It has been just over a year since the first athletics events at Wofford were canceled on March 12, 2020, because of the pandemic. The past year has been full of challenges for student-athletes, teams, coaches and staff. Here’s how it started.
On Monday, March 9, 2020, the Wofford men’s basketball team made their sixth appearance in the Southern Conference Championship game. Playing for the fourth straight day, the team was unable to defeat East Tennessee State. Men’s golf competed on Monday and Tuesday at the Palmetto Intercollegiate.
The baseball team played at Auburn on Wednesday, March 11. As the innings passed, games across the nation began to be canceled in the NBA and college basketball tournaments. Colin Davis ‘21, a finance major from Roswell, Ga., robbed his brother, who plays for Auburn, of a home run in the fifth inning, and in the eighth inning the Terriers led 4-3. With the tying run on base in the bottom of the ninth, a strikeout gave Wofford a win over the 14th-ranked team in the nation.
On Thursday, the dominoes began to fall. A women’s tennis match was postponed because of weather. The weekend’s baseball opponent, Massachusetts, was unable to travel. Hannah Steelman ‘21, who transferred to North Carolina State to train for the Olympics, was in Albuquerque, N.M., for the NCAA Indoor Track National Championship. At 4:17 p.m., the NCAA sent an email that changed everything: the remainder of winter and spring championships were canceled.
The Southern Conference suspended all athletics competition that day as well through March 30. On Sunday, March 15, Wofford sent students home early for spring break, with the expectation of coming back after the two-week hiatus. However, it wasn’t meant to be.
On March 17, the Southern Conference canceled all athletics-related activities for the remainder of the academic year. On March 25, Wofford made the decision to conduct the remainder of the semester remotely.
The weeks continued with many on campus working from home. The emptiness of Wofford’s usually busy campus was hard to fathom.
On Sunday, May 17 — graduation day — a few students returned to make their own walk across the seal in front of Old Main. The rows and rows of white folding chairs that usually accompany Commencement were missing, along with the smiling faces of students and families. The bell tolled as usual, but very few were on campus to hear it.
During June and July, there were no summer sports camps and summer school was remote. Even the NFL’s Carolina Panthers were absent for the first time in 25 years. In August, the football team reported to campus in the hopes of the fall season beginning on time. Those hopes were dashed a few weeks later as the Southern Conference paused fall sports, with the intention of playing in the spring.
Things went virtual in the fall, from Story Time with the Terriers to a series of podcasts for alumni to the Terrier Ball. At the same time, teams began to practice and prepare, but with a new set of safety protocols mandated by the NCAA.
The leadership of the athletics training staff and wellness center staff, along with athletics and campus administration, met almost constantly. Making sense of the return-to-play regulations from the NCAA and every athletics conference was a challenge. We all quickly learned the difference between a PCR test and an antigen test. Some teams had to test weekly, others were every other week and some required three tests a week. Keeping up with the rules and managing logistics was daunting, yet handled expertly by the athletics trainers with the assistance from partners at Spartanburg Regional Medical Center.
On Oct. 19, 2020, the men’s golf team was the first to return to intercollegiate action. They were followed by women’s golf and cross country, with the Southern Conference holding the championship meet on Nov. 21. The men’s and women’s tennis teams also each competed in one event during the fall.
The men’s and women’s basketball teams had their home openers on Nov. 25, 2020, with both teams winning that first game. It was odd to play in an empty Jerry Richardson Indoor Stadium but rewarding for the few who could watch the Terriers back in action. During the early part of basketball season, just taking the court was a victory. Several games were canceled because of last-minute COVID-19 positive tests results in opposing players.
More teams have been back in action since January, and in February, there was a brief period of time during which all 19 of Wofford’s NCAA Division I teams were completing. On Feb. 20, Wofford beat Mercer in football (31-14) after a 488-day break, the longest stretch since World War II, when the Terriers went 1,095 days between football games. The day also marked the Terriers’ 100th win in Gibbs Stadium.
As we look back on the year that presented challenges like no other, Wofford has continued to tackle each and every one with the tenacity of Terriers. There were a few failures along the way, but many more successes. We look forward to getting back to normal, whatever that may look like on the city’s northern border.
By Brent Williamson