Dyersburg State seasons end as NJCAA cancels spring championships

Tuesday, March 17, 2020

Just days after Dyersburg State’s softball and baseball seasons were put on hold by the TCCAA, the NJCAA followed suit with last week’s decision by the NCAA, cancelling all spring competition effective immediately.

A press release on the NJCAA website stated:

“Following the recent recommendations from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the NJCAA has made the difficult decision to cancel all upcoming basketball championships as well as spring competition, effective immediately.

“In light of the progressive evolvement of the COVID-19 situation, the NJCAA has decided to end all competition for the remainder of the academic year,” stated Dr. Christopher Parker, NJCAA President & CEO. “As an association, the NJCAA exhausted all possible avenues to potentially postpone competition for both upcoming basketball championships and spring sport competition. We believe following the recommendations of the CDC is in the best interest of our member colleges and our student-athletes.

“Spring competition includes all practices, regular season, postseason, and national championship play.

“Regarding eligibility for spring sports, no spring sport student-athlete who was enrolled at a member college in 2020 will be charged a year of participation.”

Along with the cancellation of competition, all on- and off-campus recruiting for all sports will be halted until April 15 with further evaluation to be assessed at that point in time. 

“The NJCAA will explore the opportunity to expand allowable Letters of Intent for spring sports for both the 2020-21 and 2021-22 academic years under the recommendation of the NJCAA Eligibility Committee.

“The NJCAA will continue to monitor the situation and provide updates as more information becomes available.”

Dyersburg State Athletic Director David Anderson talked about the ruling which came down from the NJCAA on Monday.

“It’s really unfortunate,” Anderson said. “I really feel bad for the players and the coaches. I know they had already started the season and were being successful thusfar. It’s a shame to end the season like this but safety concerns come first. The good news is that the NJCAA will not charge the spring sports athletes with a year of eligibility. So, we’ll see what comes from that ruling. And, the student athletes have options so that’s good.”

When play was halted on March 12, Dyersburg State’s baseball and softball were both tied for first place in their respective standings in the TCCAA. Baseball was also ranked No. 20 in the last poll.

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