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As a part of their reaction to COVID-19, PCC suspended sports games and practices for an indefinite amount of time following the California Community College Athletic Association (CCCAAs) unanimous vote last Thursday. This decision is suspending seven sports which will affect 109 athlete’s overall at PCC.

”We based it on our overriding concern about exposure to COVID-19, but also we based it on the fact that professional sports and all of the athletic conferences around us had also suspended it,” said Pasadena City College superintendent and vice-chair of the CCCAA, Dr. Erika Endrijonas.

PCC students who play sports have an opportunity to earn a partial or full ride scholarship when they transfer to a division I, II or III four-year university. But, In order to earn that scholarship, those students need to be scouted by a university. And according to the NCAA, each athlete is only allowed to compete for up to four seasons for two-year or four-year schools.

Two questions have manifested out of PCC’s suspension of the sports programs. First, will athletes be charged with a full year of eligibility even though they only played half a season? Secondly, will the spring season resume or will it be cancelled? Many of the PCC athletes are unsure of what will happen next.

“I think that we should either get another year of eligibility if we want to play another year or have the games pushed back and start immediately when it’s safe again,” softball pitcher Austyn Helmuth said. “We still have school for another few months so why not play then.”

Due to COVID-19 safety precautions, The CCCAA spring conference, scheduled to take place Mar. 31 through Apr. 3, was canceled. There have been no conversations about what it would take for sports to resume at this time and there still remain questions when the CCCAA will meet again.

“If we were having the conference, we would have had a board meeting on Friday Apr. 3, so I think we’ll still have board meetings but it’ll be virtual and that’s when we’ll deal with a lot of these issues,” said Endrijonas.

The widespread panic started not only in the college but also the professional ranks right before the Utah Jazz were scheduled to play the Oklahoma City Thunder Mar 11. Jazz center Rudy Gobert was showing symptoms of a fever, so the team had him tested. After Gobert and his teammate Donovan Mitchell tested positive for COVID-19, a domino of sports franchises and college athletic programs suspended their seasons throughout the country. The NBA, MLB, NCAA, MLS, NHL, Nascar, PGA and XFL all suspended their seasons by Mar 13.

 

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