Minium: For Seniors on ODU's Spring Sports Teams, COVID-19 Brought Their Careers to an Abrupt and Heartbreaking End

By Harry Minium

Holly Hutchinson was in Whitehurst Hall late last week, just chilling with some of her Old Dominion women's tennis teammates, when she looked at the Twitter feed on her phone and gasped.

The NCAA announced via Twitter that all spring sports championships had been canceled. ODU women's tennis coach Dominic Manilla had only learned about it moments earlier and hadn't yet had the chance to tell his players.

It was a difficult way to learn that your postseason dreams, and almost surely your college career, are over.

"I read it out loud for everyone to hear," said Hutchinson, a senior from Great Britain. "But then my voice broke and I cried and cried and cried."

She took her grief to Whitehurst Beach, on the Lafayette River, and did most of her crying there by herself.

Her tears are now gone, but like so many ODU athletes, she is still in a state of shock and unsure of what the future holds.

Tens of thousands of NCAA athletes have been collateral damage in the COVID-19 outbreak that has caused the United States to shut down schools, restaurants, concerts and nearly all sports events because it is when people gather in groups that the virus is most likely to be spread.

ODU shut down its campus this week. Classes will resume on March 23, but only online. Nearly every college campus around the country is similarly shut down.

Conference USA also announced late Monday night the cancellation of spring sports championships, following a few days after a similar announcement by the BIG EAST. That means the season is over for ODU's baseball, men's and women's tennis, lacrosse, men's and women's golf and rowing teams.

ODU's spring football practice, which was slated to begin Tuesday, is on indefinite hold and could be canceled.

ODU is doing its best to take care of its more than 500 athletes during this stressful time. Athletic Director Wood Selig told coaches their first priority is to remain in touch with their players and make sure they are okay.

All five members of ODU's academic support team are also in touch with athletes to make sure they have access to online classes. They are also providing academic counseling remotely.

The University is providing counseling services to all students via telephone or Zoom, and athletes have been told to seek help if they need it.

Most ODU athletes are at home and have their families to provide support. Hutchinson did not return to England, and thus doesn't have family support in town.

She has friends, but in this time of social distancing, family can be a key pillar of support.

"This is so difficult to process," she said.

Hutchinson says in the grand scheme of things, she's lucky. Nearly 40 percent of Americans have $400 or less in savings and many are losing their jobs, at least temporarily.

"I fully appreciate some people's jobs are at risk," she said. "People who work at restaurants, in airports, people with 9-to-5 jobs, have so much more to worry about than I do.

"There are some people who have lost their jobs and don't have an income. I can't imagine what they are going through. I know I'm coming from a place of privilege."

Men's tennis coach Dominik Mueller has two young children whose daycare is closed. His wife is a nurse practitioner and obviously her skills are in great demand.

"Fortunately, I can be home with them," Mueller said. "I feel for the people who don't have daycare and don't have family or friends to keep their children.

"As bad as things are for us and our players, it's worse for many other people."

That doesn't mean the pain that Hutchinson and many other ODU athletes are feeling isn't real or that it should be ignored.

Hutchinson upset the nation's No. 2 player this season and could have been headed to an All-American finish in the NCAA tournament. The ODU women's team, which upset LSU earlier this season in Baton Rouge, could have finished in the Top 25.

Yet all hopes for postseason glory were washed away in an instant.

"I can't even begin to tell you how hard it's been," Hutchinson said, her voice filled with emotion. "We really have had the best season we've ever had, and we weren't even halfway through the season.

"After having been at this school for four years of my life, looking forward to conference, nationals and individual nationals, which I haven't ever played, it's just heartbreaking."

"I won't have a senior day," she added. "I won't get the chance to say goodbyes to my teammates, who I love and have been with for years.

"To have that taken away so abruptly is so difficult to deal with."

She will return next season if the NCAA grants seniors another year of eligibility and while officials are talking about that, nothing has yet been decided.

"If I don't get that extra year, then I don't get to complete my legacy at ODU," she said.

Other ODU seniors are processing the same feelings.

The ODU women's basketball team was in Frisco, Texas for the Conference USA tournament last Thursday, just a few hours from taking the court, when the league announced the tournament was canceled.

The Monarchs likely would have been the first ODU women's basketball team to go to the NCAA tournament in 12 years. That tournament has also been canceled.

"It was heartbreaking to everyone on our team," coach Nikki McCray-Penson said. "All of our players feel a huge sense of loss."

Especially Taylor Edwards, the senior from Portsmouth, who was the spark plug for the team that finished 24-6 just two years after going 8-23.

"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."

Edwards said she was taking a pre-game nap last Thursday when she heard some commotion in the hallway. When she walked outside, her teammates told her the 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.

"I feel for all the seniors at other schools, for the seniors on other ODU sports teams. This is their last shot at playing the game they love. I know every senior is hurting, that they feel like I do."

Edwards tried to do the right thing when I interviewed her in Frisco, saying it was something she had to accept and that it was for the greater good.

But then she began to shed tears. Under the same circumstances, I likely would have done the same.

"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."

When Mueller broke the news to his men's tennis team, he tried to put things in perspective. ODU has had a good season and will finish with one of the highest rankings among mid-major schools, he told them.

"We accomplished a lot this season," he told them. "And we all have to sacrifice, to do our part to keep people safe."

That did little to salve the pain felt by Francois Musitelli, a senior from France.

"This is not the way I wanted my career to end," he told Mueller.

Mueller has a scholarship to give and is saving it for Musitelli in case the NCAA grants him another season.

Although ODU urged all students to go home, some of his players could not. Italy is the epicenter of the viral outbreak in Europe and Italian tennis players Nicola Vidal and Federico Rebecchini plan to remain in Norfolk for now.

Women's lacrosse coach Heather Holt told her players their season was over last week. The lacrosse team plays in the BIG EAST, which at that time had not yet canceled spring sports, but she was smart enough to see what was coming.

"It was devastating and heartbreaking," said team captain Mary Katherine Maloney, a senior who is at home in the Philadelphia suburb of Gwynedd, Pa.

"We had all been working so hard to promote a new culture here and we had done that. The team was really so close.

"It's so upsetting. You work your whole life to get to your senior year of college. There is professional lacrosse, but it's only for the very best college players."

Like many ODU seniors, Maloney already has plans for next year. A sports management major, she has signed on for a 10-month internship with the Philadelphia Eagles.

She says she won't put her career on hold another year even if she's granted another season of eligibility. "It wouldn't be the same with the other seniors not there," she said.

"I've come to terms with it," she added. "And I know I'm not alone.

"Every senior in the country is going through the same thing. It's a tough time for everyone in college athletics."

Contact Minium: hminium@odu.edu