By NICK NATALE
NEW JERSEY – It is around this time in mid-April when Kevin Hines would begin ramping up his offseason workouts. Heavier weights, more wind sprints, and a deeper dive into the playbook were all in store as spring began. But this year is different.
This year, Hines finds himself sitting at home, following a workout regimen given to him by his coaches, and watching old game film from his freshman season. No state-of-the-art workout facilities or hour long team meetings, just pushups and curls in a make-shift home gym, and monotonously flipping through an old playbook for 20 minutes before boredom sets in.
This has become the new normal for Hines , a football player at Kean University, and athletes all across the country, as their daily lives as student athletes have been put on hold because of the Coronavirus pandemic.
“The whole situation we are in right now is difficult because no one is exactly sure how to go about getting ready for the season,” said Hines, 19. “We’re not even 100 percent sure if there is going to be a season in the fall, and that’s something I’m sure coaches and athletic directors are discussing all the time. Coaches are trying their best to get us prepared, but it’s hard when you’re not in the facility and talking to them face-to-face.”
The Coronavirus pandemic has practically shut everything down indefinitely, including sports. And while professional sports have been hit hard, teams have the luxury of having billion dollar owners. It is at the collegiate level where a lot of the damage is done.
The damages cause by the Coronavirus on collegiate sports could be detrimental. According to a USA Today Sports analysis of NCAA financial reports the Power Five conferences, which include the ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, PAC 12 and SEC, stand to lose a collective $4.1 billion in fiscal-year revenue. This doesn’t include the thousands of non-power five schools across the country that stand to lose millions.
In New Jersey, over 1,700 athletic programs have been affected by the virus. Coaches and athletes also have been dealing with the consequences of the shutdown. Coaches at the college and high school levels are now in the situation where they need to keep their teams motivated and prepared for the season, despite questioning if they will even play.
For athletes, they are also trying to keep motivated and prepared, only with the extra cast of doubt on their eligibility and future. Seniors athletes are now facing the real possibility of never playing sports for their schools again. The uncertainty around the Coronavirus will continue to linger for schools, coaches and athletes as they prepare for a world without sports.
The NCAA’s Battle with COVID-19
While it’s true that there are schools that bring in hundreds of millions of dollars to support them during this time, there are thousands of schools out there that don’t have the same financial stability. For every Ohio State that brings in over $200 million in athletic revenue, there are hundreds of Kean Universities that bring in substantially less.
College athletics as a whole has taken a massive hit since the NCAA cancelled winter and spring sports on March 12. The cancelling of the popular March Madness tournament, which is one of the NCAA’s biggest sporting events of the year, cost the non-profit organization about $375 million, which was scheduled to distribute to the participating schools, according to Fortune.
The potential financial losses may potentially stem out past winter and spring sports, and into fall. According to a survey conducted by LEAD1, an association of athletic directors from 130 college football programs, 3 percent of them expected a worst-case scenario for their revenues for the upcoming season. This would see them lose 20 percent of their revenue for the 2020-21 season, and that’s still a possibility if there is an abbreviated season. In an interview with Fortune Magazine, Matt Balvanz, the senior vice president for analytics at Navigate, a sports marketing firm, said that the Coronavirus can cause major financial problems if it affects the upcoming football season.
“We often hear from ADs and MMR (multi-media rights) sellers that around 85 % of revenue comes from football.” He went one to say that the average Power Five school makes roughly $120 million per year, meaning, “roughly $100 million per year from football.”
Balvanz explained how the option of playing games without fans still may be costly. Power Five schools on average bring in about $14 million each home game, including television rights, which accounts for a little over 10 percent of their revenue. Those same schools also average around $30 million in ticket sales. So, as Balvanz explains, “if 85% of that is from football, that’s a loss of $25 million.”
The Impact on Athletes
And while the NCAA and athletic directors scramble to find a solution to their impending financial setback, athletes are struggling to figure out what to do. For many seniors, or players moving on to the professional ranks, this was their last hurrah at the collegiate level. A last chance to represent their school for all the hard work that had been put in for four years. A culmination of 20-plus years of of training and preparing now all gone. For the underclassmen, a lost season and a lost year of precious eligibility.
