‘The season just died’
The bus pulled into Roanoke Rapids, N.C., at around 6 a.m. and the Broncs stopped for breakfast, still thinking everything was fine.
“I think the Ivy League had canceled its season at that point, but we weren’t even talking about it.” Davis said. “We’re not talking about the MAAC tournament being canceled. Whether we were naïve or ignorant to the whole situation, it hadn’t happened to us. When we got back on that bus we think we’re gonna play; that it was all systems are go and no problem.”
A few hours later, Davis got word that the MAAC basketball tournament was canceled and the baseball season would be shut down for several weeks before the situation was re-evaluated. The plan was still to finish out the weekend.
“In my mind, I’m trying to figure out what to do if that’s what the decision is,” Davis said. “How do we handle the next couple of weeks?”
Forging forward, the team was munching down hoagies at a Firehouse Subs when Davis
got a call from Associate Athletic Greg Busch saying it looked as if the season was going to be canceled.
“We round everybody back up, we get on the bus,” Davis said. “We really haven’t talked about it, it hasn’t become official yet to speak. We get out of the bus, go into the hotel. We hadn’t checked in, we’re trying to get our arms around the next best thing to do.”
And so they sat in the lobby of the Cambria Hotel in Mount Pleasant, S.C., right across the river from Charleston. About the only positive to come out of this story is when Davis said ‘It was a really nice lobby, a big open area.”
At that point, Rider did not realize the NCAA had pretty much canceled everything. Soon after, the word came down. Davis and his staff quickly went into damage control, preaching to their players that they had no control over the situation and they needed to try and deal with it and understand there was nothing they could do.
“I told them ‘I’m disappointed for you, I’m disappointed for our coaches and for the whole league,’” Davis said. “We can’t get the chance to do what we set out to do. Of course this is a fluid situation. You’re always trying to get better today and get better tomorrow. A season has its own life. Basically they pulled the cord on it, and the season just died.”
That night the Broncs had dinner and the coach told them, “Enjoy the fact you’re with each other, it could be the last time you’re together as a team. If you need anything, let me know.”
It was a dejected group that departed South Carolina at 5 a.m. Friday for a long, soulsearching ride back to Lawrenceville.
“It was pretty much a quiet ride home,” Davis said. “It wasn’t a great trip back. We didn’t think we did anything wrong in terms of going down, though. We had the best interest of the players in mind.”
The good news for the seniors is that 24 hours later the NCAA approved measures to grant another year of eligibility. Which, of course, leads to a whole new litany of questions.
“We have X amount of scholarships, is that going to be increased? Is Rider going to comply? I don’t know,” Davis said. “What do you do with the incoming freshmen? We just have a lot of unknown questions that are all being discussed.
“I think we have to get operating at Rider and then we’ll address some of those things. Right now is not the time to be concerned about it. You can only speculate about what could happen. Now it’s, ‘Let’s get everybody home, get everybody off the streets and hopefully this thing will flatline.’ Hopefully, everything will work out.”
Davis had high hopes his team would return to prominence in the MAAC this year, but understands that what is happening is bigger than all that.
“It’s disappointing to sit around and think what could have been,” he said. “But we can’t be selfish. It’s not just us, it’s everybody. There’s a worldwide crisis going on and we need to do our part. It’s a learning experience in our life and it’s something these kids never had to deal with. Most of these guys were infants during 9/11.
“That was monumental and everyone remembers exactly where they were when they heard about 9/11. I’m going to remember where I was when they canceled the season.”
Despite it all, Davis has an encouraging message.
“We’ll get through it and be better people for it,” he said. “For now you have to respect authority, follow instructions. It’s not like you can do whatever you want. This is life and death for a lot of people. The United States always seems to have resolve when things happen like this. They do the right thing to get through it. Whenever it is, things will eventually get back to normal and we’ll get back to doing what we love.”
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