Bishop thought he had seen it all, but ...
Veteran Conn College coach caught off guard by season’s immediate end while at nationals
In his roughly 34 years as a Connecticut College coach, Ned Bishop has seen it all in his profession.
At least that's what some people thought.
"One of the things that some of the people on the team have asked, they're like, 'You've been doing this for a long time, you've seen everything.' But I haven't seen this before," said Bishop, the head women's track and field coach.
"The closest analogy I could make to it was when 9/11 happened. Obviously, that was a horrible experience and a difficult time. But it also was different from this. We had a meet canceled as opposed to a season canceled. We were fortunate back then that everybody on our team was fine and all of their families were fine.
"This is going to take some time to know if everybody is fine."
Bishop was in Winston-Salem, N.C., site of the NCAA Division III Indoor Track & Field Championships, when the winter championship season abruptly ended due to the coronavirus pandemic. He made the trip with men's coach Luke Maher and NCAA Championship qualifiers Meredith Cronin, Koko Mensah and Jeffrey Love.
They arrived on Wednesday, March 11, and spent two days training for the competition that was scheduled to start on Friday the 13th. As a precautionary measure, they made the long drive from Connecticut instead of flying.
First, Bishop received word on Thursday that the coaches meeting and banquet for the athletes were called off but the championship meet would be held.
Later that afternoon, the NCAA announced it had canceled all winter championships.
The Camels already had their New England Small College Athletic Conference spring season called off.
It was a double gut punch for the three athletes that lost both a chance to compete in the NCAA winter championships and their spring outdoor season.
"First, they were having a tough time emotionally with that," Bishop said of the NESCAC announcement. "Is this really happening? Is this for
real? Then it hit them that it really was . ... But we still thought the meet was going to go on at that point. And we still thought so even into Thursday afternoon, the day before it was supposed to start.
"But then once we got the news it was like another block of concrete landing on you after you had already gotten used to what the first one felt like."
The news was especially difficult for Mensah, who had a great chance to achieve her goal of earning All-American honors for the first time in her career. She was the third seed in the shot put. Cronin, who qualified in the 5,000 meters, and Love, a 3,000 runner, are a junior and freshman, respectively.
Through hard work and determination, Mensah blossomed into one of the most accomplished throwers in program history. She won NESCAC and New England Division III titles. It would have been her fourth appearance at an NCAA Championship track meet. She owns the school indoor shot put record with a toss of 46 feet, 10 inches, and also the weight throw (47-3).
Instead of competing, the Conn College crew made the 12-hour drive back home on March 13. The harsh realization that Mensah's career was over took time to sink in.
"It went in waves," Bishop said. "It was very overwhelming at first, really upsetting. Then realizing that none of this was directed at anybody in particular and it's a much bigger issue that everybody was having to deal with. It's not something that NESCAC or Connecticut College was taking away that other schools were still going to be able to do."
"... When she left campus to go home, she came to see me again. It was just hard. She's an emotional person. She cares very deeply about what she's doing and has had really high goals. She's accomplished a ton but there's still more that she wanted to do."
Mensah and her fellow senior athletes might have one more opportunity to gather back on the Conn College campus.
While students are finishing the spring semester by taking online classes, the school plans to reassess at the end of April whether to hold graduation or not in May.
The Conn College coaching staff is adjusting to the new landscape. They're making sure all their athletes understand the gravity of the situation and do their part.
Bishop, who primarily coaches the women's distance runners and also is in charge of the women's cross country program, held a team meeting via Zoom on Thursday.
"I think that was good for everybody psychologically," Bishop said.
At one point, three team members were overseas — two on spring break trips, one in Israel and the other in Iceland, and a third person was studying abroad in Copenhagen this semester. They're home now, under self quarantine and healthy, according to Bishop.
More than just competition was lost for all the athletes.
They also lost their daily connection with their sports family.
"It's such a big part of your life when you're an athlete that you're getting together with this group of people every afternoon to physically do something together," Bishop said. "Right now, in some ways the people that are runners are a little bit luckier than others because you still can go out and run . ... So they can still pursue it, but it doesn't have the same social dynamic and the support of everybody doing it with you."
"We're trying to do what we can to support that and make sure everybody is in touch with each other. For the seniors, that they still just feel that they've got a team. And for the people not graduating, that there's still goals to be working toward . ... It will take everybody a little time to adjust and start looking forward to (the fall season) as opposed to being sad about what's going on right now." g.keefe@theday.com