It's official: No cross country 2020

Gratitude. The day after the inevitable cancellation of fall sports in our conference (the MAAC) – which, of course, includes cross country – that is the front-and-center emotion here at blog central. Yes, gratitude. Not anger. Not sadness. Not shock. Not rage. Definitely not self-pity. Gratitude. The outpouring of supportive texts, emails and calls from alumni and friends of the program yesterday came tumbling into my old Moto phone (with a battery life of about 45 minutes, it’s in dire need of replacement … one of these days) as the afternoon turned to evening, after the official announcements from Marist College and the MAAC. Many of the loyal and wonderful alumni and friends understandably do not follow the college sports landscape as assiduously as we do here. So, there was some level of surprise and even shock – especially from older alums -- that our beloved XC team will not be spiking up in September, October and November, for the first time since our men’s program was founded way back in 1963 and our women’s program kicked things off in 1985. For me, it’ll be the first fall without a cross country season since 1980 -- either as a punk high school runner (1980-81), skinny college runner (1982-85), wiseass sportswriter (1986-90) and finally, mostly, a clueless coach (1991-present). That’ll be weird.

But again, we saw this coming. In many ways, the MAAC was one of the later conferences to attend the party. A large swath of D2 and D3 cross country has already canceled. In D1, the Ivy League started the parade, and the ranks are swelling by the week. Here in D1, the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions currently do not have many XC teams that will be active this fall. If this trend continues, the entirety of collegiate sports could be shuttered. This is different than March. March was a car accident – a sudden, fatal blow to … well, pretty much everything about normal, everyday life, collegiate track included. This? More like a slow, inexorable demise of a fall sports season. When we got wind of the strong possibility this was happening, by way of a hastily convened WebEx on Sunday night, and then eventually on Monday morning is a series of staff group texts, there was an air of inevitability to it. For the past two weeks, it has felt more like “when” rather than “if.” But still. When the official news comes, when the idea of no cross country season becomes reality, it is a stark feeling. It’s not a good feeling at all. Direct your emotions and your feelings of concern toward the women and men on our cross country rosters, especially the seniors and fifth-years who have been robbed forever the adrenaline rush of the starting line at Vassar Farm, Paul Short, MAACs, NCAA Regionals and everything in between. That really sucks. Feel for them. Mourn for them. If you know them or were former teammates of them, reach out to them. Allow them to grieve.

Yes, we have future seasons. Maybe indoor track (who knows?). Most likely outdoor track (by that point, I strongly feel we’ll literally be back on track). Where do we go from here? Can we practice? Can we lift? Can we go off campus to run? When do we return? When do we need a Covid test? Should I come back for a fifth year? Are we going to do time trials? Intrasquad scrimmages? Smaller training groups? Wait, we can’t get on a track? We can’t go to New Paltz? In between bouts on the phone charger, these were a small sampling (yes, there were many more) of the questions rattling around the old Moto on numerous calls and texts with our current team members. The calls and Zooms will continue. Today, tomorrow, this week, next week, as long as necessary, until we reconvene on campus in a few weeks. There will be more questions than answers. Still. That’s the deal in this Covid reality. We’ll brainstorm with fellow coaches. Lobby with administrators for some semblance of normalcy. But as we are reminded each and every day (to wit: Miami Marlins), this damn virus makes the rules. We can try to change them, but we are at the mercy of Covid … and, as important, our collective attitudes and behaviors toward Covid. Where do we go from here? We’ll see. Unfortunately, we now know where we do NOT go, in the coming weeks and months. And that is cross country season.