BY MAKENNA ALLEN
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After months of confusion brought about by the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic, the announcements of schedules for Fort Hays State University\u2019s sports are being finalized.
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Ever since the NCAA\u2019s decision to suspend all winter and spring athletic events in March, the world of college athletics has been reeling. As teams came to a grinding halt in both practice and competition, many conferences were unsure if their sports would even see any fall events. However, the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association has been at work with its member schools to create viable schedules for the fast-approaching fall seasons.
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Last week, FHSU Athletics released information regarding many sports ranging from women\u2019s and men\u2019s basketball to baseball and tennis. Also on the list of schedules released were those for fall sports including football, women\u2019s soccer and volleyball.
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The first sport to release its plan for the season on June 16 was FHSU football. For this sport, the MIAA has adopted a new conference-wide format in which the season for all schools begins Sept.12. For the Tigers, their first game will take place at home against Lincoln University.
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Under this new format, each team in the conference will play 10 games. To cut down schedules, one opponent was removed by random draw from every team\u2019s schedule. For FHSU, this means the Tigers will not face Missouri Southern State University in regular-season play.
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Aside from this shift, as well as the delayed start to the season, the official FHSU schedule <\/a>will remain similar to the original. Even homecoming, during which the University of Central Missouri travels to Hays, will remain on the calendar for Oct. 3. Now that the team\u2019s plan has been finalized, FHSU football will look toward making its third playoff appearance in four years. Unlike the reduction seen in the football schedule, the women\u2019s soccer program will compete in all 11 of its standard conference games. However, the team\u2019s schedule has still been altered from its original 18-game format. This season, the Tigers will instead play a total of 13 matches. This format allows for two non-conference games. FHSU has selected these games for the first two weeks of the season. According to the team\u2019s schedule<\/a>, the Tigers will play Emporia State University on either Sept. 11 or 13 and Nebraska-Kearney on either Sept. 18 or 20. According to head coach Blake Reynolds, these changes will most impact the team by limiting the possibilities for the women to unite as a group. \u201cThe biggest change for us, specifically, is that we likely won\u2019t have any normal preseason before the general student body arrives, which means no two-a-days where we get time to bond as a team,\u201d Reynolds said. \u201cThis is the most important part of being a fall sport as we don\u2019t get months to prepare. We get a couple of weeks.\u201d Nevertheless, Reynolds is thankful that amid the chaotic changes within the NCAA and MIAA, his team is able to have a season at all. \u201cWhile I wish we could play more games, there are conferences in the country that have already called off their fall seasons,\u201d Reynolds said. \u201cSimilarly with COVID-19, we are unsure of what the impact of returning to campus, with student-athletes and a general student body coming from all over the world, will be like on the campus community as a whole. Meaning, will we be safe? Will we even have a season?\u201d Ultimately for Reynolds, the fall season is about perspective. \u201cWhen you look at it from that perspective, I would happily take 13 games, as it means we must be generally safe if we are still able to play,\u201d he said. The women\u2019s soccer team begins its MIAA season Sept. 25 against Washburn University in Hays. The team looks to achieve at least 10 wins for the fourth straight season, and will play seven of its first eight matches of the season at home. That leaves the team on the road for the final five regular-season matches.
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