HCAC Postpones Most Fall Sports to Spring
(photo courtesy of Franklin College athletics)
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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowThe Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference, which includes six Indiana colleges, is modifying its fall spots schedules because of COVID-19 concerns. HCAC says it will move the high-contact sports to the spring, including football, men’s and women’s soccer, and women’s volleyball.
The NCAA Division III conference says golf, tennis and cross country will still operate under the fall schedule.
In a statement from HCAC, the conference’s council of presidents says “analysis of whether HCAC institutions could successfully fulfill NCAA testing recommendations without drawing vital health resources from their local communities. In addition, the conference feels that as continued scientific and testing gains are made with respect to the CoVid-19 virus, a spring season for the high contact risk sports will be safer for our student-athletes.”
The conference says a decision on the timing of basketball season, also considered a high contact risk sport, will be made in the near future.
Swimming and diving is classified as a low contact risk sport and will continue forward with its standard schedule.
The six Indiana schools in the HCAC are Anderson University, Earlham College, Franklin College, Hanover College, Manchester University, and Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology.
“Keeping our student-athletes safe is of the utmost importance and I understand and support the presidents’ decisions,” said Lynn Hall, Hanover’s vice president for athletics. “Obviously, while I am dismayed that we will not have football, soccer and volleyball this semester, I am more disappointed for those student-athletes and their families who will not get to have the seasons they had expected this fall.”