It was a text message that ended Alex Johnson’s soccer career.

That text came back in May of 2013, as the senior on the Ashland University Men’s soccer team was told to call his head coach Jon Freeman. One phone call later, Johnson found out he no longer had a team to play for after AU cut the men’s soccer program for finical reasons.

Johnson received another text over two years later in October of 2015, once again concerning the fate of the Ashland University Men’s soccer program. This time he wasn’t sure how to feel.

“It was a lot of mixed emotions right away,” Johnson said in reaction to the announcement that Ashland was reinstating its Men’s soccer program. “I wanted the program to come back, I want others to experience the fun I had of playing soccer here. But at the same time it seems funny that just two years after they cut the program they are bringing it back now. What changed?”

Bill Goldring, AU athletic director two years ago, told the Collegian in 2013 that the decision was made for financial reasons.

“If you look at the amount of money that we were asked to cut and if we had to take that from all of our programs here, my real fear and the fear of our staff… was that would severely hurt the entire athletic department,” he said at the time.

Justin Nolan was a captain and the starting goalkeeper for the team when the cut happened. Nolan, who finished his career at Walsh University, said, “The decision to bring the program back so quickly shows that the administration at the time of the cut made the decision for non financial reasons.”

In 2013, The Collegian estimated that the university lost $330,361.67 in tuition due to the transfer of 20 out of the 25 student athletes. Former AU president Fred Finks had announced that the cut saved the university just over $330,000.

“The administration botched the decision and they have never apologized to any of us,” said Johnson. “I still have a year of eligibility left that I never got to use because of them.”

Lucas Hunt was preparing for his sophomore campaign when the cut happened. Hunt said, “It was a little frustrating to see the program return so quickly. But you can’t change the past. Overall, I was happy and excited to see the program come back.”

“My initial reaction to hearing the news was surprise,” said Nolan. “It’s bittersweet for me, I’m thrilled the program is coming back but I wish it had never left.”

Johnson said the players from the 2013 squad have formed a group chat of over 25 people and have been in communication with one another since the announcement was made.

“The conversation started with talking about the program coming back,” said Johnson. “But then everyone started catching up and telling stories from back then. It was great talk to all of those guys.”

“Overall, people seemed happy to have the program back,” said Nolan. “There definitely is some confusion and anger about why it ended though.”

Hunt has since moved on to Division III College of Wooster, where he has become an all-conference defender in his senior year. “I’m happy with how things worked out,” said Hunt. “I was blessed to continue playing soccer and now I’m excited I get to be an alumni of two different programs.”

While Hunt and Nolan were able to move on to other programs, others weren’t able to find other viable options. Johnson was one of the five members of the team who elected to stay at Ashland and finish their education. Johnson graduated in 2014 and has since founded a nutrition company called Mixt Nutrition.

Head coach Jon Freeman uprooted his life and moved to Virginia. In January of 2015, after two seasons of being an assistant coach at two different schools, Freeman was named head coach of Division I Virginia Military Institute’s Men’s soccer team. Multiple attempts to contact Freeman for this story proved unsuccessful

The rebooted men’s soccer program is scheduled to take the field in September of 2016. Current AU athletic director Al King announced a national search for the next head of the program.

“There will be no expectations for the team next year. It will be up to the next head coach to bring in older players to try and compete,” said Johnson. “How long will it take the team to be competitive? Two years? Five years? It is tough to know.”   

“There is no doubt it will be tough for the incoming group of guys,” said Hunt. “But I can’t wait to see what is next for the program. I will absolutely try to make it out to a game next year.”

 “I will definitely be at game number one with a big group of alumni. Whatever we can do to help, I want to do,” said Johnson. “I don’t support Ashland University. But I will always support Ashland soccer.”