West Coast Conference Postpones Fall Sports Competition Due To COVID
SAN BRUNO (CBS SF) -- Officials with the West Coast Conference announced Thursday that all fall sports competition would be postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
"With the health and safety of student-athletes and everyone connected with the West Coast Conference guiding all discussions, the WCC has postponed all conference fall competition," read the announcement posted on WCC Sports website.
The cancellation will affect athletes in fall sports at four Bay Area WCC colleges: the University of San Francisco, Saint Mary's College, University of the Pacific and Santa Clara University.
The statement said that the decision was made by the WCC Presidents' Council after discussions and consultations over the past several weeks with the 10 respective WCC school athletic directors and Commissioner Gloria Nevarez.
"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," said USF Director of Athletics, Joan McDermott in the issued statement. "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."
The statement said that the West Coast Conference "remains fully committed and continues to work closely with campus leadership on plans to ensure a safe environment to conduct the 2020-21 WCC men's and women's basketball seasons in the winter." The WCC also plans to explore various models for conducting WCC competition in the fall sports of men's and women's cross country, men's and women's soccer and women's volleyball in the spring of 2021.
The announcement comes after the Big-10 and Pac-12 both announced Tuesday that they would postpone all fall sports competitions.
WCC officials also said they strongly support efforts to encourage the National Collegiate Athletic Association to conduct fall NCAA championships in the spring. The postponement of WCC fall sports seasons and championships does not preclude member institutions from scheduling non-conference competitions in low risk sports in the fall.
