Ivy League
Winham affected by shutdown
Seabury Hall grad had injury-shortened season last fall, won’t run again this fall due to Ivy League decision
Veronica Winham ran in just one cross country race last season as a sophomore at Dartmouth College due to a stress fracture in her shin, and now she will not run any as a junior this fall.
The Ivy League announced Wednesday that it would not hold any sports until January because of the coronavirus pandemic.
“They announced a while back that they were going to tell us on July 8th and so I think it’s just been waiting until today, kind of holding my breath for the information,” Winham, a Seabury Hall graduate and The Maui News Maui Interscholastic League co-Girl Athlete of the Year in 2017-18, said via phone from New Hampshire. “They had all the student-athletes on a conference call and the athletic director basically told us the decision that the Ivy League presidents and Ivy League athletic directors had reached this afternoon.”
The Ivy League posted a statement on its website that said, in part, “With the safety and well-being of students as their highest priority, Ivy League institutions are implementing campus-wide policies including restrictions on student and staff travel, requirements for social distancing, limits on group gatherings, and regulations for visitors to campus. As athletics is expected to operate consistent with campus policies, it will not be possible for Ivy League teams to participate in intercollegiate athletics competition prior to the end of the fall semester.”
The statement did say that practice will be permitted and that protocols will be added as the situation develops. The statement also said that the fall-season athletes will not be using a season of eligibility.
“Fall sport student-athletes will not use a season of Ivy League or NCAA eligibility in the fall, whether or not they enroll,” the statement said. “Students who wish to pursue competition during a fifth-year will need to work with their institutions.”
Winham said she had a feeling this news was coming.
“I think I knew deep down that this is what was going to be the decision, but I’m extremely disappointed,” she said. “I think it’s hard when you work pretty much your whole entire life for experiences like this one and it can just get taken away so quickly.
“It’s not just, obviously, related to the coronavirus. I’ve had season-ending injuries and it’s a similar type of feeling. It’s just very frustrating, something that’s out of our control. I have talked to some teammates about it and they have similar feelings.”
While the news was tough to take, Winham knows it is a necessary step.
“Right now we’re all trying to do our part,” she said. “I think everybody’s sacrificing right now and if this is going to end up being for the greater good of the town and of the country, I definitely understand. It’s disappointing now.”
The news was a double-whammy for cross country athletes who missed the spring track and field season due to the coronavirus outbreak. Winham ran in one cross country meet in fall 2019 and felt a twinge in her shin that developed into a stress fracture.
“I probably ran on it when I shouldn’t have when it first started hurting and I made it worse,” she said. “It’s something that I just got over and then obviously the coronavirus canceled our spring season. So, I haven’t had the opportunity to race in a little bit.”
Now, just as she started to feel like her old self, this newsflash has cost her more of her college athletic experience.
“I feel really good, I’ve been working really hard this summer, I’ve been training really hard since I’ve been able to start running again and that is another layer to the disappointment in this whole thing,” she said. “It’s just really tough to work really hard and then the fact that we won’t be able to show that off in competition for the next couple months.”
Winham is hopeful that things can get going again in January, but is not sure how that would look. Indoor track and field meets take place during the winter and then outdoor track is on the docket in the spring.
“I think that the Ivy League has kind of been ahead in these decisions and kind of at the forefront,” she said. “I think we were one of the first conferences, if not the first conference, to make the decision (to cancel athletic competitions) this spring.
“So I think other schools and other conferences will follow suit because it is, at the end of the day, it’s more important that we keep people safe and this is doing our part as student-athletes.”
Winham has spent her time recently in New Hampshire and will be one of the classes that will be back on campus this fall in Dartmouth’s staggered reopening plan. She is double-majoring in English and government with the goal of being a journalist.
She still keeps in touch with Seabury Hall coach Bobby Grossman.
“I FaceTimed Bobby pretty recently, I think a couple days ago, and it’s just really nice to have that support system still there for me and we can talk through this,” Winham said. “Because there are options for me, hopefully moving forward with a fifth year or something of that nature. Just having his opinion on that has been very helpful as well.”
The bottom line for Winham is she realizes that there is a brighter future ahead.
“I want to say I wish things were different, but I think everyone does right now,” she said. “They talked about moving some of the fall sports to the spring and there’s been rumors that that will happen with football, but personally I don’t know what that would look like having cross country and outdoor track at the same time.
“I prefer cross country, so that’s why this particular news is so disappointing. I really don’t want to be in a situation where I go into my senior year only having had my freshman year (cross country) season. To me, cross country is a huge part of why I enrolled at Dartmouth and why I chose this school, so I am trying to think of alternatives on how I can get another cross country season out of this whole thing.”