Outdoor track 2020: Over before it started

Five years ago, I posited whether a coach (me) could redshirt a season, after I was sidelined with an unexpected hip injury and surgery. Well, in these uncertain times of 2020, we are at a stage where our whole conference -- perhaps our whole country -- is redshirting a season. As I'm sure most of you have already heard (but some of you may not have heard?), like many other leagues the MAAC has canceled all practice and all competition for the entirety of the spring sports season. We're done before we've started. Some spring sports have already started; their seasons have come to an abrupt end. Our season was scheduled to start in two weeks. It will not start and it will not finish. The news broke on a conference call at 2p on Thursday; I have been struggling to write about this because these are extremely emotional and difficult times for our team and for dozens of other teams in our region. At subsequent, impromptu meetings with our athletes on Thursday afternoon, there were a lot of tears -- especially from and for our seniors. For their careers to come to such an abrupt end is startling and ... I don't know what other words we can use. As I wrote a few days ago, track practices and track meets are relatively inconsequential in the face of a pandemic. That doesn't make the raw emotions of our athletes any more real. As a coach who is programmed and geared toward the next practice and the next season, I'll admit to being a bit lost mentally, similar to how it felt five years ago when I was laid up from having my iliotibial band sliced open like a piece of deli meat. Still trying to process it all. More words will come in the coming days, weeks, months. I will try not to strike a self-pitying tone -- for me and for our athletes. There is some of that, but we must show resilience and we must, dare I say it, Be Better. As I told my athletes on Thursday afternoon: They are all still athletes and always will be athletes. They all have tomorrows as athletes, but now they are vastly different than they were just a few days ago. More later ...