COVID-19 Shoots Down the Spring Season

Wesley student athletes and coaches are disappointed spring season ended early because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Team bonding, the away-game road trips, and the victory celebrations will not happen this spring. The conference shut down all playoffs and championship events.

Across the United States there are more than 400,000 cases of people who reportedly have COVID-19. So far, 46,000 Americans have died. This is the reason why the Atlantic Eastern conference shut down all spring sporting events.

Except for football, all Wesley sports play in the Atlantic Eastern conference, including lacrosse, baseball and softball.

According to the NCAA website, there are more than 460,000 NCAA student-athletes who compete in 24 sports every year.

Junior Men’s Lacrosse player Dylan Sicca is one of those 460,000 student-athletes.

“At first I was upset about the season ending because I thought to myself my junior season is over and I have one more season after this,” he said. “But I felt relieved and more determined when the NCAA gave us that year of eligibility back. We were on track to winning a lot of our games in our out of conference games and potentially placing at either third or fourth in the conference.”

 

There is one thing Dylan misses the most about playing the sport he loves.

“I miss just being out on the field with people I can consider family or close to it,” he said.

Junior baseball player Darin Matthews said he also was upset that he was unable to play.

“I am mad because the season was just starting and we were putting things together as a team,” he said. “We didn’t get off to the start we wanted but we starting to put things together during games later in the season and started catching some W’s.”

He said he misses the long bus rides to away games where he got to bond further with his teammates.

“What I’m doing to get in shape for next season is by doing a lot of pure cardio and doing body-weight exercises,” he said.

It is the same for womens sports. Lacrosse player Emily Caldarelli points out that she was upset about the season ending early because she believed that her team was going to be special during the 2019-2020 season.

Softball player Abbey Mayse also said she was disappointed about the season ending early because they were doing so well.

She said she feels sad for the seniors because they won’t play again. Mayse said she has bonded well with her teammates and her coaches.

“I think that everyone can agree this is devastating,” she said. “I miss my coaches and teammates. There has been so many emotions, but the top emotion was disappointment. We just got back from an undefeated spring break. These are countless memories that will be missed.”

It is not only the athletes who are upset about the sudden end of the spring seasons

Coaches said they feel the same disappointment, including softball’s Julie Greep.

“Having our season end so abruptly was absolutely devastating for everyone involved,” she said. “Our seniors didn’t get the closure they deserved. Our team didn’t get to fulfill what was surely going to be the best season in school history. It was a tough pill to swallow, but we as a whole knew it was for the best of our community and country.”

Greep said she misses the big moments.

“Senior day, conference playoffs, I could go on and on,” she said. “But I think the thing our team misses the most is just being together. I look forward to the day we can all once again reunite and start making more memories.”

Tracey Short, Wesley’s athletic director, also said she was disappointed.

The athletes and coaches were very sad that the spring season ended early. All of the victory celebrations, competition,  and good games had to be shut down all because of a dangerous virus. 2020 will never be forgotten as the year it took away athletes dreams.