Erie Community College plans to drop its cross-country, indoor and outdoor track and golf programs in a money-saving move that comes in response to deep cuts in the college’s state funding.

The eight men’s and women’s sports teams have two part-time coaches and 45 nonscholarship participants among them and cost the school $40,000 a year, according to federal data.

ECC President Jack F. Quinn Jr. conceded the moves won’t save a lot of money initially but said changes were needed because ECC funds more sports teams than its peers.

“I believe this is a reasonable response to the toughest economic times we’ve seen in decades,” Quinn said in an interview Monday. “This won’t be the only area the college looks at.”

His proposal must be approved by the college’s board of trustees.

The teams would be allowed to complete their seasons this semester, and the cuts would go into effect for 2010-11.

Track coach Sean Kibrick and golf coach Don Lockwood learned of Quinn’s decision Friday and began breaking the news to the members of their teams over the past few days.

“I feel that golf is a sport that has a nominal effect on the budget of the school and eliminating it is unnecessary and irresponsible,” Lockwood said.

ECC, which supports 22 sports teams, competes in the National Junior College Athletic Association, whose members support 12 sports teams on average, according to a report prepared by consultant Del Malloy.

The schools that ECC competes against in the Western New York Athletic Conference support between nine and 18 teams, Malloy found.

ECC brought in Malloy in January to conduct a review of the school’s athletics department.

The review came as ECC absorbed a $1 million cut in state aid in the middle of this school year, with a $3 million cut proposed for next year, Quinn said. And ECC trustees have gone on record saying they do not want to raise student tuition.

Half of the budget for the sports teams comes from ECC’s general fund, and the other half comes from the Auxiliary Services Corp., which receives revenue from a student athletics fee, Quinn said. ECC athletes do not receive scholarships.

The consultant made a number of recommendations, including cutting teams to bring ECC in line with its peers. “We’re top-heavy, and something has to be done,” Quinn said.

Quinn said he consulted with ECC Athletics Director Peter Jerebko on the cuts, but the final decision was his. He said he wanted to cut individual sports instead of team sports, arguing that runners can still run on their own and golfers can golf on their own.

Another factor for Quinn was the fact that the two coaches are only part-time employees who have full-time jobs outside ECC, so the cuts won’t take away their main income.

The college also plans to ask the remaining teams to cut their scheduled competitions for next season by 10 percent, to save money, and to perform more community service, Quinn said.

Quinn and Jerebko met with the coaches Friday to inform them of the cuts.

“This is not easy for anyone affiliated with ECC athletics — both past and present,” Jerebko said in an e-mail sent Monday to athletics department staff.

The men’s golf team has 10 members, and the women’s golf team has one member, and the two teams had a combined operating budget of $7,617, according to data reported by ECC to the U. S. Department of Education for 2008-09.

The six track teams had 34 participants that year and an operating budget of $32,463, according to the department.

College officials said those figures don’t include insurance and some other costs.

The coaches of the teams on the cutting block cited their championships and the successes their athletes have had in transferring to four-year programs upon graduation.

“I understand the cuts need to be made. I just feel they could have gone about doing it better,” said Kibrick, an alumnus of the ECC track program who has served as coach for eight years. “We’ve had a very successful program.”

Kibrick, who told his players of the planned cuts in an emotional meeting Monday, said he is moving forward on the assumption that the trustees will approve the proposed cuts.

The track and cross-country programs at ECC date back to 1961 and 1957, respectively, while golf dates back to 1948, according to a college history.

The golf team raised $5,000 to pay for a trip to North Carolina, where they competed in six tournaments in six days, said Lockwood, coach for two years.