During halftime of a Tufts men's lacrosse game against Ithaca College on Tuesday, March 10, 2020, head coach Casey D’Annolfo pulled his team together for a halftime speech no coach could have imagined giving. D'Annolfo had to inform his players that the game, only the team's fourth game of the season, would be its last. A year ago, Tufts’ spring sports teams were just getting started when the season was pulled out from under them.
Hunter Watts, a sophomore midfielder on the men’s lacrosse team, recalled the whirlwind of events leading up to his coach's halftime speech.
“I remember that Monday night … we were just going over how Amherst canceled, Middlebury canceled, and we were thinking, ‘Wow, there's no way where our season’s going to get canceled, we'll find a way to make it happen,'" Watts said.
When he and his teammates were informed of the news the next day, they were shocked.
"It took a while to process it honestly, the whole next week it was just so weird — it was different,” Watts said.
Once the NESCAC canceled spring sports due to the pandemic, hundreds of athletes, coaches and athletics staff members were forced to abandon plans and shift their lives within days. For many Tufts spring sport student-athletes, the news was hard to swallow.
“It was definitely heartbreaking. There were a lot of tears shed. It was just tough in the moment, especially because we didn't realize how serious COVID was. Looking back, obviously we all believe that was the correct decision. But at the moment, it didn't help at all,” Becca Gable, a sophomore defender on the women's lacrosse team, said.
For Gable and other spring sport athletes, the lost season brings up thoughts of what could have been.
“We were three games in and were finally hitting our stride,” Gable said. The team was fresh off a come-from-behind win against conference rival Amherst.
“It went from one day making jokes to the next day, everyone getting sent home, so it was definitely really really tough," Gable said. "We definitely had a great squad last year and we were going to go far if not all the way, so it's just hard to see that go.”
Most students were asked to pack up their belongings and return home two months earlier than they ordinarily would have. Suddenly, all the lifts, sprints and practices no longer had an end goal in sight. For many seniors, they would never step foot on the field, court or track again.
Jack Schwartz, a sophomore pitcher on the baseball team, remembers the impact the abrupt end to the season had on his senior teammates.
“The hardest thing … was being in our locker room and seeing [the seniors] crying, that was just one thing that was really hard for me," Schwartz said. "All the seniors were coming up to the [first-years] and were like, ‘You guys will carry on our legacy, we really hope that you guys can play next year.’ They were thinking that far ahead and were thinking more about us than them,” Schwartz said.
Besides being blindsided by the cancellation of athletic competition and in-person classes, nobody could imagine the impending longevity of the pandemic when it hit just over a year ago. Many athletes believed it would all blow over by the fall. A month into the spring 2021 semester and still no Tufts sports team has played a game. Spring sports teams have been able to participate in physically distanced, small-group practices for much of this year, even though the prospect of a season was up in the air.
These practices were valuable for many student-athletes who enjoy working on their game and spending time with their teammates.
“In the fall it was really nice because we got to practice as a team, socially distanced, of course," sophomore Michelle Adelman, an outfielder on the softball team, said. "It was just really fun being able to practice with everyone even though we didn't know when we [would] play our first competition, we [knew] that competition [was] coming at some point."
Practicing and training during a pandemic with no games in sight wasn't easy for many athletes, but teams tried to maintain positive attitudes.
“Expectations were kind of low, but everyone seemed to keep an optimistic approach towards things … [and] we were approaching it like [we were] gonna play," Schwartz said. "Guys on our team really just wanted to be out there and they just love baseball so much that they're going to train hard no matter what.”
Some athletes realized during the pandemic that relationships with teammates and coaches are tightened during the season; they felt they lost part of that last year.
"During the season, I think that's where you really start to form those meaningful bonds and connections," Watts said. "When you're competing and actually trying to win, you kind of just get in that groove and everybody gets on the same page — the chemistry gels. So yeah, it's been very testing."
Others felt that the extra time and unique circumstances provided by the pandemic allowed them to create closer, more unique bonds with different people on their teams.
“We found ourselves in a lot of unique situations where we'd be hanging out after practice, social distancing, and would realize that people didn't really hang out like this before COVID," Gable said. "I feel like everyone got closer because so many conversations were opened … really genuinely checking in on things like mental health just because everyone was going through such big changes in their lives."
Many Tufts athletes said their coaches have played an instrumental role in supporting them during the year without sports. This support often came in the form of open communication and advice. Schwartz reflected on a motto from his coach that resonated with him and his friends on the baseball team.
“One of our coach’s phrases that he says all the time is, ‘Know no other way.’ I think that's been a pretty big message, especially during this time," Schwartz said. "What he means is, we all love baseball, we try super hard in practice, we try super hard in games. But, if you're cleaning your room, you know no other way than to work hard. So, you clean your room really hard or you go to class and study really hard … So, that's definitely been a message that has resonated with me in these times.”
On Tuesday, the NESCAC announced that it would allow spring sports competition to resume in April. Even though it has yet to announce further details, this is the most hope spring athletes have had in over a year.
"I love structure and having lacrosse back — real practice and real purpose. When we practice, I think it's going to ultimately be good for all of us and it's gonna end up being a really great semester," Gable said.
Alex Sharp contributed reporting to this article.
