The National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA), at Monday afternoon’s Board of Regents vote in Charlotte, North Carolina, made the unprecedented move, due to COVID-19 conditions, to move all “close-contact” fall sports to the 2021 Spring semester, including football, men’s and women’s soccer, and court volleyball, and shuffling the calendar for men’s and women’s basketball, pushing the start of the season to late January, much later than the usual November 1st start-up date, while moving the region, district, and national championship tournament games from March to April.
With a reaction to the news is North Central Missouri College men’s basketball coach Jeremy Esry:
Esry has advanced the Pirates to back-to-back D-2 national tournaments in Danville, Illinois, also March’s latest planned trip was cancelled due to the evolving coronavirus pandemic, and its catastrophic effects on the sports world.
In addition to basketball, wrestling and the combined sport of swimming and diving will get the same movement for winter sports dates.
The NCMC sports of softball, baseball, and men’s and women’s golf will see little impact due to COVID-19, with only minor adjustments to their spring schedules noted by the NJCAA.
