GHSA officially cancels Spring sports....

Love this line

“ There have been quite a few requests for the GHSA to allow a 5th year of eligibility to students due to this crisis. There are no plans to grant an additional year.”

Other then kids who may have skipped a grade or older then all their classmates what 17/18 year old wants to re-due their senior year instead of go off to college / life. It does suck to lose your last season but just another reason to try and play and live like it’s your last time. I had a former player who tore but ACLs so whenever she stepped back on the field she knew it could be her last.

Actual video of my senior daughter when HS soccer was official cancelled. Language warning:

I know we are going through a trying period and having to readjust to the New Normal. I think we should think of kids like this below who did things right. I know it's not soccer but we heard from the family of this kid who was all done and then at the last minute it seems the rug was pulled out from under him. I honestly think if there was a six-month analysis being done to quantify keeping or getting rid of the program, they should have been up front about it. I'm hoping he is able to land on his feet and find a new home that still has the funds to support his dream:

www.gwinnettprepsports.com/sports/bufords-4-time-state-champ-nick-stonecheck-in-a-bind-with-old-dominion-folding-wrestling/article_7478526a-b28d-5cc2-b891-f1d42249d6d0.html

Buford's 4-time state champ Nick Stonecheck in a bind with Old Dominion folding wrestling program


Buford senior Nick Stonecheck won his fourth straight state championship this season. But he is without a college scholarship because Old Dominion discontinued its wrestling program on Thursday. High school seniors nationwide have lamented the loss of events like prom and graduation ceremonies. Nick Stonecheck found out this week he lost something even bigger.
The Buford senior and 2020 Daily Post Wrestler of the Year is without a college scholarship because Old Dominion announced Thursday it will discontinue its wrestling program, effective immediately.

Stonecheck, a four-time high school state champion, signed with Old Dominion in November and committed to the Virginia school last August. The decision to cut the wrestling program, which began in the 1957-58 season, was made for financial reasons in part because of the coronavirus, but it was based on the result of a six-month study by a consultant that recommended discontinuing a varsity sport for future financial challenges and Title IX compliance for women’s sports.

The decision leaves Stonecheck without a college wrestling option barely more than a month away from his high school graduation. He expected to report in June until he got a call from the Old Dominion coach on Thursday. “I honestly thought it was an April Fool’s joke,” Stonecheck said. “The coach called me and said due to corona they had to make budget cuts. I don’t know why they picked wrestling. I feel like that’s always the first one to get cut. They’ve had success in the past (in wrestling). They’ve been around for 63 years. I’m just taking it as everything happens for a reason. Maybe that wasn’t the right spot for me.”

Buford’s Nick Stonecheck knew exactly what he wanted from his high school wrestling… Stonecheck should be a coveted recruit, a consensus top-20 wrestler in the national rankings. He went 51-2 and won the Class AAAAA state championship, his fourth in a row, at 152 pounds this season. It capped a high school career that saw him go 193-11, even more impressive because of Buford’s high-level schedule.

The issue now is wrestling programs nationwide already have their scholarship allotments tied to other wrestlers. Plenty of colleges will want Stonecheck, but finding scholarship money at this point is a long shot. Whatever he gets from a grant likely won’t be close to what he had at Old Dominion, Buford head coach Tom Beuglas said. Beuglas said Stonecheck’s deal at Old Dominion was 95 percent, almost a full scholarship.

“I feel bad for him,” Beuglas said. “I’m going through (recruiting) with my son now. He’s a junior. It’s stressful. The NCAA shut down until what, May 30, right now. You can’t take visits. Everything’s kind of on hold. I can’t imagine signing, when all that weight is off your shoulders, and now it’s thrown back on you. They were supposed to report in June. Now two months before that, you don’t know where you’re going. The other thing is nobody has scholarship money now because it’s so late.”

Beuglas has reached out to various college coaches regarding Stonecheck’s availability. Stonecheck said he has talked to Chattanooga, Appalachian State and the U.S. Naval Academy since the news broke of Old Dominion’s shutdown. His goal is still to wrestle at the NCAA Division I level, though the path there just got tougher. “I’ve had this dream since I was 5 years old,” he said. “Just because they cut this wrestling program, that’s not stopping me from going D-I.” Old Dominion’s decision affects 32 wrestlers currently in the program, the school said. It also impacted an 11-person signing class that included Stonecheck.

The Buford standout said he felt bad for all the Old Dominion wrestlers, pointing specifically to one current senior, Sa’Derian Perry. Perry wrestled at Eastern Michigan initially, but that university shut down its wrestling program in 2018, forcing Perry to find another school, Old Dominion. Now the situation happened to Perry again. It struck Stonecheck before he even made it to college. “Everything happens for a reason,” Stonecheck said. “No matter what, there’s always a plan behind it. Even if it’s not good in the moment, I may see farther down the road that maybe (Old Dominion) wasn’t the right place for me. It’s a little frustrating. It really is. But I feel like I can use that to fuel myself.”

This sad story hits on an even bigger picture and goes along with what I've been saying about getting back to "work" sooner rather than later.

Picture this scenario: college football shuts down in the fall. (I don't think for one minute it will. I think by then it will be business as usual). At the vast majority of schools, football pays for all the smaller non-revenue sports. There are roughly 65 schools in the Power 5 conferences. Even now, roughly only 35 of those schools have profitable athletic departments!!! If those schools aren't playing this then here is the domino affect:

1. They don't make their TV revenue nor gate receipts revenue.
2. The small schools like Kennesaw State, App State, Citadel, etc. who rely on the money they get by going to play the big schools like UGA and Bama in order to fund their athletics programs, now don't get that money.
3. Power 5 schools will have to start eliminating their other non-revenue teams like soccer, swimming, golf, etc.
4. Many Division 2/3 schools will have to shut down all sports.
5. Thousands of eateries, stores, liquor stores, bars in campus towns that rely on 200,000 people flocking in for the weekend football game will either layoff workers or go out of business.
6. The local government revenue raised in college town like UGA that rely on sales tax from the 200,000 people flocking to be in town will cease.

See where this going?

Very sad story about that young man.

Adding College football + Title IX = reduced men’s wrestling, swimming, gymnastics, golf, tennis, lacrosse programs. It’s the current math of college sports. It’s been this way for a long time now. And I say this as a former D1 Power 5 men’s non-revenue sport athlete. (And that’s what we were called by the AD too: a non-revenue athlete.)