Lane Community College’s athletics stopped mid-season and it is unclear when they will start again.
Greg Sheley has coached the Women’s Basketball team for two decades and currently serves as LCC’s Athletic Director. His team was 12-4 — second in the Southern Conference — but due to COVID-19, the North Western Athletic Conference had canceled the remainder of the 2020 season mid-playoffs.
LCC was the first team to remove themselves from the tournament in the first week of March. At the time the NCAA had yet to cancel the season and NWAC playoff games were still scheduled.
“Ultimately, I think that the decisions were sound,” Sheley said. “Within about 48 hours of our decision, everybody else was shut down as well.”
The season was postponed for as long as possible but the remainder has now officially been canceled. No champion was crowned for the 2020 season; the brackets will stay unfinished.
For some sophomore student-athletes, this meant they would not get the chance to be scouted or approached by an NCAA team in the NWAC finals. Several athletes have accepted an offer to play for a third year at LCC for a chance to finish their community college careers.
Sheley says they are working on designing a healthy environment for the student-athletes that follow the current Washington and Oregon health guidelines. According to him, most two-year colleges are likely to propose a condensed season.
“For the fall it would probably start later and end earlier,” Sheley said. He also expects the athletes will have to sign a waiver that outlines the health risks of the coronavirus.
Representatives of two-year colleges are working on the proposal and will try to have it approved by the state and county level as soon as possible. If they succeed, each individual college will need final approval from their respective school’s administration.
