HANOVER — A week ago, the Dartmouth College baseball team was anticipating an upcoming trip to Florida while the softball squad was excited to compete in California. Women’s lacrosse was undefeated and gunning for a second consecutive conference crown, and men’s lacrosse looked like it might post its best season in years.
Days later, it’s all finished because of public health concerns surrounding the coronavirus pandemic.
The Ivy League canceled all spring sports March 11, ending Big Green athletes’ seasons in the above sports as well as golf, tennis, rowing, rugby, sailing, track and equestrian. Club sports also were ended. Hundreds of Dartmouth athletes finished the winter term and dispersed across the country, unsure when or if they will return to competition.
Left behind and somewhat in limbo are their coaches, unsure of what comes next. Questions swirled Sunday about recruiting, player eligibility and whether they should work from home or the office.
“I wanted to be prepared for a worst-case scenario, but I couldn’t really imagine it until it happened,” said Dartmouth softball coach Jen Williams.
Said baseball coach Bob Whalen: “I’ve done this a long time, and I get to do it again, but you don’t usually get a chance to be a senior in college a second time. I’m powerless except to support them and tell them I’m in it up to my waist just like you are.”
When the Ivy League canceled its men’s and women’s basketball tournaments last Tuesday, there was pushback from fans and players and an online petition to reverse the decision garnered 15,269 signatures. The situation was so fluid, however, that when spring sports were canceled a day later, the severity of the situation had sunk in more deeply and resignation seemed to be the primary emotion.
“The Ivy League presidents sure got smarter overnight,” noted Dartmouth athletic director Harry Sheehy. “I give them credit for making a bold decision. It will look less and less bold as time goes by and people wake up.”
Many Dartmouth students still were taking final exams Wednesday, and Whalen said nine of his players had just received notice of the spring sports cancellation when they had to shut off their phones and sit for a 3 p.m. test. The timing meant most teams had meetings with their coaches in the late afternoon and early evening, hours after hearing the news.
Williams said that although she didn’t have many answers for her players, she thought it was important for them to be together to process what had just happened. She told them it was understandable to be upset about an action that came almost out of the blue.
“College is a very specific time, and I think they have a vision of how it will go,” Williams said of her seniors. “They had a plan and now it’s been completely stripped away. Guess what? Life after softball has come sooner than you thought.”
Although there’s been talk of the NCAA granting seniors an extra year of eligibility, the Ivy League generally doesn’t allow students to compete while doing graduate work. Players could theoretically transfer, but that’s now a leap into the unknown.
Will college rosters be crowded with both fifth-year seniors and recent high school graduates? Will institutions be allowed or be able to afford more players on scholarship? What’s the recruiting landscape going to look like and how will its regulations be altered? Are there Title IX components to ponder?
“How do we navigate this situation without knowing what the next steps are?” asked Dartmouth women’s lacrosse coach Alex Frank. “I can’t even speculate on what’s coming next.”
Whalen, Williams and Frank all voiced support for the cancellation decision, Whalen pointing out that the move was made with not just the Ivy League’s personnel in mind, but for those who work and live on and around its campuses. Conveying that to a 21-year-old whose sports career has crash-landed, however, is difficult.
“You try to get them to see the bigger picture, but this has been like getting punched in the stomach when you’re looking the other direction,” Whalen said.
Spring sport coaches switched literally overnight from competition strategy and double-checking team travel plans to consoling devastated players and helping them make their own arrangements to depart from campus.
“It’s like being a parent and that’s the toughest part of the job,” Whalen said. “This was nobody’s fault and (the cancellation) had to happen, but that doesn’t make it any easier to watch your kids get hurt.”
Frank said her team met in its locker room and shared emotions that ranged from sadness and anger to hilarity while recalling silly happenings from weeks or months ago.
“We have kids with jobs lined up and aspirations of graduate school, and we need to provide them with as much information as we can before they make decisions,” the coach said. “It’s all got to be so hard for them to process.”
Sheehy likes to note the difference between a simple choice and an easy one. The end of spring sports was the former, he said, but that doesn’t mean its impact is any less.
“I’ve heard from people that we needed to remember how hard these kids work,” the athletic director said. “I get that; they all work hard and this is truly heartbreaking. But that doesn’t deal with the current situation.
“Everybody wants their capstone college experience, but safety trumps everything here.”
Tris Wykes can be reached at twykes@vnews.com.