The team is continuing to practice and workout in preparation for season

written BY: SETH ELLIS, guest writer

In a normal year, Xavier’s varsity fall athletic seasons would be well underway with the Musketeers taking on Big East foes in a variety of sports. 

However, as everyone knows, 2020 has been anything but a normal year.

On Aug. 12, the Big East announced that it would be postponing all of its 2020 fall sports. This is a decision  that was made by other conferences, such as the Ivy League and Xavier’s former athletic home, the Atlantic 10. 

Other conferences, such as the Big 10 and Mid-American Conference, have recently reneged on their postponements of fall sports. However, since the  Big East does not have the cash flow created by football as an enticement for going back, it is unlikely that it will make the same decision.

The sports affected by the Big East’s decision are men’s and women’s soccer, cross country and volleyball. 

While athletes in these sports are allowed to practic eand work out (with proper COVID-19 precautions), they will not be playing any games until spring of 2021 at the earliest.

“We prepared like we were playing all the way up until we weren’t,” Carrie Lewis, a redshirt senior and midfielder on the Xavier varsity women’s soccer team said. “It does naturally take a little bit of a toll on us because we’re training all the time and we’re not playing, and come the spring, who knows what it will look like,” Lewis said. 

Obviously, this has not been an ideal situation, but Xavier student-athletes are not idle during this time.

“As a team, we try to control what we can control,” Lewis said “Now we’re treating the fall like an offseason. We’re still practicing five days a week and lifting and running.”

Fellow Big East member Georgetown University is fully remote at the moment, meaning their student-athletes cannot practice as a team. 

Of course, any team at any school could be forced to quarantine at any time. This could cause varying levels of readiness amongst teams, but Lewis believes that her team is prepared for the challenge.

Lewis also praised the leadership of their Head Coach Nate Lie “does a really good job of saying ‘roll with the punches.’ We don’t get too high as a team; we don’t get too low as a team,” Lewis said. “Whatever comes our way, we’re prepared for.”

However, Lewis expects their competition to be ready as well. 

“I think everyone will be competitive. The Big East is becoming a really good conference,” she said. 

There also could be a silver lining for fall sports that are typically overshadowed by college football in terms of recognition and exposure. Playing during the spring would potentially allow these teams to get more time in the spotlight. 

Increased television time would not only benefit individual teams but also benefit different sports in their entirety.

“I think it could be amazing for soccer,” Lewis said of this potential exposure. 

“The big two sports are football and basketball, and if we play in the spring, basketball will be basically done, and the attention could be on soccer.”