During these crazy uncertain times, everyone has found themselves just sitting and waiting for life to go back to normal. If you’re a sports fan here on campus, you might find yourself waiting longer than expected for sports to kick back into full gear.
“Every sport has been canceled until winter and spring season,” said James Fitzgerald.
Fitzgerald is the Athletic Director and Dean of PE and Recreation here at CCS.
“All sports are training and following Spokane Regional Health Guidelines: wear a mask, groups of five people or less, and stay six feet apart,” he said. It is just a waiting game for when they can even start discussing starting sports now.
“Whatever Spokane County can do they {the athletes} can do,” he said. “ The county is currently in phase 2 and no sports can participate in competition until the whole county is in phase 3.” Fitzgerald met with staff and athletes at the beginning of this school year to talk about how things would look and leave them with some wise words of advice if they dream of a season any time soon.
“If you want any hope of competition, this has to be a team effort,” he said. “You might want to think twice, next time, before going to that house party {or large social gathering}.”
These restrictions aren’t really affecting the athletes much, however, even if they can’t compete.
“Student’s sports scholarships still count,” Fitzgerald said. “Spring sports that did not compete this last year, did not lose eligibility, and that was conference wide.”
That means that if a student athlete was a sophomore last year, they can still compete this continuing sports year.
“Soccer wise I don’t think it’s affecting the athletes too much,” said Brock Ogami.
Ogami is the head Women’s Soccer coach here at CCS.
“It’s an adjustment but I think we are just thankful to be able to be out training again and being together as a group,” he said. “The challenge has always been balancing athletics, school, and for a lot of them part time jobs. Our students at CCS as a whole I think the challenge is being moved to online learning. That’s not going to suit everyone’s learning style.”
Athletes seem to be making the best out of this substandard situation. All that they can do now is plan that a season will happen in the near future.
“Honestly, I have no clue what the future holds for our season or even what to think because of how much things keep changing,” Ogami said. “I’m extremely hopeful the season happens but right now the focus is on having a good training session Monday, making sure our grades meet our standards, and getting our 2021 recruiting class squared away.”
Nobody imagined a pandemic happening, especially in 2020, but it did. Now, the only thing that can be done, is to make the best out of these circumstances. The athletic department here at CCS is sure doing that!
For any more updates on sports, you can always visit the CCS website, and click the tab for Athletics. Or by visiting this website: www.scc.spokane.edu/Athletics