The National Junior College Athletics Association (NJCAA) released its plan to resume competition in the fall on June 19, making a direct impact on Allen Community College.
ACC athletic director and men’s head soccer coach Doug Desmarteau sat down with Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference (KJCCC) officials and other athletic directors from across the conference via zoom earlier this week.
Due to COVID-19, each sport’s schedule for the 2020-21 school year has been reduced by 10% for athlete safety, and to reduce costs across the conference.
Soccer loses two games and one scrimmage, volleyball three fall dates and one spring date, cross country one meet, basketball three games and one scrimmage, track one meet, baseball two fall games and six spring games, and softball loses three spring dates along with one fall date.
“A lot of the games we were losing are the ones that are far,” Desmarteau said. “We were going to play two games in Minnesota, but I’m not sure it’s that smart to take two busses full of kids up to Minnesota during this.”
ACC basketball will likely come earlier than usual, with practice slated to start on Sept. 14 rather than Oct. 1. The Red Devils’ date to start competition will fall on Oct 16, two weeks earlier than the norm.
The season will continue until the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, with the next game coming on Jan. 9. Many colleges, even some in the KJCCC, have decided to end the first semester at Thanksgiving. This schedule shakeup makes it such that players will not have to worry about quarantining after returning home for Thanksgiving, along with missing games in early December.
Desmarteau admits that the KJCCC is still fine-tuning the details of the 2020-21 schedule.
“It is not official, but all the athletic directors are on board,” Desmarteau said. “But like I’ve said, these things change constantly.”
ACC’s fall athletes will arrive earlier than usual to allow time for a two-week quarantine if the player is coming from a KDHE listed hot-spot. There is a chance that some of ACC’s athletes might not make it on campus because of COVID-19.
Last year, Desmarteau had around 40 international players on his Red Devil soccer team. When the pandemic broke out in March, some players decided to stay on campus, others ventured to different states and a few fled to their native countries.
Many of Desmarteau’s incoming freshmen are finding it hard to obtain their student visas in order to make their way to ACC.
“A couple of my Brazilian guys are saying they are not getting into the Embassy, and they won’t be open until the middle of July,” Desmarteau said. “So, anyone that needs to get their visa going forward, probably is not going to get into the fall, but country by country is different.”
Also, on June 22 President Donald Trump issued a Presidential Proclamation that would not allow individuals into the U.S. if they had been present in the United Kingdom, Schengen countries, Iran, China or Brazil.
Desmarteau planned for the possibility of athletes not being able to arrive for the fall season.
