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.

MSOE already had their Raider Return program going, giving athletics the leg up on other institutions, but the journey to game number one still was not easy.

“The implementation of COVID testing was already a part of our day-to-day operations,” said Dave Bugalski, director of sports medicine. “With every sport starting to have official practices, it added another hurdle to leap over.”

Testing not only increased, but the way each sport would operate in a standard year went out the window including the way the locker rooms were handled.

“The locker room in the sport of hockey is sacred ground. This was taken away due to social distancing polices, so every day our players had to split up into different rooms to change into their equipment,” said MSOE Hockey Head Coach Graham Johnson. “The day-to-day banter amongst teammates was changed from a room of 30 likeminded people to groups of three to five. This can change a team dynamic drastically, especially with new players on your roster.”

Practices also had to be altered, mentioned men’s basketball head coach and MSOE Athletic Director Brian Miller. “We had to align practice groups with a close eye on contract tracing. This prevented us from getting fully prepared since our top units were very limited in the time they got to practice together.”

Johnson added, “Line mates or defensive partners never practiced together for the first two months of the season. Everyone was split into smaller groups and everything we had done together was now separate. But our student-athletes still found a way to come together and get through it.”

The department also established precautions and changed the way they went about their daily business. “I think the biggest obstacle for our department was learning how to adapt,” said Hannah Trees, women’s basketball head coach.

All of our student-athletes showed a huge amount of gratefulness for the opportunity to play and the respect that they showed to each other and those around them was fantastic.”

BRIAN MILLER MSOE ATHLETIC DIRECTOR

“The student-athletes, coaches, athletic trainers and sports information director were all asked to roll with the punches and adapt to game day changes, cancellations and quarantines. In the end, our department made a very difficult situation seem easy with teamwork on all fronts.” Bugalski echoed Trees’ sentiments. “It’s amazing how people can come together when everyone wants to achieve a common goal.”

In the end, it was not about the wins or losses. It is about how the studentathletes and staff came together, learned lessons and persevered.

“All of our student-athletes showed a huge amount of gratefulness for the opportunity to play and the respect that they showed to each other and those around them was fantastic,” said Miller. Johnson agreed, saying, “The discipline our players showed every day for months, all of the testing they had to do, all of the safety precautions they had to follow and sacrifices they had to make, was simply remarkable.”

Trees put the whole thing into perspective. “At the beginning of the season we weren’t even sure if we were going to get a single game in. But the tireless work of our support staff and student-athletes provided the most opportunity I think we could have given in a COVID year. Everyone should be really proud of all the hard work and energy they put in.”