Oberlin College: Dropping fall sports 'heartbreaking' decision

Something will be different in Oberlin this fall. For the first time in 130 years there football will not be played on the Oberlin College campus. On Wednesday, the school announced the decision to cancel fall sports for the 2020 season as it, and the nation, continues to struggle with the COVID-19 pandemic. "It was heartbreaking," Oberlin's Associate Vice President for Athletic Advancement and Director of Athletic and Physical Education Natalie Winkelfoos said of the decision to shut down the school's athletic programs. "It was one of the most challenging decisions I've had to make. Even harder was when I had to share the decision with my staff." In addition to football, which has been played annually at the school since 1891, the decision also affected Oberlin's men's and women's soccer and cross country teams as well the women's volleyball and field hockey programs. Although Oberlin primarily draws athletes from around the country the cancellation will affect two local athletes. Sophomore football player Ryan McCrum, a 2019 Avon Lake grad, who rushed for 194 yards last season for the Yeomen, and incoming freshman volleyball player Lauren Sands, who was a first-team All-Lorain County Conference selection at Oberlin High School last fall. Winkelfoos said she and school president Carmen Twillie Ambar felt it was important to make a decision on fall sports before all students had to make a declaration later in the month if they intended to return to the campus for the 2020-21 school year. "Since we left campus in March we've been working on strategies to mitigate the impact of this virus on our campus," Winkelfoos said. "It's not a secret that there's continued to be surges across the country and we're seeing the trends when other universities welcome students back on campus." At the moment the remainder of the North Coast Athletic Conference intends to move forward with its fall season, which begins Sept. 18. With the possibility that fall sports could begin only to be shut down midseason as happened to many spring sports at the Division I level in March, Winkelfoos said by making the decision prior to the start of the year Oberlin is able to protect the year of eligibility for its student-athletes. "Our student-athletes are deserving of a full experience," she said. "Not one where we don't know are we going to play 12 games, are we going to be able to play six games or are we only going to be able to play one game," Winkelfoos said. "I think by us making the decision with health and safety as the foremost concern, but also understanding that these are years you can't get back, so we wanted to reduce the risk of our student-athletes burning a year of eligibility in this already disjointed year. Once a player plays one game it triggers their year of eligibility." Cleveland's Case Western Reserve University and Division II Central State University, in Wilberforce, also announced that they were canceling their fall seasons. Contact Todd Shapiro at 329-7135 or ctsports@chroniclet.com.