Womens hockey has fallen victim to a funding crunch at Saint Marys University in Halifax. Head coach Lisa Jordan, who founded and coached the team for 14 years, was shocked when she was informed Friday morning by athletic director Steve Sarty that the womens varsity program would be discontinued. She was told when her contract expires March 31, it would not be renewed. "Its very disappointing for womens sport in general to see a sport go by the wayside," Jordan said. "As well as another professional coaching opportunity for a woman to be gone. "This certainly chips away at the armour of our sport." The decision affects not only the 18 players eligible to return to the Huskies next season, but players Jordan has recruited. The players were informed of the decision in a meeting after Jordan met with Sarty. "This morning I think our team was completely blindsided," said third-year player Sarah Maynard of Cole Harbour, N.S. "Now Im just a little angered by the whole situation. "This is not a good day for womens hockey, taking one team out of the AUS conference. Now theres only going to be six teams and one less team for girls to try out for." The Huskies won the Atlantic Conference last year for the fourth time in their history. Saint Marys lost in the bronze-medal game of the womens national championship. The fourth-place finish was the Huskies best result in a Canadian Interuniversity Sport season. The hockey team had the highest annual operational budget of all womens varsity teams at $60,000, and according to Sarty, brought in negligible revenue. "The university came to us and said, You need to cut five to 10 per cent of your operating budget," Sarty said. "The reason for that was weve received four per cent less (provincial) funding to the university than in previous years. "Its awful. Its terrible. Its not something we want to do. I hope people will understand it was a very difficult decision and its not something that I hope to ever have to do again, nor did I want to do it this time, but its a necessary decision." Sarty said athletics staff considered reducing the budgets of every sports team on campus. However, he says money is already tight and such a move would have put all teams at a competitive disadvantage. "At this point, the finance department is satisfied with what weve brought to them as a solution to the current challenge," Sarty said. Sarty said athletics staff and student services at Saint Marys will work with any players who want to transfer to another university. "Ive been asked a few times now, What am I going to do now if this does stick and we do not have a program next year?" Maynard said. "But I cant even think about that right now. I dont think well go down without a fight. I dont know what we can do." Halifax city councillor Sue Uteck, the wife of the late Larry Uteck who was the football coach and athletic director at SMU for many years, was livid at the news the womens hockey team was falling under the axe. "That womens hockey program was his pride and joy to get off the ground and put it to where it was today," she said. "To me, this is a fundamentally wrong decision." Uteck said the decision had not yet been ratified by the universitys board of governors and that she was going to exert pressure to get the program reinstated. "My husband has a golf tournament in his honour, the Larry Uteck Golf Classic, and that raises money for student athletes as Saint Marys," she said. "Im not just alumnus. I give a huge amount of time and dollars to Saint Marys in the form of fundraising. "I will be removing his name from that tournament. That hockey team was his pride and joy." Jordan will be an assistant coach of the Canadian womens hockey team at the world championship next month in Switzerland. Of the five full-time sports coaches at SMU, Jordan was the only female. "Its a little bit frustrating," Jordan said. "Now there are four positions and theyre filled by males." The ratio of male athletes to female at SMU is now about 180 to 110, Sarty said. Basketball, volleyball, rugby, cross-country running and track and field remain as womens sports at SMU. wholesale nfl jerseys . Bolt, the anchor leg for the Jamaican mens 4x100-metre relay team, pulled away from the Americans and powered to the finish, leading his team to a gold medal and breaking their own world record, in a time of 36. nfl jerseys china . The last two games, however, the Padres have been resolute. 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