Typically, I have kept these columns generic to the SUNY Oswego community. Despite coming from a sports background, I had to adjust to news coverage this past year and most of my columns revolved around COVID-19 and how both SUNY and SUNY Oswego were responding.

But now, it is time to go back to sports for a moment. 

For the last three years in the middle of February, I covered both the Oswego State men’s and women’s hockey teams. I spent every weekend either at the Marano Campus Center or in some other rink around the state. Was I sleep deprived? Yes. Did I forget about class assignments? Sometimes.

But I loved every minute of it. The people I met, the games I saw; I would trade the world to cover one more Laker hockey game at MCC, hearing the 3,000 fans roar when Oswego State scored or when David Richer made an unbelievable save, followed by the “Richer! Richer!” chants from the student section.

On Jan. 26, SUNY Chancellor Jim Malatras made a request to the SUNYAC schools to come up with a plan to safely bring back spring sports. We found out that the presidents of the SUNYAC schools had been meeting, postponing a final decision a couple times.

But on Feb. 23, nearly a year after the last Oswego State sports contest on March 10, Malatras, alongside President Deborah Stanley and several student-athletes from the spring sports teams, announced that the SUNYAC had a spring sports start-date of March 20, and practices would begin very shortly.

For a while, I thought the SUNYAC presidents were going to drag their feet until it was too late to even consider bringing back sports. Everything was behind closed doors; no one knew what was going on during the weekly meetings. But sports prevailed—and now baseball, softball, lacrosse, women’s tennis, and track and field are officially back for the SUNYAC.

I, for one, have never been so excited to see Laker Turf being utilized again. I cannot wait to experience a whole different world of temperature at the Laker Baseball Field despite how close it is to campus. More importantly, I am thrilled for these student-athletes who get to play the sports they live and breathe, something most of them have done since childhood. 

The press conference on Feb. 23 with Malatras at the Romney Field House gave me the same exact excitement as the hockey press conferences in MCC Room 114 in September during a “normal” year. I felt like a kid on Christmas morning—excited to see what the day was going to bring.

Except now, Santa Claus was Malatras and the gift was sports are coming back. 

With the aggressive testing strategy placed by SUNY, plus other guidelines that the SUNYAC will follow throughout the remainder of the season, it made perfect sense to let athletics come back. There is limited travel, mandatory testing three days before a competition and masks must be worn at all times except when student-athletes are actually competing.

Bringing back sports, as many other college conferences have done, such as the nearby Empire 8, which has Nazareth College and Utica College, was the right choice by the SUNYAC and the SUNY presidents. 

I will see you at the turf, and baseball and softball fields soon.