What ends up being the cost?
Valparaiso’s Daggett among college seniors in spring sports throughout region weighing professional and financial factors of an additional year of eligibility
Senior college athletes in spring sports throughout the region weigh professional, financial factors of an additional year of eligibility.
Valparaiso University senior Emanuel Daggett initially experienced resignation when the coronavirus pandemic forced the cancellation of his track season. Then reflection.
And, ultimately, reconsideration.
Daggett, who graduated in three years from Gavit High School in Hammond, had accepted a job with General Motors in Atlanta. Majoring in computer science with a minor in mathematics, he said he was prepared to graduate and proceed to “adulting” in June.
But on Monday, the NCAA Division I Council voted to grant an additional season of eligibility for all spring athletes, following similar decisions at the Division II, Division III and NAIA levels.
That official announcement changed the calculus for Daggett, who joined Valparaiso as a 16-year-old walk-on and developed into an all-conference athlete who finished third in the 400 meters at the Missouri Valley Conference indoor championships.
He’s keeping his options open — he entered the transfer portal — but he’s leaning toward utilizing the extra season at Valparaiso as a graduate student. He has a partial scholarship but would have to cover the rest of the cost of another year of school.
“When I first heard our season was canceled, I accepted it,” Daggett said. “It definitely took a while for it to sink in that it was over. My father and mother raised me to be academically focused, so my thought was, ‘I enjoyed the time I had, keep it moving.’
“But a week after, I was thinking about my track and field career, how I was getting beaten left and right at the beginning at Valpo and how I had a real growing process. Something snapped. The journey from 16 to 20 years old, I wasn’t ready to call it. There’s more to my story I can write on the track.”
Although the NCAA has allowed for expanded rosters in Division I, it designated the distribution of scholarships to returning seniors at the discretion of individual schools. Division II and NAIA programs also can offer athletic scholarships, but Division III programs cannot. That has contributed to a dynamic of delicate conversations among athletes, their families, coaches and athletic departments.
Among the array of factors, regardless of level, is a financial component for seniors as they weigh their futures.
Pitcher Carter Turnquist, who graduated from Oswego High School, jumped at the chance to return to Aurora University. The Spartans (9-2) were ranked No. 17 in Division III, following a season in which the team made its second straight NCAA Tournament appearance.
But Turnquist shifted routes. He’s taking advantage of the university’s Plus One graduate degree program, a relatively new offering that’s in addition to its regular graduate degrees. With a schedule that fits well for many athletes, Plus One is an accelerated program in which a student earns a master’s degree in one year with condensed classroom work in the first semester and an internship in the second semester.
Turnquist, majoring in sports management, plans to pursue an MBA in the Plus One program. He originally planned to seek a master’s degree that would allow him to earn a teaching certificate so he could go into coaching.
“Baseball has been my life,” Turnquist said. “I’ve played since I was 6, and knowing this could be my last year playing, I wanted to go out with a bang. Having it cut short like that, I know I’m going to look back and regret not playing my senior year.
“I’ve always been a big believer you do what you want to do and things will work out for the best in the long run.”
Third baseman Cierra Taylor, a graduate of Andrew High School in Tinley Park, Illinois, was hitting .484 with three homers and 17 RBIs for Division II Lewis University, which was 13-6 when the season was halted.
Taylor cried when that word came down. She’s relishing the opportunity to continue playing a game she began as a 4-year-old in T-ball. She had planned to remain at Lewis to start a
master’s program in school counseling, so she already expected to bear the cost of another year. But by playing again, she might receive additional scholarship money.
“They haven’t told us anything yet,” Taylor said. “I think the compliance director and the AD and our coach, they’re still trying to figure out the logistics of things. Right now it’s just kind of a waiting game for all of us.
“Senior year of college is different than any other year. It’s your chance to say goodbye to the game you’ve grown up with and loved your whole life. With it just coming to an abrupt end, I don’t feel I got the proper closure.”
Purdue Un i ve r s i t y Northwest second baseman Anthony Agne, a graduate of Plainfield North High School in Illinois, envisioned ending his senior season on a high note with a large contingent of his classmates in the Division II program.
