Dear Student Athletes,

I cannot begin to imagine how your life has changed amidst the COVID-19 virus spreading across the country. In just a week, you have been asked to head home/or to your dorm room and isolate to help protect yourselves and others against the spread of the virus. Your spring break was moved up, you are going to have to resume learning in your classes through an online platform, you have concerns about your loved ones, and you have had athletics taken away from you for the time being. There have been many examples throughout history in which athletic contests helped us all heal during crisis and catastrophes in our Country. Unfortunately, COVID-19 has shut athletics down as well.

I think about all of our spring athletes who worked so hard to get ready for the season. I think about our spring senior athletes who were so excited for one last season in their collegiate careers. As an athlete you want to be able to walk off the playing surface at the end of the season knowing you left everything you had. The pain has to be excruciating to have this taken away from you in a blink of an eye.

As student athletes playing the sport you love, you learn how commitment, hard work, and working together as a team will help you be successful in reaching your goals. You learn how to face and overcome adversity. You learn that in those difficult moments when you think you can't go on, you have your teammates, coaches, athletic training and administrative staff, friends and family right by your side to help you get through it.

The Coronavirus, however, is making us to think and act differently if we are going to slow it down. Instead of having our teammates by our side, we have moved into isolation. We now need to communicate and team up to beat this virus through social distancing. One thing that stands true, however, is we still have to work together to become successful. As frustrating and isolating as it may be, we need all of you to work toward the common goals of staying put, staying healthy, having patience, and supporting one another through phone, email, and social media platforms.

On the athletics front, the NAC and NECC (M. Volleyball), has cancelled all spring sport conference regular season and championship contests. What does that mean for Northern Vermont University Athletics? Most likely our spring seasons have concluded as well. Now, if the Country was able to slow down the Covid-19 virus where federal and state governments lifted restrictions in time to allow Northern Vermont University to resume face to face instruction on campus this spring, we would consider having spring teams be able to start practicing again and if we can, find outside competition for our teams.

There is one small silver lining for our spring sport student athletes. As you know, NCAA regulations allow a student athlete 10 full time semesters to complete 4 years of eligibility. Typically, once you start classes on the first day of the semester and are enrolled full time, you trigger one of those 10 full time semesters. Also once you compete in a contest in the spring season, you trigger a year of eligibility for that sport. Due to the abrupt halt of collegiate athletics due to the COVID-19 virus, the NCAA has provided all spring sport student athletes a waiver on these two fronts. This means all spring sport student athletes that were full time students this spring, will not be charged with using a year of eligibility and will not be charged with using a full-time semester. Even if we were able to resume a form of practice/competition this spring, the waiver would still be granted.

Although, your athletics and social life has come to a halt, you still have the opportunity to complete your coursework and proceed toward earning your degree. Your faculty have been working hard this week in order to resume your classes online beginning on Monday March 23rd. It is critical that you check your University email address and follow the instructions from your faculty members as to how the online instruction for each of your classes will occur. The University is also working on providing virtual tutoring to those in need. Please, commit to completing your courses online by engaging and performing the necessary assignments to get credit for the hard work you have already put into your classes this semester.

My thoughts go out to all of you during this difficult time. Please take care of your mental and physical health and follow all of the recommended guidelines to help stop the spread of the COVID-19. Although you may feel you are in isolation, remember we are all in this together. Let's keep the communication flowing to support one another and we will come out victorious. Please reach out to me if you have any questions.

Sincerely,

Jamey