Although Oswego State sports were put on hold for the fall semester, the golf team is still looking to play a spring season.

Head coach Mike Howard believes his team can compete even with a roster that has shifted faces the past two seasons.

The team has graduated eight players over a two-year span and because the team only has 12 members, Howard said that is quite a bit of change. He hopes that the returning players he does have, as well as the freshmen, can step up. Howard had similar expectations for the canceled spring season earlier this year. 

“We had a successful fall season a year ago,” Howard said. “So we were looking to continue that success into the spring.” 

The team was also looking forward to competing in the Empire 8 Conference Championships. At the time of the suspension of sports, the Lakers were in third place behind Utica College and St. John Fisher College. COVID-19 got in the way of their tournament aspirations, leaving speculation as what may have happened. Howard wanted his seniors to get one last round as a Laker.

 “We had some seniors who didn’t get a chance to play their last college round,” Howard said. “They did get it in the fall, but they didn’t know that, that would be it. They didn’t get any closure.” 

Oswego State has canceled all sports for the fall semester, leaving Howard, like every other coach, unable to work with their players all fall. 

“Individually, if they can get on a golf course … that should work,” Howard said. “We had some guys decide not to enroll physically on campus … so we are going to miss them anyway.” 

The pandemic has made preparing for next year’s season very difficult because it is still unclear if there will be a season. Howard was planning on getting some practices in this fall so players could get some work in before next year. 

Even without organized practices, Howard is not worried about the lack of reps going into the season.

“We already have to come off of a winter break, like other schools in the northeast,” Howard said. “We don’t know the situations or what’s going on with other schools and how they are handling COVID precautions.” 

Howard explained that there are some Div. III schools in the west and midwest that are playing golf currently. Howard added that the team is “used to coming out of the box kind of cold,” between the team’s start-date and the team’s ability early in the spring portion of the season.

Returning player Ryan Fecco is one of the players on Howard’s roster that he believes can step up for him this coming spring. He also brought in some transfers with collegiate experience to fill in the voids. 

“The fall was going to be a period of figuring out, ‘What do we have to work with?'” Howard said.

He still feels very confident in his squad nonetheless. A spring season will be right around the corner and a chance for the team to rebound after the long stoppage of play for Oswego State. 

“It’s adversity, and that’s part of life, and we’ll have to deal with that in athletics now too,” Howard said. “We will have to wait and see what happens to the golf season in the spring. Until then, we have to be patient and prepare.”

Photo provided by Ryan Fecco