He figured he would take classes over the summer and in the fall, when he also would help coach the team, to complete that “prestigious Purdue” degree in history. He was going to have to “bust (his) butt” to follow that timeline, he said.
But following the cancellation of the spring season, he might prolong the process by nixing his summer coursework to instead make money, adding more classes in the fall and continuing to take classes into the spring. He’s a team captain and a peer mentor in the athletic department, working oneon-one with “at-risk students” to help them maintain their grades. He also has a partial scholarship and might be offered more for an additional year.
“I’m very involved in campus life,” Agne said. “I’ve made a little bit of a mark at PNW, and now I can make a bigger one. Looking at the positive side, I’m getting a second chance at a last chance. What could we have done better in the fall or winter to prepare? What can we do to not only make the baseball culture better, but the whole PNW environment better? We get a second chance at creating that.”
Third baseman Nicole O’Donnell, a graduate of Lincoln-Way East High School in Frankfort, Illinois, was “heartbroken” when the season ended for St. Xavier University (19-3). She’s on board to return to the NAIA program.
“As a senior, we all want closure with the game we played our entire lives,” O’Donnell said. “You build up how incredible and fun your senior year is going to be. Then all of a sudden, it’s taken away.
“It’s important coming back next year and being able to finish on our own terms and play for the people who molded us.”
After speaking at length with his parents and St. Xavier, first baseman Ben Zordani decided on a fifth season in a change in direction. A graduate of LincolnWay West High School in New Lenox, Illinois, Zordani had intended to take the Kankakee County sheriff ’s test and had an interview scheduled with the Will County sheriff ’s office. Both were canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic.
“That gave me extra time to think about this decision,” Zordani said. “Initially, I wasn’t going to come back. But I talked to some people, and to get another year to play, I can put off work.”
Other seniors plan to move on to the next phase of their lives. Valparaiso outfielder Morgan Matalin made peace with the conclusion of her career. Since before the start of the school year, the graduate of Crown Point has had a job in actuarial science lined up with Blue Cross Blue Shield in Chicago.
“If I had been planning to go to grad school, I definitely would’ve considered coming back,” Matalin said. “Softball is so much fun and the memories you make are amazing. But life has been planned and I don’t want to stray from the plan.
“I’d be missing out on a year of making money. It (stinks) because it’s not going to be as fun. But overall it was the right decision to make.”
It d i d n ’t h u r t that Matalin hit a walk-off, tworun homer to give the Crusaders a 7-5 win in eight innings in what proved to be their final game of the season.
“One of my t r av e l coaches had this joke, calling me ‘ Average Mo,’” Matalin said. “It was true. I was not the best softball player, but I was a really good teammate and tried my hardest. That’s how I got to college, and I was a decent college player. So the walk-off wasn’t fitting of my career, but it was fitting of my story.
“Softball has been a huge part of my life, but I’m not a die-hard softball person. I always felt school came before softball. The sad part to me was knowing how sad my friends on other teams at other schools were.”
Catcher Alex Mis, a graduate of Munster, opted not to return to Division III Franklin College, in part because he didn’t want to take on additional student loans. He has been torn between attending graduate school — he has already been accepted at Miami (Ohio) and IUPUI — and finding a job.
“It was tough to realize that’s the last game I’ll ever play,” Mis said. “It was hard to decide on it. But ultimately, for my future, it was time to move on.”
Lewis infielder Chris Zeschke, a graduate of Richards High School in Oak Lawn, Illinois, said he is “on the fence.” He graduates in May and has lined up a job that starts in June. But the opportunity to continue to play baseball is tempting.
Still, Zeschke was part of College Illinois!, the state’s prepaid tuition program, which doesn’t cover a fifth year.
“The financial part is a huge impact on my decision,” Zeschke said. “I don’t want my mom to have to pay another year for anything.”
Beacon-News reporter Rick Armstrong, Daily Southtown reporters Tony Baranek and Pat Disabato, and freelance reporter Dave Melton contributed.