SAN BRUNO—On Thursday, August 13, the West Coast Conference (WCC) became the latest collegiate athletic conference to announce the postponement of all fall sports competitions due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The sports affected by this conference’s cancellation are men’s and women’s cross country and soccer as well as women’s volleyball.
The WCC Presidents’ Council made this decision after several weeks spent consulting with with the athletic directors at each of the 10 colleges in this conference and WCC Commissioner Gloria Neveraz.
The three Bay Area colleges that compete in the WCC are Saint’s Mary College, Santa Clara University, and the University of San Francisco (USF). In an USF athletics official press release, USF Director of Athletics Joan McDermott said:
“We are disappointed for our student-athletes, coaches, staff, and fans, and understand that today’s decision was made based on our conference-wide concern for the health of our students, campuses, and communities. Our student-athletes display incredible resilience day in and day out during this difficult time, and we are all proud of their persistence and determination. We are committed to working with health officials to enable our student-athletes to safely return to competition in accordance with all city, county, and state guidelines.”
Schools could schedule non-conference games in low risk sports, despite the WCC cancelling the fall sports season. WCC officials will continue to explore possible ways to have fall sports like soccer and cross country play their seasons in the spring of 2021. They are also on-board with NCAA fall championships happening in the spring.
The decision to cancel the fall sports season does not have any impact on the 2020-21 men’s and women’s basketball season scheduled to start in November. According to the conference’s official press release, the WCC remains determined to have a basketball season this winter. The conference will share information regarding scheduling and a time-line for return to competition at a later date.
