The email message from the Prairie View A&M athletic department on Aug. 4 was short and to the point.
It took exactly 300 words for them to explain that disbanding the men’s and women’s tennis teams was changing a lot of lives. In fairness, athletic director Anton Goff had warned the players and coaches in early May that the tennis programs were ending for budget reasons, either prior to the 2025-26 academic year or next summer at the latest.
Goff just didn’t know which at the time.
So, some of the top players on both teams had enough heads up to find other spots on other programs, and they took advantage of it. Long-time tennis coach Duane Williams tried to wait it out for the sake of his players, periodically asking Goff if it was going to be this summer or next.
Goff didn’t have an answer, so in July, even Williams left the program he had been at the helm of for nine years to take a high school coaching position at Magnolia West, where he is also teaching classes for the first time.
It’s highly likely that Williams’ decision to resign in July sealed Goff’s decision to end the programs this summer instead of waiting until 2026.
“I wanted to stay, but I have a family,” Williams told the Defender. “Every time I asked if a decision was definitely made, I was told not yet. It just got later and later.
“I couldn’t wait until August to find out if I would have another year or if I would need to look for a job.”
But for those who stuck around, they got the definitive news in early August. It was over.
Difficult decisions had to be made with just a couple of weeks before classes started. Do you stay or go?
Some left, but most seniors who are set to graduate next spring decided to end their tennis careers early so they can move on with their lives. Prairie View didn’t leave those hanging who stuck around to be just students. Those who had athletic scholarships got to keep them through this academic year.
At the end of the spring, Williams had 20 athletes between the two programs, and 12 of them were on athletic scholarship.
“They just said basically said our budget was not enough to sustain the amount of sports that we had a Prairie View. There wasn’t a specific reason why we chose tennis. I know across the country that a lot of tennis programs have been ended.”
Duane Williams
“They’re definitely not happy. They’re not happy,” said Williams, who still keeps in touch with his players. “The ones who were more proactive, once he mentioned that it was a possibility, they started looking at options.
“It’s a little tough for the seniors because they are about to finish, so they are pretty much sticking around. We had quite a few students who told me that if they had another year, they wanted to stay. But as I asked throughout the summer, that decision wasn’t made until late.”
It’s easy to be frustrated with Prairie View because of the tennis program’s dissolution and the awful timing. But the budget is the budget, and as the saying goes, you can’t get juice from a turnip.
Like most HBCUs, Prairie View struggles to keep things going on a shoestring budget. It’s always been a tricky balancing act, but the House vs. NCAA settlement that now forces athletic departments to share their profits and the decision of all SWAC schools to opt into the lawsuit to pay a share of the $2.8 billion settlement likely forced Prairie View into the inevitable.
Things were already tight on The Hill. Now they’re tighter, which likely led to the decision on the tennis program.
Goff could not be reached for comment.
“I think that was definitely a big factor,” said Williams, who helped guide the men’s program to SWAC championships in 2010 and 2013. “I think the House vs NCAA settlement, revenue sharing and NIL – all of that factored into these decisions to cut programs.
“I don’t know the details of how specifically it affected Prairie View, but before all of that, there wasn’t any talk of cutting programs.”
Prior to the decision to cut tennis, Prairie View was one of the few SWAC schools to sponsor 16 sports. Now the Panthers are down to 14 teams – eight women’s sports and six men’s. Texas Southern got rid of its tennis programs back in 2007 after the school lost control, and the program landed in NCAA trouble.
Now, Williams says there aren’t any HBCU tennis programs left in the state of Texas.
“Definitely, this summer, I think between 18 and 20 programs across the country have been eliminated. I know some other coaches who were in the same position I was in with their programs being cut. For them, it was immediate. There wasn’t a possibility of another year.
“Unfortunately, we are the go-to sport to cut it seems like.”
