Cancellation of spring sports leaves college athletes in limbo

Image
  • McMurry University’s Matthew Bass threw a pitch during a game this season. Bass said his team was on the road when they learned the season got canceled.
    McMurry University’s Matthew Bass threw a pitch during a game this season. Bass said his team was on the road when they learned the season got canceled.
  • Western Texas College sophomore Jake Leatherwood finished a swing. Leatherwood is one of thousands of junior college athletes left scrambling by the cancellation of spring athletics by the NJCAA.
    Western Texas College sophomore Jake Leatherwood finished a swing. Leatherwood is one of thousands of junior college athletes left scrambling by the cancellation of spring athletics by the NJCAA.
Body

While high school athletes continue to hold out hope they’ll be able to return to action in May, college athletes won’t have that same opportunity.
In light of the spread of COVID-19, the NCAA and the NJCAA cancelled all spring sports for the remainder of the 2020 season, bringing collegiate athletics to an abrupt halt.
Several college athletes from Snyder were impacted.
“It was kind of a shock,” Western Texas College sophomore golfer and 2018 Snyder High School graduate Jake Leatherwood said.
“I didn’t really have time to react. Everything happened real fast.”
Leatherwood and junior college athletes around the nation face a unique challenge in seeking to be recruited for the next phase of college without being able to put up film and statistics from their sophomore season. Leatherwood said the strategy turned from building tape to marketing himself to college coaches.
“It threw a wrench in that you have visits lined up or tournaments to put more scores up and all that is just cancelled,” he said. “You’re almost hung out to dry. Luckily it hasn’t been too bad for me since I already have some schools interested. But I am sure there were players really looking for those tournaments. All you can really do is send out e-mails and hope you have a good enough resume to peak their interest.”
Matt Bass, a junior right-handed pitcher at McMurry University, said the Warhawks were on a road trip when they learned the season was put on hold.
“We were on our way to go play a series and we got a call that we had to turn around and come back to Abilene,” he said.
“It went from we weren’t going to play that series to no conference games and then a couple days later, we got the news that our season had been cancelled. I was thinking ‘man this sucks’ because we were in the middle of our season.”
Bass missed his sophomore season due to injury and was making his return to the mound in 2020.
He’ll now have to wait another year to get back on the diamond.
“It’s one of those things where you get upset because you just came back,” he said. “We were really enjoying the camaraderie we had built up on the team. You hate to see that get taken away from you so quickly.”
2019 Snyder High School graduate and Howard Payne University freshman tennis player Zailey Sanchez tried to adopt a positive outlook and said her ended her season on a high note.
“We had a few matches in the semester left and then we were done,” she said. “I was sad because with it being my first year, I wanted to play it all the way through. I was bummed about it but at the same time, I was OK because I ended on a win.”
After the NCAA made the decision to grant all spring sport athletes an extra year of eligibility, Sanchez said she sees her first year as a practice run.
“It was nice to know because for me, I can use this year as a building year,” she said.
“Now I know what to expect so now I have more time so that I can play better for my next few years.”