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Rowan warms up in the field on the day before the D-III World Series is set to begin on Friday when Washington Univ. takes on Johns Hopkins at 10am.
Photo by Steve Frommell, d3photography.com |
Years from now, people will be looking at the back and the 2021 season will stand out. The 2020 season will be missing but in a year where a champion is crowned, there will be about a thousand missing games from the schedule, there will be a conference champion that declined a playoff bid (a first since auto conferences bids have been awarded), there will be a parred down playoff field.
What you will not see is the extra time that each team put into keeping healthy, the practices that were missed, the games played in an empty stadium.
The story of this year is how our team worked and navigated through the pandemic and came out on the other side," said Rowan head coach Mike Dickson. "Winning a regional is tough to do in a normal year. Then, throw in the fact we had barely any fall or non-traditional season. The gyms and hitting facilities were closed during winter break when they would normally lift and hit to get ready to come back too campus. For me, I was homeschooling my kids three days a week during the season, getting them to day care by 12:45 and then rushing to campus to get to practice by 1:30. So it’s been all of that on top of a normal preparation to get a team ready and working together."
For the eight teams still playing 2021 will stand out in their mind because then life throws you a challenge and you step up and meet that challenge, you do something more than just win a game, you build that team bond that all players will carry throughout their lives.
"The 2021 spring season was extremely challenging and rewarding for us," said Cortland head coach Joe Brown. "Challenging in the sense there were numerous hurdles and restrictions regarding the number of games played allowed, testing demands, traveling demands, and lack of team functions allowed. However it was extremely rewarding in the fact the players rose to every challenge presented and never relented to external pressures. I applaud my team and every spring sport in the country because we all knew we could do it and we proved it to be true. We were all the definition of determination and resilience."
The teams here would never have made it wit out the support of more than the coaches and the players. Surviving the season and seeing it to its end was the goal of most teams, especially after losing the 2020 season.
"Adrian College feels extremely blessed to get this far into the season and the postseason, with the struggles to get games in and COVID protocols, said Adrian head coach Craig Rainey. "President Docking and our administration have taken every measure possible to keep our team on the field. We are fortunate to have the support we do from our medical team and athletic trainers. They are the primary reason we have been able to get this far, they are the rockstars. Our players have done a great job of trying to stay within all of the safety protocols. It has been a remarkable season for all of us after losing last spring. We have made sure to not take anything for granted this year, everyday on the field is a blessing for us."
With much of the work already done there is one more thing to finish off the season.
"It was a challenge for every team, player and coach this year. However, getting the opportunity to play at this time of year more than makes up for it,"said Wheaton head coach Eric Podbelski.
In every sense all of the word, these players who are preparing to take the field on Friday are already champions.