Lehigh's Josh Luchini, other WPIAL grads react to Patriot League canceling fall sports

Josh Luchini was looking forward to his junior soccer season at Lehigh this fall and was dead set on building on what he accomplished during his sophomore season.

The former North Allegheny Tiger was named the 2019 Patriot League Offensive Player of the Year after he scored 11 goals and recorded two assists while leading the Mountain Hawks to a Patriot League championship and an NCAA tournament appearance.

Luchini and his teammates won’t get that opportunity as Patriot League officials decided Monday to cancel the fall sports season. They also haven’t decided if they will move fall sports to the spring. But, Luchini is still holding out hope.

“A couple of us went on Twitter and saw a tweet about how it got canceled, so obviously some of us were a little upset about that,” Luchini said. “Then our coaches kind of told us to be happy about it because the season didn’t get canceled midway through the fall and we lose a season of eligibility. At least with this situation we have the chance of playing in the spring with a full season, which would be great.”

The Patriot League is just the second Division I conference to completely cancel its fall sports season, following the Ivy League a week ago. The league cited a desire to keep players, coaches and staff safe during a difficult time.

“The collegiate athletics experience at all Patriot League institutions is valuable to fulfilling our educational and developmental missions, and the League recognizes that any degree of non-competition this fall is deeply disappointing to our student-athletes, coaches, and fans,” the Patriot League said in a statement on Monday. “However, the health and safety of our campuses and communities must be our highest priority.”

While most teams in the Patriot League lose out on their fall season, the conference decided that it would still give Army and Navy the opportunity to engage in competitive opportunities.

While the Cadets and Midshipmen will have the opportunity to play this fall, most Patriot League student-athletes will not. Fox Chapel grad Conner Romango has been working towards his senior year on the gridiron since arriving at Bucknell three years ago.

As a junior last season, the 5-foot-11 safety had a breakout year, starting all 11 games at strong safety while recording 65 total tackles, intercepting a team-high two passes and deflecting five passes for the Bison.

“In general, we had a pretty good group of guys that were seniors who had solid seasons last year,” Romango said. “We were looking to take on bigger roles and being leaders on the team, and I think that was in the back of all of our minds I’d say.”

With his future undecided, Romango said he has no choice but to stay ready and continue to work out in the hopes of a season in the spring.

“I think we are definitely having to stay ready no matter what,” Romango said. “We could get the call in November or October saying we are going to have a season and we definitely wouldn’t want to be caught unprepared for that. So, we are definitely preparing like there is going to be a season.”

While Luchini, like Romango, wants to stay ready for a possible spring season, he also sees the downtime this fall as an opportunity for recovery as well.

“Most athletes in college play year round and they’ve been playing since freshman year of college, if not before that,” Luchini said. “So, (the downtime) gives the body a chance to rest and hopefully next year we’ll be fully rested.”