On behalf of the UVM athletic department, I'd like to thank everyone for their concern and support of our swimming & diving team that was in the Fort Lauderdale airport yesterday at the time of the shooting incident. 
 
While our students, coaches and staff were not in the terminal where the shooting occurred, the scene in their terminal became quite unsettled and resulted in a hurried and chaotic evacuation. During the evacuation, three of our athletes were injured. One was treated at the hospital for a broken foot and the other two were treated by a UVM athletic trainer who is accompanying the team. 
 
After being evacuated from their terminal, the team was moved to several different holding areas around the airport grounds. They were finally "released" around 8 p.m. last night and made it to their hotel at about 9 p.m. 
 
The team is booked on a flight for early Sunday morning through the New York area and will then bus to Burlington. This was the first available flight out of Florida for this size group and it is very important to us that they not be split up on various itineraries. 
 
I've been in regular contact with our head coach, Gerry Cournoyer, who along with his three assistant coaches and our athletic trainer have done an amazing job of leading and caring for our students through a very traumatic experience. We have staff from Counseling and Psychiatry Services (CAPS) on call and are prepared to support the team and individual students in whatever ways are needed.
 
Thank you again for all of your concern,

Jeff Schulman '89
Director of Athletics