Senior golfer Michael O’Brien was on the golf course, during the St. Joe’s men’s golf team’s trip to Naples, FL, streaming a basketball game on his phone, not knowing that in a few hours the sporting world would be thrown into chaos.
“My family are Creighton basketball fans and I was watching the Big East Tournament on my phone on the golf course,” O’Brien said. “All of a sudden, they were taking everybody off the court. It was surreal.”
The Big East Conference had decided at halftime to cancel the remainder of their tournament.
Meanwhile, at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, Director of Athletics Jill Bodensteiner, J.D., was in the midst of deciding, along with the rest of the Atlantic 10 athletic directors and commissioner, if the A-10 should follow suit.
“I was basically in my hotel room on the phone, on Zoom calls or I was running to the Barclays center to meet in person,” Bodensteiner said. “It developed really quickly. The first decision was about the men’s basketball tournament itself and we met about that. Then we reconvened after the NCAA’s decision to cancel spring sport’s championships.”
Hours after the A-10’s decision to cancel the remainder of their tournament, the NCAA released a statement on Twitter announcing the cancelation of the remaining winter and spring seasons for all sports.
“It was weird just sitting in the hotel on spring break, we didn’t have a tournament so it was more of a practice and hang out trip,” O’Brien said. “We are sitting there watching golf highlights and the next day they are telling you your season’s canceled. Your college athletics career is done. It was pretty surreal. Nobody knew what was going on.”
Sophomore infielder Carly Rybinski and the softball team were preparing to board a bus to North Carolina when she received a Zoom call from her head coach, Erin Brooks.
“Coach made a Zoom call and said to pack our bags because we were going home,” Rybinski said. “Then we got the email that all Division I spring sports were canceled.”
Rybinski said she was devastated when she got the news. The entire team entered a Zoom call to be together at that moment.
“It was ripped out of everyone’s hands,” Rybinski said. “Our season just started, everyone was having fun and then just like that it was all gone. Our seniors were crying. Everyone was crying, it was very sad.”
For Bodensteiner, the main focus at the time was athletes’ health. This not only involved the threat of illness, but their mental health too. Bodensteiner said St. Joe’s is currently putting together online counseling groups to help student athletes deal with the situation.
“The primary concern is the health and safety of our student athletes and that includes their mental health,” Bodensteiner said. “This is essentially grieving. They are grieving a loss. Sometimes being with others is the best thing we can do so we tried to figure out how we can do that virtually.”
Rybinksi said the softball team makes an effort to keep in touch and keep a positive attitude.
“Our team has handled it pretty well,” Rybinksi said. “We do Zoom calls, we do team bonding through that. It still feels like we are all together but it is just weird to all actually not be in the gym or on the field.”
For now, distance is one of the main problems for not only players, but also the trainers for each team. Players are now scattered across the U.S. and abroad, and trainers are forced to get creative on how they administer workouts.
Men’s basketball senior guard Greg Smith said Head Strength and Conditioning Coach Eric Lang has been using Instagram live in order to broadcast workouts.
“Lang has been holding sessions Monday through Friday with different workout routines,” Smith said. “That is what a lot of guys on the team have been doing. Dennis Ashley and I have been running on Ridge Ave all the way to the Art Museum steps to get some fresh air and stay in shape.”
On March 30, the NCAA tried to mitigate some of the damage done by the cancelations by awarding an extra year of eligibility to spring sports athletes. For seniors like O’Brien, it was an interesting opportunity.
“Immediately when I found out I thought about the possibility of going back for another year I entered the graduate transfer portal,” O’Brien said. “Just to see what options are out there. It was worth a shot.”
O’Brien has committed to play his graduate season at Florida Gulf Coast University. While he is thankful for the opportunity, he does worry about the potential ramifications of this extra year.
“My thought process was you just chalk it,” O’Brien said. “You get rid of this year and move on. Keep everything to the status quo.”
There is still the question of if college athletics will be able to return next year. According to a study by Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, intermittent social distancing measures should remain until 2022. Rybinski believes even if just the fall semester remains online, it could affect the spring sport season.
“The fall is when you get together with your team and you bond and meet your new recruits,” Rybinski said. “You work hard physically to get in shape. That is your time to get ready for the season and if we don’t have that, no school is going to be prepared for actual conference play.”
