HANOVER — Matt Baker knew the email was an ominous sign.
The senior Dartmouth College men’s hockey player received word Thursday morning that athletic director Harry Sheehy would be holding a Zoom call with all Big Green student-athletes later that evening.
By 6:30 p.m. on Thursday night, Baker had been told that the Ivy League Council of Presidents had made the decision to cancel all winter sports, becoming the first Division I conference to call off play for the upcoming season.
Although the Big Green and five of the seven other institutions in the Ivies belong to the ECAC for hockey purposes, the Ancient Eight has the final say if their teams will participate in any winter sports. The ECAC issued a statement Friday afternoon that it would continue with plans for a 2020-21 season with the non-Ivy League schools.
Baker, who was Dartmouth’s fourth-leading scorer a season ago, knew the announcement was coming, describing it as a slow burn. That didn’t take away the shock he felt when the news was delivered.
“It’s a disappointing feeling,” Baker said in a Friday afternoon phone call. “We could see it coming from afar, with cases rising and the cause for concern for everybody’s health and safety. The decision makes sense at this point. It’s definitely sad, though. I feel for my five other seniors. It sucks. But at this point it may be the best decision not to (play).”
Delivering the news of the cancellation of competition has become somewhat of a common occurrence for Sheehy, who had to inform his fall sports teams in July that they wouldn’t be playing.
And Thursday night’s call wasn’t any easier for the 10th-year athletic director. He was informed of the decision by Ivy League commissioner Robin Harris on Wednesday and had to put a communications plan in place before Thursday’s announcement.
“One of the great things about our presidents is they obviously made this decision independent of the rest of the country because that’s what you have to do if you go first,” Sheehy said in a Friday afternoon Zoom interview. “This was the presidents looking at it from a health and safety standpoint. I’m sure we’re going to get some pushback out there from alums, the other schools will, too, but we do not know the long-term impact on a young person (from COVID-19) even if they are asymptotic.
“It seems foolish to me to play roulette with our student-athletes. I’m proud of our presidents, and I think they did it for the right reasons. And you know what, if you make a mistake on one side of the fence or the other, we’ve made the mistake on the right side of the fence.”
Sheehy said that this decision was something he was forecasting. From trying to travel along with paying for testing, he didn’t see it happening. He also said the athletic department will not be making any more layoffs as of now.
The Ivies aren’t attached to the television money such as leagues like the Southeastern Conference and Big Ten. Instead, Sheehy’s budget is made up of mostly endowment money.
“I said to our coaches last night, here’s one thing we learned: ‘A sprained ankle is not adversity, ’ ” he said. “We really have learned to put some things in perspective. We’ve also started to learn the value in what we do, because, boy, do people miss it.”
After Sheehy addressed the student-athletes, men’s basketball coach Dave McLaughlin held a Zoom call with his own team. He said that he did most of the talking as his players tried to confront the news.
The Ivy League did provide some clarity on eligibility in its Thursday night press release, saying that players would not lose a season of eligibility, but it was up to them to work out the possibility of competing as a fifth-year undergraduate with their colleges.
The news directly impacts McLaughlin’s team. The fifth-year coach confirmed in a Friday interview that Brendan Barry would be graduating from Dartmouth at the end of the semester and enrolling at Temple as a graduate transfer.
Barry averaged 13.2 points per game in 2018-19 before sitting out last season with a back injury. He entered the transfer portal before deciding to return to the Big Green.
McLaughlin said that he won’t have a definitive answer about the status of Chris Knight and Aaryn Rai for some time. Both had previously announced they had entered the transfer portal before Thursday’s announcement but with the possibility for a fifth year, each might stay in Hanover.
“When you initially get the news, it’s a lot like a gut punch,” McLaughlin said about the cancellation. “It’s something that we were expecting and had told talked to the team about. Not a shock, but obviously hard to accept it when you get the finality of the news.”
Women’s basketball player Allie Harland, a sophomore from Melbourne, Australia, is currently living in Iowa with teammates Emma Koch and Karina Mitchell.
The trio made the decision to take online classes and live somewhere else this semester, so Thursday’s announcement wasn’t unexpected for her. What was disheartening was how she found out about the cancelation — over Twitter, before the news was delivered by Sheehy.
“I think coach Belle (Koclanes) is always pushing optimism, and we are a positive team, so we had hoped we were going to play,” Harland said. “Every team wants to play. We all had a little bit of hope. We also understand the position we’re in; this is a pandemic.”
Baker said he isn’t sure what his next steps are except finishing out the semester and heading home for Thanksgiving. He was on campus this fall, preparing for what was supposed to be his final season playing at Thompson Arena.
He now has the option to seek a fifth year of eligibility and stay put, play elsewhere or graduate and try to make a professional team. That decision won’t be made for a bit.
“I think Dartmouth, the Ivy League as a whole, has been taking our health and safety seriously. I respect it (the decision),” Baker said.
Pete Nakos can be reached at pnakos@vnews.com.