This is a disaster for all the athletes and a totally tone-deaf dictatorial move by President Wendy Raymond. There was no warning in January that this might happen, so most athletes trustingly came back to campus, thinking that with rapid testing available, local high schools playing, and the minimal risk outdoor sports pose, the College would support the 40% of the student body that play a sport and find a way.
There was no plan, no communication and no students or coach agency, or even input. Students were gob-smacked, and at a school that advertises itself as “run by students,with input on every major decision “ this was a total disregard of the mission and purported values of Haverford.
President Raymond didn’t even include her athletic director in the process.
My child is now even more distressed. She reports an exponential increase in despair and binge drinking among athletes, especially seniors who will lose 2 seasons. She says she feels unheard, misled and as if all the college cares about is the money athletes bring.She recommends no athlete with any other option attend Haverford while Wendy Raymond is president as she clearly doesn’t care about athletics or understand the serious mental health problems she is causing.
Hopefully the Board of Managers will remedy the situation but in the meantime, don’t go to Haverford. There is also an ugly undercurrent among the non-athletes that wanting to play sports in a pandemic is somehow racist and the fear of being “ cancelled “ is keeping many students from speaking out publicly.
@OldbatesieDoc I’m so sorry for your daughter, that is heart-breaking. For students who have chosen to continue competing in college, the discipline, competition and teamwork is so essential to their mental health. I remember following your daughter’s search and decision, and I completely understand the heartbreak that comes with losing one season, let alone two.
Good to hear from you oldbatesie. I’m sorry to hear this news, lots of distress and disruption seemingly happening at Haverford. Have you seen this thread?
Oberlin has also chosen to not play spring sports, while the rest of the conference is, AFAIK.
My D is at a NESCAC and it’s not looking like they will have official sports this spring either, her sport is fall and spring, so as a soph, she will have missed 3 of 4 seasons. It’s certainly a sad and curious decision for these schools to not play sports, when as you say, many colleges are playing, as well as high schools.
Good luck to your D, I hope that she can find the strength to persevere.
Gotta say, there is bullying and the President is tone deaf to the emotional and psychological needs of the students. She totally blew the BLM issue in the fall, telling students they couldn’t go off campus to demonstrate while Swat gave them all masks and just said “Be safe!” This caused the 2 week strike. I can’t imagine she has the confidence of a single student or parent of a current student at this time.
I hope they get to play something! So sorry. As you know, I am a physician and believe that with precautions, outdoor sports are safe !
The decision on spring athletics was agreed by the Tri-Co. Swat and BMC are also not participating in Spring sports.
It’s sad, but it’s far from tragic.
75% of people in the 18-25 age group have clinical depression and in July 25% had considered suicide. I wonder what a poll of athletes would reveal?
It is a tragedy. If you can’t see it, you don’t know one, or you aren’t one.
Swat isn’t there, and if the 3 colleges had agreed there would be no sports this year, where was my notice?
I’m sorry to hear this. I can’t imagine putting so much time and effort into a sport and then not being able to play. I wonder if the President’s decision was made in part because of the terrible vaccine roll out in PA. I think the expectation was that far more people would be vaccinated by now. People here (I live near Pittsburgh, but PA in general) are on multiple lists and are hearing nothing about when it will be available.
Hopefully, by summer things will be much farther along, and sports will resume in full in the fall.
All of this can’t be easy for students to deal with, I wish your daughter the best.
I’m surprised President Smith didn’t check with you first.
Vaccinated or not, outdoor sports are safe. The conference is close together and no long distance travel is needed. There are no documented transmissions among athletes on the field. It’s the bars, and indoor spaces, which the students are being driven to with no alternative enjoyments!
High schools are playing literally across the street. It’s unbearable.
Seems like you are getting a little snarky for an employee of the colleges…
I am a current Haverford parent, and the Tri-Co update came from my student yesterday.
Yes, I totally agree. I just wonder if that might be part of her motivation.
And a TriCo employee. No notice sent to Haverford parents. You’d think for over $200,000 they might check in once in a while.
For some reason you believe I work for one of the Tri-Co schools. I do not, have not, and based on my academic background, will not. I have been a parent at both Swat and Haverford, and have been to nearly all of the Centennial campuses as the parent of an athlete (save Hopkins…scheduling conflicts).
