As COVID-19 continues to make things confusing around the world, one thing it had an impact on were the student athletes who were currently in their spring season.
A press release was put out by the NCAA which had quality information answering many questions the athletes may have. They claimed “The Division I Council on Monday voted to allow schools to provide spring-sport student-athletes an additional season of competition and an extension of their period of eligibility.” Due to the COVID-19 outbreak, spring athletes lost the opportunity to compete this year. It also affected some winter sports whose season was coming to a close.
With the cancellation of the spring sports, some rules and violations had to be changed to make right for what some of these athletes have lost. This will also affect Spring Hill College since it qualifies as a Division II school. NCAA also sent out a press release dealing with how the actions for the Division II schools will be taken. The NCAA said “The group waived current requirements for spring sport student-athletes who received degree-completion awards for 2020-21 and were granted an extension of eligibility, allowing them to participate in their last season in spring 2021 and still receive the award.”
Missing out on this season has been hard for some athletes who were looking to come in their senior year. For a lot of student-athletes, doing another year for sports isn’t an option. Sophomore Elise Caruso, a member of the women’s softball team, was shocked when hearing that they’re season was called off. Caruso said, “I still don’t really know how I feel about this because it’s all happening so fast. I just feel bad for seniors because we prepared and worked hard for months to just have the season called off.”
As some sports were in their current season, other teams were getting their off season workouts in. Although it may not have had a huge impact on these teams, it can disrupt the momentum and chemistry being built up in the different teams. Men’s Soccer Coach Steve Wieczorek said “the next step for the team is making sure everyone gets home safe and picking classes for the fall in order to resume business as usual.” Coach Wieczorek is laying off the sports for a bit to understand some of the real issues going on while trying to lead his team into a direction of being prepared for the next fall season. Resolving class issues and living issues for the next fall semester has become the main concern for athletes. When they return and things resume, the team won’t have any difficulties or complications at the start of the year, and can hopefully pick up right where they left off.
