College Athletes: Making Difficult Decisions in Unpredictable Times by Lizl Kotz
Ramiro Azcui-Head Tennis Coach for Indiana University
The Coronavirus has not passed over anyone. On some level, it is affecting everyone who calls our planet home. The obvious effects: death, near-death, recession, job-loss and despair are all difficult to process. The less obvious effects, the secondary effects, are like water ripples washing over people, places and situations that may surprise us all.
As a former college athlete myself, my insides have ached for the senior athletes who had just entered the start of their very last season. Most college athletes do not go on to play professional sports. This makes this last season the grand finale of their athletic career. It is important to keep in mind that college athletes typically start preparing for college sports ten years prior to signing their letter of intent. Young athletes (and their parents) travel a long journey filled with long training days, sacrifices, victories and heartbreak-all of which prepare them for college sports. Picture a mountaineer who climbs and endures with the goal of reaching the top and then enjoying the view. It’s the knowing that the mountain peak will be there that allows many college athletes to endure challenging times. Handling intense competition among teammates and achieving academically while being expected to perform athletically are some of the challenges student-athletes need to work through. Sadly, this glorious peak, the stretch to the finish line, has been taken away seemingly overnight by the Coronavirus.
I called my college tennis coach, Ramiro Azcui, wanting to learn more about how these senior athletes are coping with their loss. What I learned was so much more involved and complex than I ever could have imagined. Over the course of 3 weeks, senior athletes who participate in spring sports had the wind knocked out of them. Just as they were catching their breath, the NCAA offered a blanket waiver for all spring sport athletes to return for an extra season. Only the blanket waiver wasn’t quite so blanket once you read the fine print. Even though the ruling was made out of compassion for the student-athlete, the decision to give Athletic Departments final jurisdiction over whether they will apply this waiver, who to apply it to and how much aid to offer, leaves coaches and athletes with some very complex decisions to make. These complexities trickle all the way down to high school athletes who hope to play college sports some day.
Ramiro Azcui has been a college tennis coach for twenty-eight years. He is also the father of a son who has just been accepted to play college football in the fall and a daughter who played college tennis. He has experience as a college player himself, a parent of college recruits and a coach recruiting and developing the players on his team. “In my twenty-eight years as ‘Coach’, I’ve had to do two incredibly difficult things. The first was accompanying the head coach at the time, Lin Loring, as he delivered hard news to one of our players that her father had passed away. The other was breaking the news to my team, my senior players, about their season being cancelled. We were sitting on the court as a team, stretching to prepare for a practice match against Iowa. First, the Athletic Director called to cancel our match against Iowa. Thirty minutes later there was a phone call calling off our spring break trip. An hour later the season was shut down altogether. No-one moved. As a team, we sat on the court overwhelmed by such a sudden turn of events. I knew it was important for the girls to talk through their emotions and so I sat with them for 2 hours and listened. In hindsight, we worked through the stages of grief right there on the tennis court: ‘They have no right to cancel our season’ the girls declared almost in unison-denial. ‘Let’s appeal and see if they will reconsider’-anger/bargaining. Then tears without a turn-off switch started falling, together we wept-sadness/depression. One by one, the girls started naming favorite memories of their year thus far. Tears mixed with laughter echoed in our indoor tennis complex-acceptance (for the moment).”
While Indiana University has offered scholarships for all 3 of their senior players to return, many schools like the University of Wisconsin are not offering for seniors to return in any capacity. “I am fortunate to now have 11 scholarship positions for next year instead of 8. The line-up only allows for 6 positions and this makes it frustrating for returning players who were hoping to move up in the line-up next year. There are also seniors from other schools whose athletic departments decided agains a 5th season. These players are asking to transfer to IU or other schools who are accepting players for a 5th season. The new possibility of my returning players staying an extra season is affecting how I will be recruiting high school players. It is an overwhelming time filled with complicated decisions for coaches, players and their parents. I am staying in constant contact with my seniors and their parents to support them as they decide if it’s in their best interest to return. Most seniors have graduate schools or jobs lined up by now. They are weighing whether it’s best to stick to their original plan or, given this time of uncertainty, to return to something they know and love.”
Annabelle Andrinopoulos is one of the senior players at IU who is graduating with a masters in environmental sustainability. “I am from Australia and since my career does not involve tennis, I have thought to just get on with my life and get into the work force. That being said, my last match was not a great performance for me and it’s very hard to go out with that memory. I am playing great tennis right now and since the job market could be uncertain for a while, playing another season and getting a second masters might be a great option for me. I have asked my friends who are new graduates for their advice and they are all advising for me to stay in college because they feel ‘real world’ is hard.”
This is one of many stories of how the Coronavirus is like an intruder who overstays his welcome and leaves a mess behind. For some of us, it feels as if life is on pause. Athletes who typically thrive on schedules and setting goals are being forced to pause and reflect. Who am I outside of my sport? Do I really love my sport and the direction it has taken me? This catastrophe has again demonstrated that life can change on a dime and it reminds us to spend time doing what we love with whom we love, if at all possible.