My notice of spring sports came from a student. Where did you get yours?
I wouldn’t be surprised to see an update from President Raymond at some point, but appreciating how her words have been used against her this past year, I’m guessing everything she writes is thoroughly reviewed by several people (that’s a guess/hope…I don’t know that as an insider).
I appreciate the frustration and disappointment of not having a season, but you didn’t honestly believe there was going to be a spring season, did you? As a Doctor, you realize in January that we were nearing 250k cases per day, and that as the students began returning to campus the national death rates were at near daily highs (>2,400). Nobody outside of D1 should have been assuming anything positive about spring sports.
The news that 8 of the 11 Centennial schools decided on Thursday to have a season is the surprise. Being left out sucks, but those schools have geographic, financial, and reputational issues that differ from the Tri-Co.
There are no future professional athletes at Haverford. Playing sports in college is great, but their playing days are going to end in the next 4 years anyway. It totally sucks that they can’t play, but it also sucks that the kids in the choir can’t have concerts and the theater kids have no play, the architecture and brewing and chess clubs have no activies. It sucks for everyone.
What I personally find a bit objectionable is the use of your daughter, her classmates, and the other unrest at Haverford as a way to trash the school because of your disappointment regarding Spring Sports. The suggestion of aggression towards athletes because playing is racist? Seriously?
Not being able to play college sports doesn’t mean your daughter and others can’t be physically active, and as a doc I’m sure you know the most important thing for her now is to focus on playing again next term/year and continue her training and exercise. While sad for the seniors to have lost another year, they are now focused on applying their academic credentials to their next challenges, be it grad school or finding a job in the worst employment environment in 100 years. Having known dozens of college athletes over the past decade, many seniors are just fine not having to deal with the distraction of playing one last season with so many other important issues to address.
500,000+ dead from a pandemic is tragic. Losing out on a season of team sports to limit the risks is sad.
We disagree, clearly.
The pandemic is a tragedy of epic and mind-blowing proportions, and as a practicing physician who cares for Covid patients I believe in taking every precaution.
But this is unnecessary and overzealous.
The tragedy of the epidemic of serious depression in youth also has a death toll and as a physician I also see that side.
To say because 500,000 didn’t die, it isn’t tragic is a false equivalency. I’m not arguing that COVID isn’t tragic, and I am a firm believer in masking, social distancing, and vaccination.
Playing sports outdoors with rapid testing and other precautions is safe. A forward-thinking President would have been on that, or at least given the students and parents criteria by which a return to sports would be contemplated with regular updates instead of leading everyone on, and keeping even the AD in the dark.
Nice you know Senior athletics who don’t care if they play. I don’t.
You’re right, we disagree.
If one person gets seriously ill from an infection traced to a sports team…then the President was foolishly aggressive. She can’t win.
Testing isn’t foolproof, and if you want to see how difficult it is to contain look down Lancaster Ave toward Villanova. Pro teams with private facilities and transportation can’t stop shutting down from outbreaks.
Three months from now, it’s likely a different story.
To compare Haverford and Villanova is another ridiculous false equivalency.
Maybe they should cut the trees down too, a branch might fall off and land on someone’s head?
The CDC has guidelines AND data. A “risky exposure” is closer than 6 feet, unmasked, for more than 20 minutes. I’ve just spent 12 months actually examining people with covid and my organization told me not to worry if I followed those guidelines.
Explain to me what spring sport is “risky?”
Let the kids play!
Definitely a disappointing and frustrating year for those athletes having competitive seasons cancelled or disrupted. I’m not sure it should have been a surprise though. The Ivy League cancelled spring conference competition awhile back and most people saw that coming.
Hopefully the Haverford athletes have opportunities to practice with teammates?
I don’t envy the administrators making these decisions. There are usually factors involved that aren’t obvious to the general public, and I definitely wouldn’t expect the same decision-making framework to guide decisions about HS and college sports.
@OldbatesieDoc, As you. can imagine I am so terribly sorry about the loss of the 2021 season. I know of one midwest school that cancelled Florida – again. But, I am here to attest that there is life after Covid destroys athletic seasons (such as it may be).
Given that area high schools are continuing sport, one wonders whether it has more to do with money than Covid. Just wondering.