HAMPTON — Hampton University’s athletes have been benched for the fall.
All fall sports — football, men’s and women’s cross country, men’s and women’s tennis, women’s soccer, women’s volleyball and sailing — were suspended because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Hampton anticipates resuming athletics during the spring, and the plan is for the spring semester to include winter and spring sports.
“Our goal is to make sure that all of our students and student-athletes are safe,” HU athletic director Eugene Marshall Jr. said in an interview. “We also want our faculty, our staff, the administration, our alumni and our fans to be safe. Everything (with COVID-19) is spiking upward, and it’s really not safe, and you also look at it that football and some of our fall sports were going to start at the beginning of August.”
The news came two weeks after HU President William Harvey announced in a letter the school would offer only remote instruction for the fall semester.
“Our visionary president, Dr. William Harvey, has been following this all along and he wants to do what’s right for the university,” Marshall said. “At this particular time, this is what’s right and best.”
Hampton is the first college in Hampton Roads to announce a suspension
of fall sports. Some conferences, including the Ivy League, have done
so, while others have announced plans to play only against conference
opponents. Hampton is a member of the Big South Conference, which has
not announced plans for fall sports.
Hampton’s football schedule included a game Sept. 12 at Old Dominion.
“I truly feel that there’s a lot of university presidents, conference
commissioners and athletic directors wrestling with this tough decision
to suspend fall sports,” HU football coach Robert Prunty said. “With
Hampton making this tough decision today, Dr. William R. Harvey and
Hampton University, along with AD Eugene Marshall, have stepped up to
the plate and made the tough decision. I respect their decision to
choose health and safety over sports. As my mother used to say, it’s
better to be safe than sorry.”
It’s unclear at this point when HU will have fall sports, including whether those sports could compete in the spring of 2021.
“All I can say is everything’s on the table,” Marshall said. “We
haven’t taken anything off, we haven’t mentioned it. Again, we have to
have discussions with our conference to see where they’re at.
“You can say (you want fall sports in the spring) and then they decide
they want to continue to play in the fall, there may not be any fall
sports in the spring for us to play. We have to wait and see what
happens with the Big South.”
Some colleges have welcomed athletes back to campus for workouts, but Hampton’s athletes weren’t scheduled to return until Aug. 1. Now, the wait will be much longer.
“It’s our hope, should conditions permit, that everybody will be back
here in spring semester 2021,” Marshall said. “But nothing is going to
change our thoughts to scholarships — they’re our student-athletes.
“We’ll petition (for a waiver) for every fall-sports student-athlete to get their year back.”
You must be logged in to post a comment Login