Photo courtesy of Connecticut College Athletics.
On Tuesday, March 9, the NESCAC Presidents gave the go ahead for Spring sports to take place. 363 days after cancelling the Spring 2020 athletic season in the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, the NESCAC has taken a tremendous step toward returning campus life back to its pre-pandemic ways. According to the joint statement released on the NESCAC website, “variations in local conditions, institutional policies, and state travel restrictions, each institution will make its own determination whether to participate.” This decision opens eligibility for Conn’s Men’s and Women’s Lacrosse, Tenis, Rowing and Track and Field teams so participate in NESCAC competition, pending the reciprocation of the decision to play by six teams for a given sport. The season “will take place within abbreviated regional schedules from mid-April to mid-May.”
While Fall and Winter sports team’s will continue to compete via scrimmages with local institutions, Spring sports will take the next month to fine tune their team’s and prepare for NESCAC competition. They will continue practicing, as all Conn sports teams have since the beginning of the Spring semester, as well as weaving in out of conference games.
Colin Spinney, class of ‘21 and member of the Men’s Lacrosse team, reflected on the upcoming season calling it a “great opportunity for us to get out, see each other and compete.” Spinney, who played three games in 2020 before the season was cancelled amidst the outbreak of the pandemic, said that the last 12 months “hurt the program and the possibility to move forward” as not playing games, by nature, forced the team to “sit stagnant.” Additionally, Spinney spoke to the uncertainty surrounding this season, stating that members of the team “considered going remote.” The decision to play on, however, “helped us keep the team together which is what we wanted,” he concluded.
The Men’s Lacrosse team were scheduled to have their first competitive game of the season on Saturday, March 20 against Western New England University. In line with events of the last 12 months, the game was cancelled at the last minute due to concerns about COVID-19 among their opponents.
The opportunity presented by this NESCAC season is of equal merit for the Women’s Tennis Team. As they have had lots of roster turnover since NESCAC sports were cancelled last Spring, “this season is really critical to ensuring that our first hears, 50% of our team, get some experience playing collegiate tennis under their belts,” said Allison Falvey, class of ‘22. The season “will allow the whole team to gain i,portant playing time for success in future seasons” she continued.
While Conn has opted to participate in the NESCAC’s plan for Spring sports, and has enough players to field competitive teams, this may not be the case for all potentially participating institutions. As the fully remote option has become commonplace, many student athletes, especially those who had no guarantee of a Spring season at the start of the semester, may have chosen to stay home and complete the academic semester across the nation and even internationally for a handful of reasons outside of athletics. Falvey, speaking about the upcoming season, said that, “We have not received our official schedule yet.” This is the same for Spinneys Men’s Lacrosse and all other Conn teams. However, Flavey emphasised that “there will for sure be a NESCAC tournament.”
As Conn works with their fellow NESCAC institutions to iron out details regarding participating teams, condensed schedules and travel, there are sure to be more bumps along the road. However, committing to attempt to bring normalcy back to athletics is a necessary first step to reestablish a key part of student life at Conn.
