In the past week, COVID-19 has caused many sporting events across the United States to be suspended indefinitely or canceled, and it has reached to Union University’s campus with the Union golf team canceling the rest of their season and with the Union baseball and softball teams holding out hope that they might have the chance to finish their seasons.
In the world of professional sports, the NBA and NHL seasons have been suspended, and the Masters Tournament was postponed. The remainder of MLB’s spring training games have been canceled, and the start of the season has been pushed back at least two weeks.
At the collegiate level, the NCAA has canceled all winter and spring championships, including the men’s and women’s basketball tournaments, the College World Series and the Women’s College World Series.
Union University is part of the Gulf South Conference (GSC), and on March 13, the GSC made a statement concerning spring athletic events. The GSC has not yet canceled the conference tournaments for spring sports.
“In response to the continued impact of COVID-19, the Gulf South Conference has suspended all athletic competition, countable athletic related activities and off-campus recruiting for an indefinite period. This decision was made after thorough collaboration between the conference office, university presidents and chancellors and the league’s athletic directors.”
Tommy Sadler, director of athletics at Union, discussed the speed with which the situation progressed. For about three days, basically every minute revolved around COVID-19 and the decisions that needed to be made because of the global pandemic.
Sadler believes that it’s right to err on the side of caution when making these decisions.
“If it turns out we were overly cautious, so be it,” Sadler said. “There aren’t any consequences to that other than some people didn’t get to practice and play. If it turns out people were not cautious enough, then it could cost people their lives, and there aren’t any games worth that.”
Photo courtesy of Maggie Exum