For those playing for fun, now a year closer to the end of the line, and for those playing for a chance to go pro, a lost chance to showcase their skills. The Coronavirus has taken away the chance for student athletes to compete and leaves them questioning when they’ll get the chance again.
“It really sucks when you train all offseason, and the anticipation builds for a season, and halfway through you’re told to back your bags and go home because the season is over,” said Liam Johnson, an ice hockey player for King’s College in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania.
“I played junior hockey right out of high school instead of going to college because I didn’t have any offers to play anywhere. So when you spend two years trying to earn an offer to play somewhere, and then finally get the offer, and then have the season just end, it’s definitely really disappointing,” continued Johnson.
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Dealing with Mental Health in Quarantine
Delving into the psyche of a student athlete, an aspect that isn’t talked about is the effect on their mental health. For years, these high level athletes have had the mindset of training and preparation embedded into them, but with winter and spring sports cancelled, and fall sports in flux, they must wondering what to do. Regardless of who you are, being quarantined for long periods of time is not good for your mental health, let alone young adults who are use to constantly being on the move.
On the NCAA official website, they have an entire page dedicated to helping student athletes cope with their mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic. In it, there are links to other resources, such as the CDC and the NCAA Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration tip sheet. Also, the page includes a “Daily Strategy” subhead that outlines different techniques students can use to improve sell-care and awareness during quarantine. Some athletes however, are still feeling the mental affects of quarantine.
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— NCAA (@NCAA) April 20, 2020
“The first two weeks weren’t too bad, but I am so use to my routine of workouts twice a day, class, and then homework. Now I have massive gaps in time and have no idea how to fill it,” said Hines. “I go for a run and do homework and try to stay busy, but I’ve been looking at the same four walls for the past month and it’s starting to drive me a little crazy.”
Coaches Dilemma with Quarantine
While athletic directors work towards getting their teams back on the field, and athletes continue to train in isolation, there still leaves one important group of people who are trying to hold everything together– the coaches. Many coaches find themselves preparing their players for an upcoming season that remains in jeopardy. For fall and winter coaches, now is the time of year when offseason training is implemented, and for spring coaches, they would now be in the thick of their seasons.
At both the high school and college level, coaches play pivotal rolls, providing athletes with guidance. Whether it be with their workouts or studying the playbook, they are integral towards preparing their athletes. However, the biggest issue with doing everything remote is the lack of communication. Coaches use to be able to see everyone on regular basis, but now are at the mercy of technology.
“The hardest part has been trying to stay in touch with everyone and keep them accountable. I’m use to seeing them five, six days a week, so I could always make sure everyone was doing their workouts,”said Joe Sabella, the head football coach at Paramus High School. “Now I’m just sending them workouts and praying that they do them, and not just sitting around eating potato chips and watching Netflix.”
Coaches, like Sabella, have remained cautiously optimistic that sports will be played at the start of the new school year. Some of them, however, have been taking a wait-and-see approach, and expect some modifications.
“I’ve talked to other coaches and athletic directors, and nobody is really sure what’s going to happen. We’re going to prepare for the season like we would any other year, but we also understand that there is a chance we might lose the season, or at the very least play a shortened one,” said Sabella. “It’s cliche, but we are really taking it day by day because things have been changing so quickly.”
The Coronavirus pandemic has flipped the entire world upside-down. It has brought everything to a halt, including sports. Athletic directors, coaches and athletes have all be trying to adjust to world we live in today. Athletes like Kevin Hines and Liam Johnson will continue to train in their own make-shift garage gyms, while coaches like Joe Sabella continue to reach out and keep their teams ready to play. There is no time table for a return, but people all across the world are going to have to work together if they hope to see their favorite sports teams back out on the field, court or ice, competing against one-another.
I really like your map overview about athletes with the coronavirus. I would want to see how schools are going to handle moving forward with the fall sports.
Nick, I thoroughly enjoyed reading this piece and learned a lot about the current collegiate athlete experience from it. I especially liked your interactive elements such as your Story Map and Adobe Spark, and I found them both to be very helpful. I think this piece would need another proofreading for grammar purposes, but that is the only flaw I can find. Great reporting and great work.