President Christina Paxson P’19 addressed circulating concerns regarding the recent demotion of 11 varsity teams to club status in a community-wide email Saturday, offering greater detail about how the decision was made and the motivation behind it. 

In response to the University’s recent announcement that 11 varsity teams would be demoted to the club level as part of a new Excellence in Brown Athletics initiative, student athletes have mobilized to organize their teammates, peers, parents and alumni networks to petition for more answers. 

At around 12 p.m. EST Thursday, Jacob Good ’22, a member of the squash team, received an email from the Athletics Department inviting him and all student-athletes to an unanticipated Zoom call later that afternoon. An hour later, Good and his fellow teammates were no longer members of a varsity team.

The University will transition 11 varsity teams — men and women’s fencing, men and women’s golf, women’s skiing, men and women’s squash, women’s equestrian and men’s track, field and cross country — to club status, effective immediately, according to a community-wide email sent today from President Christina Paxson.

Former Brown football star James Develin ’10 announced his retirement from the National Football League in April after eight years of playing for the New England Patriots.

Former gymnastics coach Jackie Court, the first woman of color to coach at Brown, passed away April 12 at the age of 81. Court led the Bears for over 30 years and was accomplished both in her coaching and her fight for women’s equality in sports.

For three Brown alums, the Olympics had never been closer to reality — until the COVID-19 pandemic put a pause on their long-awaited dreams. On March 24th, it was announced that the 2020 Olympic Games, scheduled to take place in Tokyo, had been delayed until 2021 due to the pandemic.

Monique LeBlanc was named the new head coach of the women’s basketball team Friday. LeBlanc comes to Brown after spending nine years as the head coach at Merrimack College and before that, three seasons as assistant coach at Bucknell University.

Zach Hunsaker ’20 was heralded as a leader on the men’s basketball team from the moment he transferred to Brown as a sophomore, serving as team captain in all three of his seasons with the Bears.

The field hockey team has added former University of Louisville star and USA National Team member Erin McCrudden to its coaching staff, the team announced March 27. McCrudden will be working as an assistant coach alongside Head Coach Jill Reeve and fellow Assistant Coach Jillian Coppola.