In a letter posted to the University website, Bowdoin University President Clayton Rose announced Monday that its men’s and women’s hockey teams will not play during the 2020-21 season, citing safety reasons, until Jan. 1 at the earliest.
Rose said the following;
“Athletics is an important part of the Bowdoin experience for so many of our students,” said Rose. “Unfortunately, given that we will not have all students on campus in the fall, we will not be participating in fall and winter varsity sports during the fall semester. The New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) is developing plans for fall, winter, and spring sports regarding the ways in which coaches will be permitted to engage with their teams, and we anticipate providing opportunities for our coaches to work with their student-athletes from each sport season in the fall.”
“As I have already noted, I am hopeful that there will be an opportunity for the winter, spring, and possibly fall varsity athletes to participate and compete in some form after January 1.”
UMass Boston has also canceled its fall sports programs.
UMass Boston interim Chancellor Katherine Newman said in a memo that the school will focus on remote instruction in the fall with no on-ground student activities.
While the NESCAC does not play a lot of games prior to January to begin with, this is a strong statement from Bowdoin, and likely gives significant indications how the rest of the conference may operate this season.
Looking further into this, given the geography Bowdoin (Maine) and UMass in Boston some sources are reporting that many other NCAA programs are looking at the same course of action, including NCAA Division One programs.
As Universities prepare for the fall semester, many beginning in August, it is expected that these are just the first two such announcements to come.
Players effected by delayed seasons, or cancelled seasons at the Junior and college levels have options available to them. We are placing players in Europe with programming to maintain amateur status.
Joseph Kolodziej – Adviser
