The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
MAAC cancels fall sports season
The Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference announced on Monday that it was canceling play during the fall sports season.
The move was made after the MAAC’s Council of Presidents meeting on Monday. A decision on whether fall sports competition would be feasible in the spring will be determined by the presidents at a later date.
“The decision to cancel fall sports was made with studentathletes being top of mind,” MAAC Commissioner Rich Ensor said in a release. “It is difficult to put into words how I feel for all of the student athletes, coaches, and administrators who put in so much work on a daily basis. Health and safety protocols have been of the utmost priority the last several months, but unfortunately, there are too many factors that prohibit the MAAC and its institutions from safely delivering a competitive atmosphere that these individuals deserve.”
The move means that Fairfield and Quinnipiac will become the 14th and 15th four-year universities in Connecticut to not have a fall sports season. They join Hartford and Yale as the Division I programs to call off the fall sports season.
“It is heartbreaking for our kids first and foremost,” Fairfield Director of Athletics Paul Schlickmann said. “We know how much it means to them in terms of their experience at Fairfield and how much it means to them to have that daily camaraderie and that spirit of competition. It is a big part of who they are and why they are here, they are competing at the highest level of college athletics so it is really important for that and to not have that opportunity is a big blow for them.
“It is hard even though it is not altogether unexpected, the reality of it is tough. Ultimately we are trying to put health and safety at the forefront and I believe we will all be better for it. We have extraordinarily resilient
group of student-athletes who I think do a good job of seeing the bigger picture in this. I think they will continue to be leaders on campus and do a great job with all the aspects of their educational experience.”
The MAAC canceled all fall non-conference competition on July 17. Quinnipiac plays in the Big East in field hockey and non-conference play in Big East field hockey was also postponed. Fairfield took the step of canceling the
field hockey season in the fall even though the Stags play in the Northeast Conference and no decision on the NEC field hockey season has been made.
“We’ve had similar discussion of where they are but we felt like it was the right call to align that with the majority of our sports in the MAAC,” Schlickmann said.
The Fairfield women’s volleyball team reached the NCAA tournament in 2019 going 17-1 in conference play and beating Marist and Quinnipiac in the MAAC tournament. The Stags lost to No. 7 Minnesota in the NCAAs. The
women’s soccer team, picked to finish ninth, won 11 games and reached the MAAC tournament final. Fairfield’s field hockey team was undefeated in conference play in 2019, won the NCAA opener against No. 23 American University before losing in overtime at UConn.
Quinnipiac’s men’s soccer team went 7-2-1 in the MAAC, the women’s soccer program won 10 games and finished 5-4-1 in the MAAC. The women’s volleyball team defeated No. 3 seed Rider and No. 2 seed Canisius before losing to Fairfield in the MAAC tournament final.
“It is really difficult,” Quinnipiac Director of Athletics Greg Amodio said. “We had an opportunity in the spring and decisions were made across the country to stop college athletics and we had to bring back baseball, softball, golf and tennis from different parts of the country. Myself and some of the athletic administration were meeting with all the student-athletes and the coaches, it was blow to those kids especially the seniors as they realize this might have been the end of my college career.
“This is a little different because it is on the front
end but it is no less difficult to looking at our student-athletes who work at a high level and do a great job both athletically and academically to achieve at a high level. You are taking a significant part of their college experience away knowing that their general college experience is going to be vastly different this semester. It is another pivot for our student-athletes to have to make so our responsibility is to just try to care and nurture them the best that we can, try to train them at a high level. Provide the skill development, training that they need, strength
and conditioning support, athletic training support just to make sure that they can continue to get better as athletes and ideally look forward to another season in the future.”
Jon Rothstein of CBS Sports was the first to report the news.
Also, the NCAA’s Division I Council Coordination Committee granted a waiver that cuts by 50 percent the minimum number of games that the Olympics sports teams are required to play.