Jon Mark Beilue: The waiting is the hardest part

WT athletics, and all of LSC, on a hopeful hold amid COVID

Photo: A post-game embrace like in 2019 between West Texas A&M head football coach Hunter Hughes and athletics director Michael McBroom will have to wait until at least late September after the Lone Star Conference voted to delay the fall seasons a month.

A year ago, as the calendar turned to August, the biggest concern for West Texas A&M University athletics director Michael McBroom was to see that the new Buffalo Stadium opened on time and all the details were in order.

A year later, his biggest concern is having some football teams simply to play in the new stadium.

“Last summer was very different to this summer – very different,” he said. “I’d definitely love to be doing the stadium thing again – even with a few anxious moments – as opposed to this.”

If it were up to WT coaches, athletes and administration, they’d be cautiously gearing up for the fall sports seasons as scheduled. But it’s not, and they’re not.

“It’s interesting, but every day, I have this gut feeling this is what’s going to happen, and the opposite has happened,” said Kendra Potts, Lady Buffs volleyball coach. “It’s very volatile right now.”

Because of the second surge of the COVID pandemic, WT and the rest of the Lone Star Conference members are now dealing with a delay to the start of the fall seasons by at least a month – and the added complications that conference teams Eastern New Mexico and Western New Mexico won’t be playing fall sports at all.

On July 24, the LSC Council of Presidents voted to delay all practice for fall sports to Aug. 24. Fall sports competition – if subsequently approved by the conference – would begin no earlier than the week of Sept. 21. Fall sports include football, volleyball, men’s and women’s soccer, and men’s and women’s cross country.

There could be further action. The LSC Council of Presidents will reconvene before the start of the fall seasons to make a final determination.

“Throughout this whole thing, our goal has been to play, to start on time and go,” McBroom said. “That has been from (WT President) Dr. (Walter) Wendler on down. That has been the situation with his leadership. These are difficult times, but there are opportunities here and let’s capitalize on those opportunities and see what happens.

“Let’s make things happen and figure out how to open in the fall and get going with in-class instruction, athletics, everything. So that’s been our focus the last four months.”

Some other LSC schools shared the same outlook, but in an 18-team conference, not all did. Conference athletic directors have talked weekly. It became apparent to McBroom over the last three weeks that a compromise was inevitable.

“In order to give everyone in the conference the best chance at competing, the athletic directors put together a proposal to delay the start of competition,” McBroom said.

Finding football games

The biggest current challenge at WT is now scheduling. What was an 11-game football schedule in May has been gutted to eight games. The other sports are affected, but not that severely.

“The football schedule is what I’m spending most of my time on right now,” McBroom said. “The delay in practice and competition is not in the best interest of football. We need the biggest window possible to get games in and mitigate any changes from COVID when we start play.”

The NCAA passed legislation in early June to reduce the number of games on the Division II level for travel costs in a difficult economy. Football went from 11 games to 10, volleyball from 26 matches to 20, and soccer from 18 matches to 14. Though not a fall sport, basketball was reduced from 26 games to 22.

WT lost its scheduled opener with Azusa Pacific earlier this summer. Since then, Western Oregon canceled. Yet there was more.

New Mexico governor Michelle Lujan Grisham announced strict COVID quarantine and cancellation restrictions in the state that began in early July. High school football and soccer were canceled.

 On Tuesday, LSC members in that state – Eastern New Mexico and Western New Mexico – announced they would not play football as well as other fall sports. That left the remaining six football-playing schools in the LSC scrambling further.

WT moved its original homecoming date with Western Oregon to ENMU – the traditional Wagon Wheel game. With both games canceled, homecoming must be moved again. As of late July, the Buffs have five home games – five – for its 1-year-old stadium. The eight games on the schedule are all LSC games.

Volleyball and the soccer teams are losing a combined five matches from those two schools which need to be filled. . Filling those empty weekends for football, which has fewer games, is a priority. Replacements are available, McBroom said, but the time to squeeze them in is a concern since the NCAA playoffs are still set to begin Nov. 21.

“It would be tough for us to find games and fill out a schedule six to eight months ago,” he said, “but now games are available all over the place. The NCAA allows us to play 10, but our conference has pushed the start date back to Sept. 26, so that gives us an opportunity to play eight. The games are out there, but it would be nice to expand the window on the season a little bit to make sure those games can be played.”

200 athletes training, waiting

More than 200 athletes from all sports have been on campus since mid-June in conditioning and weight room workouts. They are following the expected precautions of quarantining upon arrival, daily symptom monitoring, social distancing, and the last three weeks, athletes have worn masks in the weight room.

“Athletes train all year, and if they tear an ACL, they tear an ACL,” said Buff football coach Hunter Hughes. “It’s unfortunate. They risk other injuries too that can keep them out a week or two. Last year, we lost two running backs in the first game. Those things happen, but athletes know and accept the risks.

“You get in a car and drive and take the risk of not being in an accident. You know the risks, but you pay attention when you drive, obey traffic laws and wear a seat belt. That’s what we’re doing. We accept risks and we take the precautions.”

WT football, off an 8-3 record a year ago, was set to begin workouts on Aug. 10.  That’s pushed back 15 days. The possibility remains of further delays.

“You really don’t know what’s going to happen,” Hughes said, “and it’s been that way all summer. Every day it changes. My own philosophy is if you’re going to have kids on campus and in class, you should have athletics.

“The reason I say that is because we can control our athletes by giving them symptom checks every day before practice and before class in the morning. That’s more than what the normal student body is going to get.”

Butch Lauffer will get a delayed start on his 30th season with the soccer program, and 30th season overall for Buff soccer. Having a weekend to recognize 30 years is on the docket, but is a moving target.

“You got to put one foot in front of the other and attack this and start to get back to normal a little bit,” he said. “For a long time, I’ve been waiting for the other shoe to drop, but I feel confident this delayed start will be it for us.

“This has cut a hole though in some of our external/internal parts. It doesn’t seem appropriate to ask alums for money right now. The way I grew up, cash is king, and people are trying to hang on to money and not push their families into tougher situations. So that’s hurt fundraising a little bit or at least put us behind.”

The Lady Buff volleyball team saw the start of practice delayed by just one week from the original start date of Aug. 17. Because it’s an indoor sport, it’s been labeled “high risk” along with football and soccer.

“The university has been great for us,” said Potts, beginning her second year as head coach. “Their mission has been to do as much as possible within accepted health and safety guidelines. No one is waving the white flag around here. Our athletes are hungry to be together, to have community and person-to-person interaction. We don’t want to take that away, but want to be as safe as possible.”

But through postponements, cancellations, delays, adjusted health procedures and a murky future, there’s a sense this will all be navigated like raft through a Class 5 river. Eventually the waters will calm.

“The more data we have, the better off we are,” McBroom said. “My personal view is we have to move forward. I’m surrounded by a ton of smart people on this campus. We’ve had to make adjustments the last four months and we’ll continue to do that.

“If I could tell you what October or even September is going to look like, I’d be lying. It’s going to be challenging, but I have every confidence we can pull it off successfully.”

Do you know of a student, faculty member, project, an alumnus or any other story idea for “WT: The Heart and Soul of the Texas Panhandle?” If so, email Jon Mark Beilue at jbeilue@wtamu.edu.