On Oct. 18, 2019, I was laying in bed like an excited child before Christmas morning, just waiting to see what the next day would bring. Oct. 19 was the start of the 2019-2020 Oswego State men’s hockey season with its first exhibition game against Nazareth College.
I had so many interesting story ideas for the season. It was my second year on the men’s hockey beat for The Oswegonian, and I was looking to improve on the last season as a writer.
Exactly one year later, instead of tweeting out my “Laker Gameday Preview,” I had to tweet out, “Winter sports are officially canceled for the SUNYAC.” My heart sank. Sure, I am not a student-athlete losing out on a season, or a parent that has to deal with the heartbreak of not attending any games throughout the season. But I lost out on covering the men’s hockey team for a third year, something that is near and dear to my heart and would have been my last season.
It was one of those surreal moments in life that you just cannot fathom. I sat down at my desk and stared at the wall in shock. It finally happened. I saw other leagues, like the NESCAC with close-by Hamilton College cancel its winter season. I laughed it off, saying it was too early to make a decision. It was not going to be bad enough for the SUNYAC to cancel in October.
The SUNYAC had even released preliminary schedules for men’s and women’s basketball, plus men’s hockey. It gave me a glimpse of hope that it was finally happening, even if it was pushed back until February. They were later taken down and called “drafts” that needed to be approved.
One week later, the SUNYAC came back and canceled winter sports. The Northeast Women’s Hockey League, which hosts Oswego State women’s hockey along with several other SUNY schools, canceled the season not too long after.
A petition was created by Buffalo State freshman Joe Glamos. Sophomore Joe Kile of Plattsburgh State wrote a long and emotional piece on Medium. Numerous tweets were sent out begging the SUNYAC to reconsider. Suddenly, student-athletes whose passions were just stripped away from them were using their voices.
COVID-19 has taken its inhumane toll on the world. Nothing has been “normal” since March when students were originally sent home. In hindsight, the SUNYAC was going to be forced to make this decision. A hockey season, as optimistic as I was, was not possible. Schools and teams need as much time to prepare as possible. Returns to campus need to be prepared, practices need to be scheduled and travel to games needs to be coordinated. But with the drafts, that would have already been planned. All that needed to be voted on was if the season was going to happen or not.
But, this decision needed to be made later in the semester, not in the middle of October. There is too much time between October and January to come up with a solution that would have been safe for student-athletes and coaches to have a modified season, assuming COVID-19 does not gain more traction.
