The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Quinnipiac, Fairfield focus on winter sports scheduling
The news on Monday that the MAAC was canceling the fall sports season wasn’t a stunning revelation considering the steps conferences and universities are taking in the middle of the pandemic.
The obvious question for Fairfield, Quinnipiac, and the rest of the programs in the MAAC: What’s next?
There are more than a few concerns about what ECAC Hockey is going to look like, especially since seven programs — including all six Ivy League hockey programs — won’t be competing in athletics during the fall semester.
The Quinnipiac women’s hockey team played an exhibition game on Sept. 28 and the first game in the 2019-20 regular season was Oct. 4. The men’s program kicked off the regular season on Oct. 11, so there’s not too much time to work with.
“We are talking about hockey on a consistent basis, hockey and basketball, trying to determine what the ECAC might look like and what basketball might look like,” Quinnipiac Director of Athletics Greg Amodio said. “We have some time, no definitive decisions have been made. The hockey commissioners have been speaking about what a college hockey season could look like trying to look it from a sense of do we do it with all the conferences together trying to work as one or is there a different methodology.
“Not unlike many situations around COVID, we are having talks about it this week and it could all change again next week. It is a pretty fluid situation but there is constant conversation about what it could look like and we are just not there on what the model could be.”
There hasn’t been much news coming out of ECAC Hockey or the other conferences, for that matter. That’s understandable considering the focus has been on the fall season.
St. Lawrence did put out a statement on Wednesday saying “St. Lawrence intends to play Division I hockey this year. ECAC Hockey continues to discuss the best path forward. We anticipate being able to share more information in the near future.”
With basketball seasons normally beginning in November, there’s a little more time for schools and conferences to come up with adjusted schedules. Unlike hockey, all the MAAC programs are in the same situation in terms of the conference schedule.
“Certainly we will have those discussions about basketball and we are certainly going to be talking about them as a staff, so I think that is the next wave of discussions,” Fairfield Director of Athletics Paul Schlickmann said. “The first wave is making sure all of our campuses are reopening and then have plans that we are confident about reacclimating our students. [After that] we can think about the winter, but I think it is a little too early to get into what that may look like.”
Amodio and Schlickmann had calls with their head coaches when the news of the MAAC not having competition in the fall season became official. The coaches then relayed the news to their players. Both ADs said keeping the lines of communication open for student-athletes and their families is of paramount importance.
Amodio said a town hall with Quinnipiac studentathletes and their parents is being scheduled. Schlickmann is planning to reach out to Fairfield’s impacted players in the coming days. Ultimately they both hope they can reveal sooner rather than later that their seasons will be played during the spring.
“It is one of the things that the presidents and ADs talked about, if there is a model that we could employ in the spring that could allow for a competitive season,” Amodio said. “We have no idea what that means exactly but to provide a competitive opportunity for our fall studentathletes in the spring, that is something we are going to aggressively pursue.”
In the meantime, there will be regular conference calls within the Fairfield and Quinnipiac athletic departments, all in the name of providing for their student-athletes during these unprecedented times.
“For the summer we have told our student-athletes to take care of themselves, take care of their families, make sure first and foremost mind, body and spirit type of mentality in regards of keeping themselves positive at a time when they know that it is really hard to stay positive,” Amodio said. “Support your family and take care of them because when they aren’t on campus, we don’t know what everybody is dealing with. There are individuals who may have family or friends who might have COVID and individuals who might have employment status for family and friends that is something different now, so there are a lot of moving pieces in terms of trying to keep them positive in terms of what they have to look forward to when they get back on campus.”