PSNK athletes cope with latest changes caused by coronavirus

Penn State New Kensington athletic director Megan Bratkovich said she wasn’t surprised when the executive committee of the Penn State University Athletic Conference voted unanimously Dec. 18 to cancel all sports for the 2020-21 fall and winter seasons.

“Given the current state of the pandemic, I think we all knew this was a possibility, especially considering that 15 NCAA Division III conferences with institutions like ours had made similar decisions recently,” Bratkovich said.

“The health and safety of our student-athletes, coaches, staff and their families is a top priority.”

The sports connected to the latest decision are men’s and women’s basketball, men’s and women’s soccer, and volleyball. Other area Penn State campuses affected include Fayette, Greater Allegheny and Beaver.

Programs in the fall, Bratkovich said, conducted small-group practices in groups of 10 or fewer.

“There was a lot of planning that went into making those small groups work while following all health and safety protocols that were implemented by the campuses,” she said.

The PSUAC initially acted in late July to postpone all fall sports, including golf and cross country, to the spring semester.

That decision came on the heels of the cancellation of the spring baseball and softball seasons in March after a couple of weeks of competition.

Then in late September, the league decided to delay the start of the men’s and women’s basketball seasons to January at the earliest.

“We were still practicing social distancing in the weight room and on the court, and we weren’t yet into full-contact practices,” PSNK men’s basketball coach Brant Allen Mack said of his team’s preparation for what he had hoped was a season starting next month.

“We knew there were concerns, and cases were rising. Obviously, the guys wanted to compete and be able to have a season, so there is a little bit of disappointment. But I think everyone understands that the league and the universities made the decision in the best interest of everyone’s health and safety.”

In August, the United States Collegiate Athletic Association board voted to not count seasons of competition for 2020-21 for student-athletes because of covid-19 disruptions, giving them flexibility with eligibility.

Dozens of PSNK athletes, including numerous alumni from Alle-Kiski Valley high schools, have been affected by the postponements and cancellations.

Auveonna Perkins, a 2019 Valley graduate, was hit especially hard.

She already knew the feeling of a season shut down as she was in Florida with her softball teammates, including Calle Zmenkowski (Fox Chapel), Lauren Torgent (Highlands) and Jessica Eshenbaugh (Freeport), when the 2020 spring schedule was canceled after four games.

Originally set to join just the PSNK women’s basketball team, Perkins later challenged herself by also joining the volleyball and softball squads.

“I developed a ‘Why not?’ mentality for the three sports,” Perkins said.

Perkins said the last nine months have been ‘very strange.’

She was taking part in workouts for both basketball and volleyball when the latest news came down.

Plans still were in the works to incorporate all of the affected sports into a format for the spring semester.

“I know that when I reached out to (Bratkovich), who also worked with the volleyball team, we talked about moments, potentially, when I could’ve have had a basketball game in the morning and a volleyball match in the afternoon, or vice versa,” Perkins said.

“Then I could’ve had softball mixed in, too. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to that stage.”

Bratkovich said the focus at PSNK and throughout the PSUAC is to still find ways to give the winter and fall sports athletes opportunities with small-group practices or even scrimmages with other campuses if conditions improve.

The focus also is on the spring sports and the hope those seasons can begin on time and progress safely with established protocols in place. Both baseball and softball are slated to start playing games in early March.

The conference office, in conjunction with the PSUAC executive committee and council of athletic directors, plans to meet again in late January to determine the intercollegiate opportunities for baseball, cross country, golf and softball. Three golfers were rostered to the PSNK co-ed team for the fall season, including Knoch graduate Michael Kohl.

“We want to give our spring student-athletes a great experience, and I am looking forward to seeing some great things from those teams,” Bratkovich said.

“Although we haven’t had to worry about shifts in schedules for baseball and softball, there will be some additional protocols such as testing that we are going to need to work out logistically.”

Bratkovich said the PSNK athletic community has been resilient through all of the changes.

“I’ve been proud of how our student-athletes and coaches have handled the situation,” she said. “Of course, there is disappointment and sadness, but they have put this time to good use. They have worked hard this fall, and I’m certain they will continue to do so. The student-athletes even banded together this past semester to put on our first-ever Thanksgiving food drive and collected over 1,000 items, I was very proud to see them come together like that.”