By Griffin Bass & Jared Pinder
Baltimore Watchdog Staff Writers
Towson University’s Jake McLean was getting ready to return to the lacrosse field for a game against No. 8 Duke University on Saturday, March 14. The senior midfielder hadn’t played in a month after injuring his elbow in the Tigers’ second game of the season back in February. McLean was ahead of schedule on his rehab and was eager to get back to action.
But that game would never happen.
Several days before the Duke game, McLean and his teammates learned that the Colonial Athletic Association decided to cancel all conference and non-conference competitions for the remainder of the winter and spring sports seasons.
“That was going to be my last season.” McLean said. “It was tough, we all, everyone just went home, they told us the season was canceled.”
McLean along with senior athletes around the country in both college and high school had their seasons cut short without much notice. The COVID-19 outbreak and response from the NCAA and conferences had an immediate effect on athletes who were in the middle of their seasons, like basketball and lacrosse. Some athletes’ seasons were being canceled just before it was time for the postseason and end-of-season championships, as was the case for most college and high school basketball programs.
The sudden cancellation of all sports wouldn’t just affect college athletes. It also hit high school athletes and coaches hard.
Shawn Hampt, head coach of the Manchester Valley High School varsity baseball team in Maryland, told his players on March 12, after their first game of the season, that the season was on pause — and likely wouldn’t resume.
“At the end of it [the game], I broke the news,” Hampt said. “The next day would be our last for at least two weeks, but most likely the rest of the season.”
It was a difficult conversation to have — especially for seniors who were about to graduate.
“Based on the information and the expert opinion, I told the seniors the night we got the news, after our game, ‘This is most likely the last time you seniors will see the field.,’” Hampt said.
Manchester Valley’s baseball team was expected to be very competitive in 2020 after making regional title runs in the past two years. So it was really disappointing for the seniors, Hampt said. Of the 11 seniors on the team, five would go on to play college baseball. However, those seniors wouldn’t get a chance to make the state title run they were expected to have.
Like many high school seniors who wouldn’t play at the college level, McLean thought his lacrosse days were over. He returned to his home near San Diego following the abrupt ending of the season — and he didn’t expect to return to Towson.
But in late March, the NCAA announced its decision to give spring seniors the option of a fifth year. This gave McLean a lot to think about.
“I spent probably the whole summer thinking about the season and if we were gonna be able to play again,” McLean said after hearing about the fifth-year option.
Towson and McLean came to an agreement about being able to work while earning his master’s degree in marketing intelligence. That was enough to persuade McLean to return for another year.
“As soon as I figured out the logistics to going back, I still have the same house [in Towson],” McLean said. “I was going to be able to make some money and work a little bit while I was at school, it was a no brainer.”
While everything isn’t back to normal, McLean is happy to be back at Towson and practicing with his teammates for a spring season that they all believe will be played.
“I don’t know who it’s gonna be against and how much [we’ll play],” McLean said. “All I know is I’m gonna play some lacrosse in the spring.”
It wasn’t just spring sports athletes who were affected. Many seniors had their plans for fall sports turned upside down. S.J. Brown II is one of them.
While he was home in California this summer, Brown learned that Towson wouldn’t participate in fall sports, and the CAA voted to suspend conference play. After considering a spring season, Towson decided to instead focus on playing again next fall — which meant an entire year without football.
Brown had been staying in shape and hoped to play at some point during the 2020-2021 academic year. He was disappointed in how the decisions were relayed to players and coaches.
“The communication between the CAA and Towson could have been better,” Brown said. “ I just wish that they would have let the coaches know ahead of time before announcing it on social media first.”
Brown said he wasn’t in support of a fall 2020 season because the team just wasn’t ready for a season.
“The players took a vote and we voted against it,” Brown said. “It was mostly due to the fear of injuries and COVID -19 and the team couldn’t prepare for a season like normal.”
Brown said the team understood that the lack of training and conditioning would have led to unnecessary injuries. While the team wasn’t preparing to play in the fall, they were definitely preparing to play in the spring.
“We had already started training in July outside to get into shape for the spring and we had shifted our mindset on playing in the spring,” Brown said. “You can either look at the COVID situation negatively or you can view it positively and get stronger, faster, and bigger for the next season.”
Not playing football makes you appreciate the game a lot more, Brown said. When it came to the team itself, COVID-19 made the bond with the team stronger.
“We grow closer as a brotherhood because we get to be around each other more because we are the only people on campus,” Brown said.
Brown hopes to return for another year in 2021 and then prepare for the NFL Draft.
“I hold myself to a high standard and that is the ultimate goal for me,” Brown said.