Beginning July 1, Brown’s golf and squash teams will be elevated from club to varsity status, according to a recent press release.
The men’s and women’s teams of both sports have been “strong competitors at the club level,” which qualified them for this promotion, Vice President for Athletics and Recreation M. Grace Calhoun ’92 wrote in an email to The Herald.
Developments in “team resources, coaching numbers and expertise, facilities improvements and generous fundraising support” in recent years made the elevation possible, Calhoun wrote.
The teams were relegated from varsity to club status along with 11 other teams in 2020 — a decision which faced immediate backlash. At the time, squash player Abby Dichter ’22, called the decision a “slap in the face” in a Herald Op-Ed.
Since the demotion, the men’s squash team has won the club national championship for three consecutive years while the women’s team has garnered the achievement twice in the same span.
Similarly, the women’s golf team has been ranked as the top club team twice in the past five years, and four Brown golfers were ranked within the top 20 nationally as of Jan. 23, according to the press release.
After the elevation, the teams can expect to face tougher opponents and add an assistant coach to each team’s coaching staff, Calhoun added. The teams will operate under a fully donor-funded financial structure.
Additionally, the teams will be able to compete in Ivy League Championships in the 2026–27 school year. “The level of competition for all four teams will increase significantly,” Calhoun wrote.
As such, athletes will face a more demanding schedule according to Gaskin.
Day-to-day changes for the athletes will include “increased court time, expanded access to resources and the support of a full varsity infrastructure, including assistant coaches, athletic trainers, facilities,” Squash Head Coach Arthur Gaskin wrote in an email to The Herald.
“Pressure in varsity level sports is inevitable,” he wrote. “For us, it has been earned through hard work, and we welcome it. Overall, we’re all incredibly excited for this next chapter of the program.”
Deeya Prakash ’26, captain of the women’s golf team, felt that she was “abandoning the college golf dream” when she turned down several Division 1 golf offers to come to Brown, she wrote in an email to The Herald.
Since being recruited to the club team during her first week on campus, Prakash and the team have focused on “posting low scores and garnering the attention of those that could help us get back to varsity,” she wrote.
According to Prakash, the team is already operating with “varsity intensity,” including almost daily practices, weekend competitions and a “state-of-the-art indoor facility” for winter training.
“We’ve been doing the work and are grateful to have it pay off,” she wrote.
Andrew Herring ’26, who has played on the squash team since his first year, believes the varsity status will help the teams attract better recruits. He said that there have already been “higher level athletes” that now “want to come to Brown more.”
After three national-level victories, the team was aware that elevation to varsity status was a possibility, Herring said. But they didn’t know that it would happen so soon. When the team heard the news, “we freaked out,” he said.
In addition to recognizing the teams’ recent success, Calhoun sees the elevation as an opportunity for Brown to invest in sports that are not considered “high-revenue teams.”
“Many NCAA Division I schools are devoting more and more resources to a limited number of high-revenue teams, which is inconsistent with the Ivy League model and our philosophy here at Brown,” she said.
In bucking the trend, Brown has the opportunity to “build highly competitive varsity programs,” she wrote.The new teams will look to bring home even more hardware at the varsity level.
“As a golf program, we are extremely excited about this opportunity, which gives our student-athletes the chance to compete against our league peers for Ivy championships and the opportunity to qualify for NCAA championships,” Director of Men’s and Women’s Golf Jason Calhoun said in the press release.
Though the teams will finish this academic year as club sports, Herring mentioned he hopes the announcement will inspire more community members to attend the team’s competitions now and in the future.
“Come give it a watch, support your new varsity program,” he encouraged.
