Appalachian State University’s baseball team was on a roll, beating Sienna 9-8 for a sixth straight victory. Andrew Terrell, the starting left fielder for the Mountaineers, singled and drove in a run in that game, played March 11.
The next day, when the team was about to fly out to Texas State for a weekend series, Terrell got a text from his coach that the series was postponed. He and his teammates wondered what was going on.
They watched TV that day and saw the NBA was putting its season on hold. The Ivy League canceled all of its spring sports season, and it wasn’t long before other conferences across the nation followed suit in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Coach brought us all in and told us they canceled (the season),” Terrell said. “There were seniors crying because they didn’t know if they were gonna get a year back. That was their last year of baseball they’re ever gonna play. So there was some really disappointed faces and people crying. It was hard. It was hard, for sure.”
It was an unprecedented move. But athletes everywhere got a silver lining last week when the NCAA made a countering unprecedented move by announcing it would give all spring sports athletes another year of eligibility. The NJCAA has done the same, while NAIA is expected to follow suit as well.
The move affects more than 10 athletes from Franklin who are on collegiate spring sports teams.
“I think it’s awesome,” Terrell said. “Just being able to be back with the same group of guys is huge. We were on a roll, we were getting hot. And to get that taken away from us was kind of disappointing. But the NCAA allowing us another year, I think that’s gonna not only help the group we had, but it’s gonna help me personally just being able to develop another year and be a sophomore again.”
Rocky road
After a tremendous freshman campaign, injuries nagged Montreat runner Nathan Richards his sophomore year.
He developed a stress reaction in his foot during the fall cross-country season. Then he injured his other foot during the indoor track and field season while doing stride work.
His grandmother also died during the indoor season, cutting into his training.
While he was ready to prove this spring he was past those setbacks, getting another year of eligibility for outdoor track is tremendous news to the former two-time state champion at FHS.
“I don’t want to seem selfish or anything, but I was ecstatic,” Richards said. “I was so happy about it. I feel bad for other athletes, but for somebody in my shoes – I just had a terrible cross season fighting injuries, then coming back and regaining fitness to where I should be. Indoor season I was on path to do great again, opened up the season well, then missed a lot of training. And I wasn’t feeling it after my grandma passed away.”
Richards was the Appalachian Athletic Conference Freshman of the Year for cross-country in 2018. A year later he managed to finish 14th at the conference meet and earned second-team all-conference honors.
But more disruptions in the indoor season meant he was an alternate for the distance medley team that competed in the national championship.
“I get a whole ’nother year to build up,” Richards said. “I’m a big person on buildup. I have to have a good summer, a good cross-country season to have a good track season. It’s just got to be there. So I was happy about it.”
Richards’ teammates from Franklin will also benefit, including sophomore Skyler Tait and freshman Liam Graham.
Another reason Richards is happy is he already had plans to attend grad school. He’s majoring in marketing with a concentration in cyber security.
While he doesn’t know his future plans just yet, the fact that he’ll be able to compete in his first year of grad school excites him.
“As I train, I get faster and faster each year,” Richards said. “I look at it as way better for me to have that season in three years from now than right now, to be in even better shape,” he said. “You think, senior year, that’s it. But it’s kind of cool now I have another year even after that, even if it’s just outdoor track.”
Seeing the big picture
When Trey Maslin heard the Ivy League canceled its spring sports season, he was shocked.
“There’s no way they could cancel a season,” Maslin said. “You just don’t hear about stuff like that.”
A fifth-year senior for North Carolina Central University, Maslin and his teammates started hearing rumors their conference could do the same. They beat Longwood 14-5 on March 11, and were in the midst of practicing when their coach got a call to shut it down.
“He got us together and told us,” Maslin said. “It was a pretty emotional time.”
It was such a weird and sudden move, Maslin said. At the time, he was shocked how it could all stop like that at the snap of a finger.
“Seeing how big of a situation it is now – there’s a lot of lives at risk and it’s not just about sports anymore and you finishing your season. It’s a big issue,” Maslin said. “That makes it a little easier, I guess you could say, seeing the big picture now and having some time to sit back and look at it. That’s the right thing and they needed to do that.”
Like other college students, Maslin is finishing the semester with online classes. He’ll graduate in May.
After playing college baseball five years (he redshirted as a freshman), he’s not sure if he’ll return to Central for a sixth.
“I’ve been fortunate to play five years, so I can’t complain,” he said. “At the end of the day, I got my time.”
Small window
Paige Norton was starting at shortstop for Catawba Valley Community College when the season was halted.
Joshua Bumgarner, CVCC coach, is thrilled about the decision to grant another year of eligibility. The Red Hawks had only 12 players on their roster this spring, and he hopes to grow it to around 20 or more.
“That is tremendous for us and our program that we could possibly have athletes like Paige for two more years,” Bumgarner said. “Being a new program and trying to be successful as possible right out of the gate is a little easier with someone like Paige. And now she gets to wear a Red Hawks uniform for even longer is really big for us.”
Cody Strain and Blake Gibson play baseball at Caldwell Community College. Frank Pait, CCC coach, said he’s happy spring sports athletes will get another year of eligibility.
“The window for everyone to play sports in college is very small,” Pait said. “Most of these young men and women will not get the opportunity to go pro. They should be able use their full four years of eligibility.”
LesLeigh Tabor’s junior season of throwing for Western Carolina’s track team was cut short. She is on pace to graduate with a degree in elementary education, but plans on using her extra season of eligibility while attending grad school.
“Even though I’m sad we lost this season,” Tabor said, “I’m grateful that we will get this season back and it just gives me more time to work and hopefully make myself better.”
Other former FHS athletes also competing this spring were baseball players Tye Chastain (UNC Asheville), Hayden Price (Brevard College) and Nathan Sanders (Brevard).
Terrell, who’s a marketing major, anticipates he’ll attend grad school while using his final year of eligibility.
For now, though, he’s staying busy with online classes, working at Franklin Golf Course, staying in shape with workouts and throwing in the yard with his dad.
It’s a strange time for everyone, but the players certainly appreciate getting an extra year.
“I think they made the right decision,” Terrell said.