On the morning of March 12th, I held a team meeting. As captain of the rowing team, I felt it was appropriate to discuss the possibility of our season being cancelled by the threat of COVID-19. After all, the Ivy League had withdrawn from all competitions the day before.
The thought of our coaches cancelling anything was unfathomable. We practice in extreme weather at zero dark thirty most mornings.
There were mixed feelings in the back of the boathouse that morning. Some of us, including myself, felt the threat was bigger than we previously thought. Some of us thought we should just listen to advice from the CDC, wash our hands and take vitamin-C. No way would our season be cancelled, right?
What we didn’t know was that meeting in the boathouse would be our seniors’ last. Just hours later the NCAA released their statement:
“Today, NCAA President Mark Emmert and the Board of Governors canceled the Division I men’s and women’s 2020 basketball tournaments, as well as all remaining winter and spring NCAA championships.”
Despite checking my phone obsessively that day, this message was the last thing I wanted to see. I read and reread the message, trying to interpret something so unprecedented. What now? Unanswered questions flooded my thoughts and the team group chat. Our coaches called a meeting.
“This is going to be a moment in time where everybody takes a step back and is like ‘Wow, I just got that experience taken away from me, and now I remember how special it was’,” Head Coach Kimberly Cupini said. “Use it to make you stronger.”
I left the meeting in tears, as did most of my teammates. We were angry. We were scared. But most of all we were devastated. We knew what had been taken from us, and that was a historical season for SMU Rowing.
Just one week before, we beat Alabama by 12 seconds. We were receiving votes in the preseason polls for the first time ever. We had a wave of transfers that came to SMU to win. This was the year we were going to make the NCAA championships. But we didn’t get the opportunity.
The days that followed were surreal.The United States declared a state of emergency, followed by the city of Dallas. We packed up, unknowingly as to how long we would be gone. Internationals struggled with the decision to return home. My teammates packed their dorm rooms into storage units “just in case.”
My mom, a nurse, told me to pack my things and make the 25-hour drive to Vermont. Concerned with the possibility of state borders being closed soon, I scrambled to leave, as did two of my teammates from the Northeast that were coming with me.
I said goodbye to my boyfriend, packed my car and drove to Little Rock, Arkansas. Running on minimal sleep and way too much coffee, we spent the next two days driving across the country. We stopped only to eat, sleep, and fill up with gas. We drove through Oak Ridge, Tennessee, the would-have-been location of our NCAA championship. I dropped one friend off in New Jersey, one off in Connecticut, and finished the last stretch alone.
I’m writing this story from Vermont, two weeks into quarantine. Although I don’t know what the future holds, I will stay home until deemed safe. When I return back to Dallas, I will hug my friends a little tighter. Until then, zoom meetings will have to suffice. I will bring with me a newfound gratitude for my opportunities and my health.
This is the story of how my life as a student-athlete has been affected by the virus. I recognize many people have been affected on a much greater scale. My thoughts and prayers are with those at the forefront of this pandemic.
Juliet Traylor 