FAMU's successful volleyball program faces uncertain future

Getting FAMU’s volleyball team into the NCAA tournament was one of coach Tony Trifonov’s goals, but not the way he did it with a short-handed roster. Trifonov had hoped to achieve even more along the way to reaching the national tournament a week ago. He had big plans before he found out that some of the players he was banking on wouldn’t be admitted.“We were thinking that we were going to have a top-25 team and be in a position to host a regional again like we did in 2004,” he said. “The MEAC shouldn’t have been a contention for us.

“Of course we were going to play the games, but we would have been heavy, heavy favorites. At it turned out, that wasn’t the case.” Five days after FAMU was eliminated from the NCAA tournament, Trifonov is facing a future of uncertainty. He isn’t sure if Barry transfer Samara Ferraz will regain one more year of eligibility for the time she sat out to have a son. If she doesn’t there is no telling whether he’ll find a replacement who would have the same immediate impact as Ferraz did when she joined the team this season.

Trifonov’s program is one that doesn’t generate revenue and it’s caught in the current budget crunch at FAMU. As a result, he can’t get the kind of money it would take to recruit and reload the Rattlers for next season.

CONTINUE READING, CLICK BLOG TITLE.