Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
WCUnot rulingout springsports
State Sen. Tomlinson helped pressure school to reconsider; any move could impact fall sports
WEST CHESTER » Seemingly in a constant state of limbo since the COVID- 19 crisis hit last March, not much has changed in the ensuing sevenmonths for athletes at West Chester University.
A majority of WCU’s 22 varsity sports programs have no idea what lies ahead for the rest of this academic year. That’s because two days after announcing last week that all sports would be cancelled for the 2020- 21 season, West Chester announced that it is reconsidering the status for spring athletics.
It is, potentially, good news for programs like baseball and softball that already lost the 2020 season to the pandemic. But it could also affect fall sports like football, soccer and field hockey, which had their current season postponed with hopes of playing in the spring.
“We are still in limbo,” saidWCUhead footballcoachBillZwaan. “Wefeelbetter today thanwhen the announcementwas originallymade. Hopefully somecoaches towill be able to have some input, along with somestudent- athletes and trainers. We have no ideawhere it’s headed, but it is better than nothing.”
West Chester President Christopher Fiorentino sent out an email last Friday announcing the move. According to WCU Athletic Director Terry Beattie, the winter sports slate remains cancelled, but the door is now ajar for the rest.
“The university is now willing to take a look and reconsider its position,” he explained. “What will end up happening is difficult to speculate about right now.
“We will continue to monitor the environment that we are in. This includes all of our sports for the spring semester.”
On Oct. 7, West Chester announced that all instruction would remain remote through the spring semester of 2021. And because the school made a decision last summer that there would be no extracurricular activities if students are unable to attend in- person classes, athletics were shut down until the fall of 2021. Friday’s reprieve reopens that possibility.
“I think they are at least going to look at that as a possibility,” Zwaan said. “They would have to figure out a way for the athletes to come back on campus, mainly freshmen and some sophomores. A lot of our upperclassmen live offcampus.
“I’m not sure the school wants to make certain allocations just for athletes. But that’s what we are hoping they look at. Truthfully, it would probably be safer if we were remote with just athletes on campus because you could control the whole situation a little bit better.”
Amid an outcry that spring sports had been cancelled to abruptly – a move that nobody else in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference has made -- West Chester apparently bowed to political pressure applied by Pennsylvania State Sen. Tommy Tomlinson, who is the chairperson of WCU’s Council of Trustees.
“Senator Tomlinson stepped up big- time for us,” Zwaan said.
“All I know is what was shared with us on Friday. I don’t know what sort of pushback there was,” Beattie added.
“We will take a look at all possibilities, including in- person activities — workouts, practices. I don’t think anything is off the table at this point, but there are no guarantees anything will happen. We’ll be taking guidance from the PSAC and the NCAA as they provide us recommendations for returning safely to activities.”
Although it wasn’t outlined in the press release, Zwaan said that a university committee will be formed to study the situation. The composition of the members of the committee is unclear.
“They are at least trying to get more information, which obviously we are really happy about as far as coaches and studentathletes are concerned,” he added. “It just seemed like the decisionwas so early for the spring sports when so many different things could happen between now and January.
“We haven’t really had many discussions with our administration as to how they are making decisions and how they feel about things. Hopefully we will start to hear that over the next week or so.”
Zwaan acknowledged that the initial decision to suspend all sports until late next summer was a crushing blow.
“Our kids were devastated when the news came,” he said. “From March ( of 2020) until August ( of 2021), you are talking about 17 months of nothing. We aren’t allowed to do anything with our players except meetings on Zoom.
“We can’t see them, have themlift or runor anything. From a mental standpoint, it’s really rough on the studentathletes right now as well as the coaches.”
Here is Fiorentino’s full statement from Oct. 9:
“At the urging of Council of Trustees Chairperson Senator Tomlinson, West Chester University will be reconsidering our status for spring athletics. Wewill be seeking additional updates from PSAC, our athletic conference, and the NCAA regarding the status of championships and testing protocols as part of that reconsideration. Once we have received an update from PSAC, we will be in a better position to provide more detailed information.”