VPA KICKS CANCELATION TALK DOWN THE ROAD; HOPE FOR SPRING SEASON IS ETERNAL
By Ben Kaufmann
County Courier
As the Bobwhites celebrated on Gutterson Fieldhouse ice last week, it was a historic last in Vermont sports. Of course, everyone assumed the big last was it being the final game of any sort played on that sacred ice as the University of Vermont’s hockey arena gives way to the new Tarrant Event Center this year.
What none of us knew was that BFA-St. Albans and runner-up Stowe would be the last Vermont high school teams to suit up for quite some time. The Bobwhites took hold of the last of the championship trophies dished out by the Vermont Principals Association just hours before the state first postponed and then canceled the remainder of the girls basketball season and any other winter sports.
After a conference call with athletic directors Monday morning, the VPA announced that the start of spring sports would be postponed until at least April 6, the earliest Vermont schools might reopen after Gov. Phil Scott ordered them closed by Wednesday. The possibility of a canceled season remains, but the news on Monday offered hope.
“It’s certainly the best news we could have asked for,” said BFA-Fairfax athletic director and softball coach Geri Witalec-Krupa. “Obviously given the speed with which this is changing, even in the last 48 hours, we don’t know what we don’t know. And we’d be remiss to not be aware of how fast things are changing, but for right now I’m cautiously optimistic.
Witlac-Krupa says the last thing anyone wanted out of Monday’s conference call was cancelation. If a longer school closure is ordered by the state or the situation otherwise deteriorates, it could be inevitable. For now, the games are scheduled to go on.
“The bottom line is that all ADs and the VPA want to provide athletic opportunities as a part of the high school experience,” Witalec-Krupa said. “The VPA more than anyone wants students to have their learning opportunities available through athletics.”
Fear around a COVID-19 outbreak that has led to rapid and unprecedented change around the globe led the VPA to halt school sports on Thursday, March 5, the day after BFA won its 19th boys hockey state title. Initially, that night’s Division I and III girls basketball semifinals were to be played in front of a limited crowd of just immediate family members and media. Those games at Barre’s Aud and UVM’s Patrick Gym were then postponed, and on the next morning the VPA ended the season.
For the first time since the inaugural girls basketball championship in 1972, no championship games will be played in any division for 2020. CVU and Fair Haven were hoping to complete undefeated seasons in Division I and II, but no Franklin County team was directly impacted. On Monday, the VPA declared official co-champions: Champlain Valley, Essex, Mt. Mansfield, and Rutland in D-I; Fair Haven and Harwood in D-II; Lake Region, Windsor, Thetford, and Oxbow in D-IV; and Proctor and Mid-Vermont Christian in D-IV.
Monday’s announcement of just a delay was a pleasant surprise, though the likelihood of a spring season still isn’t great. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control has suggested eliminating gatherings of 50-plus people for at least two months, which would eliminate spectators but also make just holding a lacrosse match or track meet tricky.
While nothing was put in place Monday morning, the lack of a cancellation indicates that Vermont will do everything possible to make a season happen in some capacity.
An odd quiet is set to overtake this spring everywhere you look. The season in which Vermonters proudly line up at creemee stands in t-shirts and shorts at the first sign of 45 degrees is about to have a very different look. There will be no spring concerts, community cookouts or, for the first time since 1966, a Vermont Maple Festival in St. Albans. It goes without saying that there are many events yet to be impacted, even if no official decision has been made yet.
The world may care more about the absence of March Madness or the suspensions of the NBA/NHL/MLB/MLS seasons, but our little sports world takes a hit too — especially if the spring season doesn’t go on.
BFA-St. Albans topped Missisquoi in a candidate for the most exciting championship game in Vermont’s history, to conclude the 2019 spring season. Witalec-Krupa’s Fairfax team may not get to take the diamond in hopes of returning to another championship contest after finishing runner-up to White River Valley last season. BFA-St. Albans boys lacrosse suffered a disappointing home loss in the first round of the 2019 postseason; it would have been a treat to watch a full statement season from the Bobwhites. Franklin County is home to some of Vermont’s top track-and-field programs; we don’t know whether any of them will compete this spring.
If there is a spring season, it will be shortened. Witalec-Krupa said the number of mandatory practices required for play or mandatory games for tournament eligibility will likely be reduced. Spring weather always wreaks havoc on the already compressed schedule, and Mother Nature could be the season’s MVP.
The uncertainty hits seniors hardest.
“The whole situation is certainly a bummer for all the senior student-athletes in the state,” said Witalec-Krupa, whose softball Bullets have already missed out on a Florida spring-training trip that was months in the making.
“My heart breaks for my senior softball players. That’s a year’s worth of work and planning and fund-raising that went into it, and now they won’t have.
There is no silver lining to these mass postponements or potential cancellations for any high school seniors or, for that matter, underclassmen.
As tough as it is to possibly lose another season of watching Meghan Connor crush homers and tag runners out at the plate in BFA green-and-gold or to see what Missisquoi has up its sleeve to take out the Comets, spare an extra thought for those athletes who haven’t spent the past few years collecting accolades and photos in the newspaper. We in the media don’t always do the best job of honoring the efforts of track or tennis players in the same style of lacrosse and baseball teams, but that doesn’t make this abrupt end to the playing careers of many any easier.
There are bigger problems in the world than the potential absence of a high school baseball tournament or the Essex Invitational. And our student-athletes are about to get a lesson in civic duty any classroom teacher would love to convey. But it’s not all meaningless or “just sports.” The lessons and camaraderie and hard work we’ve all had the opportunity to enjoy over the years is being stolen away by a faceless villain.
As always, we at The County Courier will do our best to cover sports in the area in whatever fashion they return, and we will do our best to honor those seniors who have had their curtain-call seasons halted by a national crisis. Personally, we will feel a bit lost without the early season sideline conversations wondering how it’s possible that Enosburg always has its fields ready two weeks before anyone else or why the BFA-Fairfax snack bar is a cut above most in the state. We would rue the missed chance to see BFA and MVU coaches chase history or to poke fun at media newcomers unaware that you always bring both a t-shirt and winter coat to 4 p.m. games in Richford. If all goes well and this pandemic takes an unexpected turn for the better, perhaps we’ll get to enjoy that after all.
Mostly, we will learn to appreciate the collective effort of our community in doing its part to make the best of these challenging and scary times in our world. And we will return, along with the coaches and players we care for so greatly, to the fields we’ve been privileged to call our office- Whenever that may be.
