impossible situation.”
New coach Jolee Carswell was able to get commitments from a dozen student-athletes for the upcoming year, “but due to untruths (the players) were told by one of the previous coaches, the students got here and determined they were sold a bill of goods,” Kegler said. “They left pretty much as soon as they’d gotten here.”
Left in a lurch, Carswell sent out appeals to area high school graduates and other student-athletes on campus “to see if we could fill out the roster,” Kegler said.
The effort almost paid off, but when one of the players left the school earlier this month, it left only four scholarship players on the roster, one of whom is coming off a serious knee injury.
“It was decided that in the best interest of the program, we should suspend the season,” Kegler said.
Kegler said administrators briefly explored playing a truncated season, but that led to concerns among players that they would lose a year of eligibility.
“The student-athletes I spoke with were very supportive and very much cared about how this impacted Jolee,” Kegler said.
The coaching staff will get a full year to recruit players, Kegler noted, while the school will utilize them in other situations, such as helping with admissions work and campus tours.
“We’ve got a plan in place,” Kegler said. “This gives them an opportunity to go out and do some recruiting, and we start over again for the 2024-25 season.”
