Earlier today, the Western Athletic Conference Board of Directors announced to suspend all fall sports through the rest of 2020.
The suspension will affect UTRGV volleyball, men’s and women’s soccer, cross-country, tennis, golf, and baseball.
In a news conference earlier today, UTRGV Vice President and Director of Athletics Chasse Conque said the difficult decision was made with the health and well-being of student-athletes in mind.
“While today’s news may be disappointing, there is still so much to look forward too and our commitment to them, to their experience as an athlete at UTRGV, has truly never been stronger,” he said.
According to a news release from the WAC, the conference is looking into the possibility of moving fall sports to the 2021 spring semester.
The continual unknowns surrounding COVID-19 and its long-term effects, Conque said, also weighed into the WAC’s decision for suspending fall sports for 2020.
“At the end of the day we all love sport, we want to get back on the field, we want to get back on the court, but it’s not worth the risk when we have so many unknowns that we still have to figure out answers to,” Conque said.
UTRGV women’s soccer Head Coach Glad Bugariu shared his thoughts on the cancellation of the 2020 Fall Soccer season, but is looking to use this time proactively to teach the 13 incoming recruits the ins and out of his system.
“I think from a health standpoint it’s a great decision but from a soccer standpoint I also think it’ll help us long term as we build our team,” he said.
According to a news release from Athletics, UTRGV men’s and women’s basketball are classified as winter sports and currently postponed until the end of October.
The WAC Board of Directors will, at a later date, make a decision regarding winter sports.
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For Vaquero Radio, I’m Luis Rubio.
