Oberlin College Cancels Fall Semester Sports Competition

Courtesy: Oberlin Athletics

It is hard to appreciate the full extent of the changes this pandemic has imposed upon us all. We are all adapting. We have been preparing the campus, reorganizing the curriculum to accommodate the three-semester plan, and above all, focusing on a return that provides as safe an environment as is possible for our students.

We have been working tirelessly to establish the strategies to mitigate the impact of the virus, particularly as it relates to athletics. We have spent countless hours exploring ways in which we could provide you with a competitive experience that is safe, devoid of daily disruption and uncertainty.

After consultation with several members of the Board of Trustees, NCAC officials, presidents and athletic directors within our conference and beyond, and public health professionals, we have reluctantly come to the conclusion that conducting fall sports safely is just not possible at this time.

We do not believe that we can create a safe framework to conduct fall sports because of the high contact required in almost all of the sports. We found the risk that this would place on our student-athletes to be unacceptable. Just as importantly, it would extend risk to our campus community, and, if we were to compete against other teams, it would extend the risk to our competitors and vice-versa.

We know that individual institutions will be making their campus-based decisions about athletics over the next few weeks. We also understand that our conference will attempt to conduct some athletics competitions this fall. We respect these individual and conference decisions. But, despite the conference plans, we are suspending the competitive fall athletic season.

This has been a difficult decision. As former competitive athletes, we realize there is nothing that can replicate the joy of competition. But, we also know this is the right decision. We have been looking at the national trends and watching as one positive COVID-19 case is requiring an entire team to be quarantined for 14 days. It seemed inevitable that if we moved forward with athletics this fall, most if not all of our student-athletes would have canceled games, shortened seasons and unsatisfactory outcomes.

We informed our coaching staff earlier today of this decision. We are informing you and the rest of the Oberlin community to provide as much advance notice as possible. Students will need to declare their intent to return mid-July. It was important to make this decision now, so your declaration could be informed by the news. This announcement impacts football, volleyball, cross country, field hockey and men’s and women’s soccer. This will also impact the first portion of the winter sport season. Swimming & Diving as well as Track & Field/Cross Country are looking into virtual meet options.

While we may not be competing this fall, we hope to create an environment for our student-athletes that promotes teamwork, physical fitness, campus competition, mental discipline and more. Our athletics staff will shift their focus and energies toward building an experience that will still provide our student-athletes the physical and mental challenges they desire.

We will explore all options for us to gather safely for training sessions while we sharpen our students’ leadership. With this decision made, we now have an incredible opportunity to choose to focus on what is in our control.