By Harry Minium
FRISCO, Texas
Taylor Edwards tried to be brave. The senior Old Dominion women's basketball player said all the right things, that saving lives is bigger than college basketball, that Conference USA made the right decision to cancel its men's and women's tournament Thursday morning.
But then came the tears.
"I'm trying to be strong, trying not to get emotional," she said as she dabbed her eyes.
"For this to happen my senior year, it really hurts."
Yes, the Coronavirus is serious stuff. There's no cure for the disease and we don't know how far it will spread or when the pandemic might end.
As ODU coach Nikki McCray-Penson said, "people have died from this disease."
That's why every basketball entity from the NBA to Division I tournaments to the NCAA tournaments have shut down. The sports world is shutting down in unprecedented fashion in an effort ensure the health of athletes, coaches and fans.
But that doesn't mean we should ignore the real sacrifices that thousands of college athletes just like Edwards are being forced to make. Their pain is real and should be acknowledged.
Edwards is a senior from Portsmouth. She walked-on at ODU without a scholarship because she loved the school so much and that's where she wanted to play basketball.
She endured ODU's 8-23 record two years ago, and like her teammates, dug down and worked unbelievably hard to improve over the next two years. The result this season was a 24-6 record, a No. 33 ranking in the NCAA RPI and second place in the C-USA regular season.
Edwards was the spiritual leader of this team, who pushed and prodded her teammates and kept reminding them of their goal, to win a league championship and be the first ODU team to go to the NCAA tournament since 2008.
Edwards played basketball her entire life for this moment and it was snuffed out so quickly that she hasn't begun to process what that means.
Edwards naps before every game and was woken by commotion from her teammates Thursday morning in the hallway of her hotel. She walked out and teammates told her the conference tournament had been canceled.
"I just couldn't say anything after that," she said. "I just stood there like, yo, this can't be real.
"It still doesn't feel real. It hasn't hit me yet. It probably won't until I get home.
"I feel for all the seniors at other schools. This is their last shot at playing the game they love. I know every senior is hurting, that they feel like I do."
The NCAA men's and women's tournaments were the last dominoes to fall Thursday afternoon after, earlier in the day, nearly every Division I conference announced tournaments would be canceled.
That means the season is over for the nearly 10,000 Division I men's and women's basketball players.
Tens of thousands of spring sports athletes are also affected. Most major conference have put spring sports on hold. The Ivy League canceled its spring sports season.
Conference USA announced Thursday that play in spring sports has also been suspended indefinitely. That means no more games, or even practice, for ODU's baseball and men's and women's golf and tennis teams, until we know more about the implications of the Coronavirus.
ODU's women's lacrosse and rowing participate in other leagues, but athletic director Wood Selig said all sports activity is on hold.
Selig said the ODU athletic department is doing everything it can to keep its athletes and coaches safe. Classes on campus have been suspended and will be replaced on March 23 by online classes.
Athletes can remain on campus only if they need to. The residential halls will remain open and food service will continue. But Selig said he is urging athletes to go home if they can. They'll all be safer at home.
"The safety of our players and staff is the most important thing for us," McCray said. "Most of our players have families on this trip. Most of them will go home to be with their families.
"This is hard for everyone on our staff. But it was the right call. It had to be made."
Edwards agrees.
"We worked so hard to get here, we all worked so hard," she said. "We have goals, we wanted to make history and that's all gone.
"But we can't do anything about it now. This isn't about us. This is about us being safe and taking care of others.
"This is about saving lives."
Contact Minium: hminium@odu.edu
Minium: Let's Not Forget the Thousands of Athletes, like ODU's Taylor Edwards, Whose Championship Dreams Have Been Shattered by the Coronavirus
