Widespread impact for different student-athlete groups

For spring athletes, the incident at Wood dealt a heavy blow to their optimism about spring competition. (The interviews below were conducted before the NESCAC announced yesterday that it would proceed with spring competitions.) 

“It’s something that’s really upsetting to the whole campus, and especially us,” said Azaria Vargas ’22, a member of women’s softball who said she did not attend the party. On top of delaying the campus reopening process, she said that the incident also “could have unfortunate consequences for [the spring] season.” 

Other athletes echoed these sentiments. Siri Bohacek ’22 — a member of the Nordic skiing team and a co-captain of women’s ultimate frisbee, who said she did not attend the party — also expressed frustration with the party and its consequences. “Starting [March 1], we were supposed to be allowed to take vans to really good skiing about 10 minutes from campus,” Bohacek said. “There’s no skiing on campus, and we can’t access that skiing that’s about 10 minutes away now because of that party, and by the time the restrictions are lifted, the snow will likely be gone.”

Ultimate frisbee, a club sport, was also affected. “We were hoping to make petitions to scrimmage in a way we felt was completely safe from a public health standpoint, but maybe would concern the community just as they saw people scrimmaging. Now, the community is extremely on edge and mistrustful of college students, particularly athletic teams affiliated with the College,” Bohacek said. 

Yesterday, the NESCAC announced that it would host “a limited schedule of conference competition for spring sports” from mid-April to mid-May. Soon after the statement was released, the College declared it would join nearly every other school in the NESCAC and opt in to the spring season.

According to Carolyn Miles, associate director for student athlete services, athletic teams will still move forward with their spring seasons despite some student-athletes transitioning to remote status. All spring sports have enough athletes on campus to compete, she said.

“Just as remote athletes were able to join team Zooms for meetings and educational sessions in the fall, anyone remote this spring will be given the same opportunity,” she added.