The world has sure changed since I last pushed out a blog post. Our students have left campus and are continuing their spring coursework online for the remainder of the semester. Our winter sports had their seasons gut wrenchingly and abruptly ended while our spring sports have been cancelled. Decades ago I had sport pulled from me and I know how crushing this is especially for our senior student-athletes. They all recognize there are more significant realities right now to mourn but they should not feel guilty for their sense of loss of something into which they have invested heavily for years.
Paul Wadsworth, a junior all-conference center mid for us this past fall, was faced with a uniquely difficult decision with the request to vacate campus. His parents live in Tacoma, WA which is one of the areas initially hardest hit with COVID-19. Our campus is willing to continue to house students with unique situations like Paul’s, but he opted to head to Connecticut to stay with his grandparents. He took time to quarantine for their safety and is now sharing in cooking duties and playing a lot of cribbage with his grandparents.
Within the Soccer Family we also had four student-athletes studying abroad (Spain and England) that have had to return home. Each is nearing the end of their 14-day quarantine and working to come to grips with their abbreviated experiences.
In lieu of our spring practices the coaches and the boys have been hopping on weekly team Zoom meetings to connect with each other. The need for normalcy and human interaction is evident within the team as we had all but 2-3 guys on the last meeting. We have talked about soccer, recruiting, solo training, helping neighbors, and I even learned that the vast majority of the boys have not seen the movie “Hoosiers.” I’m hoping that some have remedied that by our next call.
Here are some brief updates and info:
-Our April 11 MN United alum outing has been pushed back to whatever date that the game is rescheduled for by the MLS. Stay tuned for how we will manage this for those that bought tickets but may not be able to make the new date work.
-The alumni game set for April 19th has been cancelled.
-Our 27th annual Early Bird fundraiser camp has been cancelled—this usually nets us $3-4,000.
-Our April 2nd Go Johnnies Challenge has been officially postponed. Due to your generosity we made over $16,000 on our 2019 give day last spring which we parlayed into hiring Noel Quinn. We will likely set a fall date for the Challenge. This is absolutely the right decision, but it does pose a unique challenge for fall sports as we must make our financial decisions (coaches, scheduling, etc.) well in advance of the season. As an example, I just opted to drop one game from next fall’s schedule. Though there will be no outwardly visible viral campaign, the Go Johnnies Challenge site will remain open through April 2nd for anyone that has the means and desire to support the Family in these uncertain times.
I’m washing my hands; you be safe!
Our Family vs. their team,
John