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RAIDERS WRAP-UP
TESTING THE LIMITS
A common goal Guiding a team through a normal season is not without its challenges. Between scheduling, practicing, working around student-athletes’ academic obligations and actually playing the games, there is a lot that goes into making a full slate of contests operate like a well-oiled machine. This year has been anything but normal. With the traditional fall season having been canceled due to COVID-19, the race was on to give each and every studentathlete the best experience possible while making the necessary changes to ensure everyone stayed as safe as possible. So how did the Raiders pull off their basketball and hockey season this past January and February? MSOE Athletics staff created a new normal. The process of actually getting the seasons started began when the NCAA announced their guidelines on proper social distancing and testing cadences. Every sport was given a classification which determined the procedures that must be followed in order to play competitively. The decision whether to participate in winter sports was then made by the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference (NACC), which gave the go-ahead on Dec. 11, 2020. With sports now back on the table, each school had to work within the confines of their own policies, as well as the regulations at the local and state levels.
