Rejoice area Division II college athletics fans, rejoice. Mountain East sports return to action in early January.
In fact, Wheeling University hosts MEC-newcomer Alderson-Broaddus in a men’s/women’s basketball header on Thursday, Jan. 7.
That, among many other events to come was made possible thanks to the MEC Board of Directors unanimously voting their approval for a plan for winter sports to get underway starting Jan. 7.
“On behalf of our board, our athletics administrators, athletic staffs, and our student-athletes, we are pleased to be taking the next steps toward returning to competition in 2021,” said Commissioner Reid Amos through a press release. “However, we fully acknowledge that there are still many challenges ahead of us as we make every effort to safely navigate returning to and sustaining intercollegiate competition. I am grateful for the resolve of everyone in our league to continue to plot a viable path forward.”
There will be no fans allowed to start, with the Board reevaluating that policy by Jan. 19.
But it’s not just winter sports being competed. Delayed fall sports will begin in early to mid-February, with Football receiving the latest start date. A condensed five-game season begins March 13 with a championship game for the top two.
Then of course, you have spring sports, slightly less condensed and running during their usual time slots.
“That’s a lot of seasons, all condensed into basically the spring,” said Carrie Hanna, acting athletics director and compliance Director of Compliance at Wheeling U. “But our athletic department is great about working together and the (MEC) was tremendous in trying to stagger the schedules, having alternate home and away contests to accommodate all sports.”
Slight Hilltopper Advantage
Fall sports are operating in unfamiliar timetables. Volleyball is first up, with a 10-game slate set to start Feb. 2. Next up is Cross Country (Feb. 13), followed by men’s (Feb. 19) and women’s soccer (Feb. 26).
Volleyball must now share practice game time with not only basketball, but also wrestling and the Hilltoppers’ acrobatics team. Football and soccer teams are used to playing and practicing in the elements.
However, it’s the Upper Ohio Valley in late winter/early spring. There’s WILL be snow. It’s just a question of amount. Fortunately for West Liberty, the Belmont Savings Bank Practice Facility stands ready to accommodate.
“This will be the perfect example of the benefits of the multi-use facility,” said Lynn Ullom, West Liberty’s Athletics Director. “There may be days we have both soccer and football inside at some point.
“We are fortunate to have the Belmont Savings indoor facility.”
The facility, primarily constructed for both baseball and softball, will likely see plenty of use this late winter/early spring.
Plenty of Testing
Colleges and Universities in West Virginia already are randomly testing 10 percent of the student population each week. Those efforts will also be ramping up as the teams must abide by NCAA and MEC testing protocols which.
“We’ve been doing our testing of the student population throughout the semester, so we’ll just have to increase our volume with the athletes competing,” Hanna said.
The stipulations for basketball, as well as other sports, can be found here.
But in short, there will be weekly testing. For sports like basketball, considered high risk because of the proximity of opposing players and the pace of action, that means testing three times per week.
“The big thing for us is when to test, what days of the week, and having the staffing to do it,” Ullom said. “But we’ve known this is coming for a while. We talk COVID every day. The NCAA’s return to play guidelines are even stricter than the CDC’s.”
Another positive for the respective schools and their athletic department budgets in particular, is the cost of testing has decreased significantly.
“Testing is cheaper as there are a number of companies which came out with testing,” Ullom said. “And our league office has done a tremendous job in acquiring the necessary test kits we need, to kudos to Reid and his staff. They’ve been working diligently for months.”
Prepared for the Inevitable
Ullom knows this is still a fluid situation. It would be naïve to think that the possibility isn’t out there of players and staff getting sick and having to miss/cancel games.
“There are a lot of sports being played in one semester, so it’d be naïve to think there’s not going to be a positive case at some point,” Ullom noted.
But the good news is that sports will commence. These students come to college to learn, and compete. They will once again have that chance.
“I think it’s great that we’ve been able to practice together safely (throughout the fall) but every athlete wants to compete and we’re going to be able to provide that opportunity,” Hanna added.
