SUNYAC: Local student-athletes take shutdown in stride, hope for a spring awakening

The element of surprise is gone, but the inevitability doesn't lessen the sting local student-athletes feel as more and more collegiate seasons are put on hold. 

And the latest announcement really hit close to home.

On Monday evening, members of the State University of New York Athletic Conference announced the schools have suspended fall sports competition and delayed winter sports until Jan. 1, 2021. Rosters at Brockport, Buffalo State, Cortland, Fredonia, Geneseo, New Paltz, Oneonta, Oswego, Plattsburgh and Potsdam are heavy with student-athletes from the Lower Hudson Valley.

"Please know that we considered every possible scenario while trying to come up with a plan that we thought could work," New Paltz director of athletics Stuart Robinson said in a statement. "However, given that it is impossible at this point to eliminate risk of exposure to COVID-19 even in situations without the close and sustained contact of intercollegiate athletic play, the decision to cancel fall competition was, in the end, the only one to make."

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Individual coaches began to reach out to student-athletes Monday evening ahead of the official announcement.

"This is tough, but it is what it is," said Lucas Fecci, a Somers resident who had an impact last fall in his debut season with the Oneonta men's soccer team. "I'm not surprised, but I stayed optimistic the whole time, believing we might play some games. Hartwick College is right across the street and when the Empire 8 canceled the fall season last week, it wasn't looking too good for us."

Teams will be allowed to practice with precautions in place. 

"Once you see a lot of the other schools, especially the ones kind of close to you, cancel their season, we kind of figured that it was going to happen to our season as well," Mahopac native and Cortland women's soccer team member Katrina Klammer said. "It's frustrating because we had a very good season last year. We made it to the first round of the NCAA tournament, which we haven't done in the last couple years. It's frustrating we won't see what progress we could have made this coming year."

Kevin Doorley was training in place heading into his final season with the men's soccer team at New Paltz. The first-team All-SUNYAC midfielder cannot even remember the last time he didn't play a competitive game in the fall.

"I was looking forward to some kind of normalcy, going back to school, training and playing soccer," the Pearl River grad said. "It's just not possible to compete right now, which is unfortunate, but I’m sure the schools did everything they could. I think they’re trying to do a spring season, but I don’t know if that is going to happen. There is no answer yet for what’s coming up.

"I don’t know anything for sure, but I think it would be difficult to play in the spring. With football, men's and women's soccer, field hockey and men's and women's lacrosse, it's going to be hard to create a schedule where all of us could practice and play games. And financially, I think it would be really tough."

The decision to suspend athletics until Jan. 1 came one month after the SUNYAC voted to split its 10 member schools into East and West divisions for the upcoming season as a way to encourage geographic scheduling during the coronavirus pandemic. The divisional configuration would have also cut down on travel costs and minimize the need for overnight stays at hotels.

It's hard to find a SUNYAC roster without at least two or three Section 1 products.

"There are kids on each team we play that I know from playing against them," Fecci said. "And if we didn't play in high school, I recognize a lot of the names from Section 1."

A majority of the local colleges are on hold, as well.

Manhattanville announced Tuesday it would be suspending fall sports, following in the footsteps of Purchase College and St. Thomas Aquinas College. 

The MAAC, which includes Marist and Iona, will only be playing conference games in men's and women's soccer and volleyball. Pace is also only competing within its conference. Vassar College is also playing a modified fall schedule consisting primarily of Liberty League opponents with the possibility of competing against outside teams following a phased re-socialization period. 

Westchester, Rockland, and Dutchess Community Colleges, along with Monroe College, were affected by the NJCAA's decision to reschedule football, volleyball, and men's and women's soccer to the spring.

There has been talk among the SUNYAC members about doing the same, but there will be some challenges. 

"My coach told us that it is a thought right now that we can possibly move to the spring," Lakeland graduate and New Paltz field hockey player Jessie Ascencao said. "But it's unlikely, just due to the fact that we are a Division III program. We don't necessarily have the staffing in trainers and things like that, and fields, in order to actually do that."

Nancy Haggerty contributed to this report.

Mike Dougherty covers boys soccer, boys lacrosse, girls basketball and golf for The Journal News/lohud. He can be reached at mdougher@lohud.com, or on Twitter @hoopsmbd, @lohudlacrosse, @lohudhoopsmbd and @lohudgolf.

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