DELAWARE, Ohio — As the world watches and waits for more fall sports news, Ohio Wesleyan University got some this week — but it means that the doors to Selby Stadium will stay closed for the rest of the year.
“We considered everything under the sun, fifteen weeks of scenario planning, you talk about just about everything that could possibly be involved,” said OWU Athletic Director Doug Zipp.
Zipp says that while there were several factors that went into the North Coast Athletic Conference’s decision to cancel sports for the rest of 2020, there was a main concern.
“The number one priority here is to keep our athletes safe and we arrived at the decision knowing we just weren’t able to do that.”
The Division III conference consists of 10 different schools, seven of which are in Ohio —including Kenyon College, Dennison and OWU. Zipp says every athletic director was on board, making this a challenging, but unanimous decision.
“We’re all going through this and it’s not an easy conversation and it’s going to take us days and weeks to process this.”
Sean Kessel was recruited to play football at OWU — something he won’t get to do this year.
“I think I’m a little relieved just to get the news because for a couple months, we had just been living on the edge of what’s going to happen, what’s not going to happen, how’s the season going to go,” said Kessel.
Though Kessel is disappointed, he understands the decision.
“I think this is the safest approach they could do to limit the spread and I agree with them.”
And while the student athletes have been understanding, this is the second heartbreaking decision Zipp says he’s had to make in a matter of months.
“Just 17 weeks ago we were standing here in March making the same decision about last spring season and having to do this and everything we had to go through. All of those emotions came right back to us.”
But, he says Division III is working closely with the NCAA for the possibility to compete in the spring.
“These are wonderful challenges we are looking forward to if we can get all of our teams — fall, winter, and spring —competing in February, March, April, and May.”
