No fall sports for SC State amid COVID-19 pandemic. Here’s what we know
S.C. State will not have a football season or any other fall sports competition in 2020.
The Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference announced Thursday that all fall sports have been postponed.
The trajectory of the COVID-19 cases in South Carolina and the country were too much for the league to overcome, S.C. State football coach Buddy Pough told The State. A spring season remains an option, he said.
“It’s one of those kind of deals where everybody understands our circumstances, so it’s not a big surprise,” Pough said. “We had pretty much resigned ourselves to the fact that it was not going great. The numbers were just not cooperating at all. In a situation where it’s so hard to figure out exactly what you’ve got to do with a sport, especially like football, there were just too many unknowns involved for us to be taking that kind of chance with our young men’s health, safety and wellness.”
Other Division I conferences to postpone fall sports seasons include the Ivy League and the Patriot League.
Other teams in the MEAC are Bethune-Cookman, Delaware State, Florida A&M, Howard, Morgan State, Norfolk State, North Carolina A&T and North Carolina Central.
Pough was holding out hope that somehow and some way there might be a season, but he feels like the MEAC made the right call.
He spent much of Thursday morning reaching out and talking with his players about the season being postponed. Pough plans to speak with parents and players Thursday evening to answer any questions they might have.
“We’d love to be able to figure out a way to work our way around it, but it’s hard to come up with a way to justify in your own mind being that careless with the health and safety of your young folks,” Pough said. “There just were so many unknowns in the whole deal because of the fact that there’s no playbook to go by here in a way where you’ve got some kind of past indications of things.”
S.C. State players are not currently on campus and instead have been working out at home, Pough said. That has been a challenge for some of his players as many do not have fields or gyms available to go to.
“You can always go outside and run uphill, though,” Pough quipped. “That’s as good an exercise as there ever was. If you do enough of that I guarantee you’ll be fine.”
Pough is unsure if players will be on campus and able to work out this fall, adding that a lot of that will depend on whether the school holds classes in-person, virtually or a combination of the two.
“Once that happens we’ll go about the task of figuring out exactly what we can and can’t do,” he said.
S.C. State announced earlier in July that it intends to reopen the Orangeburg campus for the fall while acknowledging that a full return might not happen.
“The plan of record will accommodate instruction on campus or remote/online instructional delivery,” according to President James Clark.
Last week the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, of which Benedict College in Columbia is a member of, announced the cancellation of its fall sports seasons.
As for Pough’s future, the longtime head coach who is in his mid-60s said that is the least of his worries right now.
“I’m sitting here right now trying to figure out how to settle a team of 100 guys and do what’s best for them. The last person I’m thinking about is me and my stuff,” said Pough, who became the school’s all-time wins leader last year. “I think we’ll come to that bridge whenever we arrive there.”
MEAC postpones 2020 fall sports season
In its official announcement made just after noon Thursday, the MEAC said:
The Council of Presidents and Chancellors of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) announces that the league will suspend all sports competition, championship and non-championship segments, for the 2020 fall season, as a result of the continuing COVID-19 pandemic. A decision is yet to be made on whether fall sports schedules will be moved to the 2021 spring semester.
The conference currently plans to proceed with winter sports competitions as scheduled, unless health and medical professionals advise otherwise. We will apprise the public on further decisions.
The Council of Presidents and Chancellors took this action out of a concern for the safety as well as the physical and mental health of our student-athletes, coaches, administrators, support staff, faculty and fans. The rapid escalation of COVID-19 cases along the eastern seaboard heavily influenced the council’s decision as the data suggests that the African American and other minority communities are being disproportionately affected by COVID-19. The MEAC is committed to ensuring that the correct measures are in place to reduce exposure to the virus.
“The health and safety of our student-athletes continue to be our number one priority. We have made the decision to suspend all sports competitions after careful review of the current conditions and consideration of the potential exposure that regular travel to competitions may cause and ongoing extensive physical contact,” said Howard University President and Chair of MEAC Council of Presidents and Chancellors, Dr. Wayne A. I. Frederick. “While our competitions have been suspended, each member institution will plan ongoing engagement of all student-athletes to ensure optimization of their physical and mental well-being as they continue their matriculation.”
“Obviously this is an arduous decision because everyone wants to have a fall season for student-athletes, fans and others,” said MEAC Commissioner Dr. Dennis Thomas. “Part of our responsibility is to ensure the mental and physical health and safety of our student-athletes, coaches, and staff is paramount. It is imperative that everyone recognize that is our first and foremost responsibility.”
MEAC institutions will continue the resocialization process for student-athletes which encompasses mental and physical health counseling, strength and conditioning protocol and compliance with all COVID-19 safety requirements.
This story was originally published July 16, 2020 at 12:00 PM.
