EDITOR'S NOTE: One of a series of stories written by Oklahoma Christian student-athletes who serve on the university's Student-Athlete Advisory Committee, whose seasons suddenly ended due to the COVID-19 outbreak. Junior Shaley Goad represents women's golf on the SAAC.
OKLAHOMA CITY (April 23, 2020) – If we didn't know it before, we definitely know now that things can change in the blink of an eye.
In the big picture of everything that's happening in the world right now, student-athletes not getting to complete our seasons seems somewhat insignificant. For most people, the loss of sports is just not getting to watch March Madness or their favorite MLB team. Right now, however there are thousands of heartbroken athletes at every level – high school, collegiate and professional.
For most student-athletes, our sport is basically what our life revolves around. I have been playing golf since I was 4 and most college athletes have a similar story. We worked hard and were successful enough to earn the opportunity to compete at the next level. We fell in love with our sport at a young age. The competitiveness of it, the drive to be better than we were the day before and the feeling of achievement whenever we have a breakthrough or win a competition. All of these things are why we spend countless hours practicing, doing drills, getting stronger in the gym and sacrificing some parts of a "normal" college experience.
My heart was broken whenever we found out that the remainder of our season had been cancelled. We were actually in the middle of practice whenever our coach got the phone call. He hung up the phone and said, "Yep, we're done." And that was it. It just didn't seem real. We continued playing the five holes that we had left. Two of my teammates, Alex and Felicity, and myself all said we felt like we were having an out-of-body experience. That we were watching this bizarre scenario unfold before us and eventually we would "wake up" and things would be back to normal. As I'm writing this 39 days later, life is still far from normal.
Sports aren't what define us, but they are a huge part of our lives. I am extremely disappointed we don't have the chance to make it back to Super Regionals or Nationals this year. I have missed competing in tournaments and playing golf every day. But more than that, I miss doing those things with my teammates. There is such a special bond among teammates – we're basically just one big family. Supporting each other after good and bad rounds (or bad test grades), spending time together on the weekends, riding for hours in the van together, sharing hotel rooms and playing our best for each other at tournaments. These are the things I am most sad that we have lost this season.
Fortunately, our team has no seniors that will be affected by the events of this spring. My heart breaks for all of the seniors who had their last team dinner, last practice and last competition without knowing it. I admire the NCAA for granting an extra year of eligibility to those whose season was impacted. However, this does not change the fact that some seniors already had jobs or graduate school plans. Underclassmen aren't necessarily guaranteed an extra season either. Coaches and athletic programs now have decisions to make about scholarship money and recruiting. A majority of athletes will simply lose their season and not get it back.
Not everyone has had their season taken away from them. Athlete or not, we have all lost something during this "season." The ability to go out and eat at a restaurant, attend church, hang out with our friends – and the list goes on and on. Some have much more severe losses than these (what now seem to be) luxuries. People have lost family members, friends, savings accounts and jobs.
Even in this time of disappointment and confusion, I choose to remain optimistic. I am thankful for the memories I did get to make with my teammates this year. I am thankful I have one more year of being a student-athlete and playing the sport that I love. I am thankful I am healthy. One thing I am certain about is that myself and the rest of the team will appreciate every little thing about our 2020-21 season. I know that there will be a newfound drive among our team to build on our success from this year and accomplish even more. Just like everyone else when this is over, we will not be taking a single thing for granted.
