The Arizona State Swimming and Diving program has opted to redshirt its entire roster, for both men’s and women’s programs, for the 2020-2021 season. In essence, this cancels the team’s competitive season.
Editor’s Note: A “red shirt” in NCAA parlance essentially means staying out of season and extending a college career for a year. With a few exceptions, student athletes in Division I may use this rule once in their college career. NCAA student athletes earn 4 seasons of eligibility in any sport, and red jersey seasons do not count toward that eligibility.
They are the first swimming and diving program to herald a move as drastic as an independent drive for a full institutional suspension of competition amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Most cancellation announcements have been made by schools or conferences over a longer period.
They are also the first show at a Power 5 conference (Big 12, Big Ten, Pac-12, ACC, SEC) that has announced that it will miss any part of the 2020-2021 NCAA swimming and diving season. SwimSwam couldn’t find any other shows at a Power 5 conference in any sport that has canceled the 2020-2021 season yet.
“In March, (Vice President of College Athletics) Ray Anderson challenged all Sun Devil head coaches to find ways to strengthen our programs after the COVID-19 crisis,” says head coach Bob Bowman, who was coach. of the 2016 US Men’s Olympic Team. “This decision clearly achieves that goal. It promotes the health and safety of our student athletes, improves their educational opportunities, and gives them time to rebuild and refocus on performance at the highest levels of the NCAA competition. “
The program expects the entire list to return for the 2021-2022 season, in addition to new freshmen. The school says it can achieve this plan within existing scholarship limits.
The announcement will primarily affect swimmers; The school was not expecting divers on its roster for 2020-2021, and its former coach, Mark Bradshaw, dropped out of the program late last season and said he believes the school will reduce the diving program. The school denied it.
A handful of Arizona state swimmers already sat down to prepare for the Olympics last season, including two-time NCAA Championship scorer Grant House. House’s absence was technically a “resignation,” and the first incoming student Jarod Arroyo technically ‘postponed’ his career. Given the unique circumstances, including the postponement of the Olympic Games, there is a possibility that the NCAA will grant freedom to waive the “5 years to complete 4 seasons of eligibility” rules in these specific cases.
Arizona has been one of the most affected states in the growth of new positive tests for coronavirus cases in the United States. On May 27, the state’s 7-day average of current cases was 338, a minimum for Arizona, which escaped relatively unscathed from the early days of the pandemic. By July 6, that average had increased to more than 3,800 new positive tests per day. However, that number has decreased in the past 3 weeks, with around 2,600 new cases daily for the past week after the state withdrew some of its reopening guidelines.
In total, the state has recorded 162,014 positive tests for coronavirus and 3,307 deaths. Deaths attributed to COVID-19 have also increased in July.
Two weeks ago, the State of Arizona submitted tentative plans for the fall semester, which included a combination of classroom and online courses. The exact logistics for each class will be decided class by class.
The Pac-12 Conference, of which the State of Arizona is a part, has moved soccer, volleyball, and soccer into an exclusive plan for the conference in the fall of 2020. No plans have been announced for sports for winter like swimming and diving.
Arizona State’s women finished fifth in last year’s Pac-12 Championship, while the men finished fourth. The 2020 NCAA Championship meeting was canceled, but in 2019 the women of the state of Arizona ranked 20th and the men ranked 21st in the NCAA Championship.
Competitively, the strength of the State of Arizona is in its growing senior class. This move will delay its expiration of the program by one season.
The full Arizona state press release is below
After a shortened season that included the cancellation of the 2020 NCAA Championships and with the two-semester season just a few months away, Arizona State University’s head coach of swimming and diving Bob Bowman announced, After consulting with the team and parents, each member of the 2020-21 team will turn red and begin to focus on the 2021-22 season and Olympic aspirations.
All parties involved agree that this plan will allow maximum flexibility and confidence for student athletes and their families regarding their location and practice situation due to COVID-19. All members of the Sun Devil swimming and diving programs will come out in red shirts and only train in 2020-21, with the expectation that the entire list will return in 2021-22.
“In March, (Vice President of College Athletics) Ray Anderson challenged all Sun Devil head coaches to find ways to strengthen our programs after the COVID-19 crisis,” says Bowman, who was the coach of the Olympic team at US men in 2016. “This decision clearly achieves that goal. It promotes the health and safety of our student athletes, improves their educational opportunities, and gives them time to rebuild and refocus on performance at the highest levels of the NCAA competition. “
This plan, which can be carried out within existing scholarship limits, allows student athletes to enroll in courses as full-time students on all learning platforms and will allow most to earn graduate degrees in a five-year window .
“Many of our student athletes will now have the opportunity to earn a graduate degree during their additional year on campus,” adds Bowman, who has trained nine individual Pac-12 champions in his five years. “This is a great benefit that we are excited to offer to a great team that has great academic goals.”
University Associate Vice President of Athletics Ray Anderson said, “This unique approach will provide additional opportunities for these student athletes to pursue educational efforts. Our goal as a department is to provide an elite student-athlete experience and this methodology will allow an additional year on campus for these student athletes to train and achieve championship performance together, but also achieve new academic goals. “
The past four months have not allowed for adequate training, but under the new plan Bowman knows that changing goals to a more realistic timeline is advantageous for Olympic and NCAA championship level athletes.
“With renewed clarity of purpose, we can shift our focus to long-distance swimming and preparing for Olympic qualifying competitions next year,” said Bowman. “We know that this process will better prepare our team to excel at the highest levels of our sport and take our program to the next level.”
With competition events normally starting in September and ending in March, a typical swimming / diving competition program takes place over seven months. The stress of any cancellation and all team travel is now removed and budgets can be adjusted.
“We know that this is our best course of action. It gives us clarity, direction, and a good plan that our team can benefit as athletes and students, and allows families to feel comfortable seeing their Sun Devils at the NCAA 2022 Championship, which took place last year. ” added Arquero. “Our teams and our program are in excellent shape. It is the summer of 2020 and we have to consider some additional things. We are very confident in this plan and we know that it is the best for our program, our student athletes and our Athletics. A lot of thought went into it and we are excited to start working with a firm training schedule. “
Last season and the show’s future stand out when Jack Dolan is named the Pac-12 Freshman Swimmer of the Year, just the second in Sun Devil history. Emma Nordin (500 free) and Zach Poti (100 back strokes) won Pac-12 titles, and Nordin set the best time in the nation in his victory. The combined programs for 18 team records last season and Silja Kansakoski senior closed their careers by winning the athletic department’s Bill Kajikawa Award, presented annually to a man and woman in recognition of their proven academic excellence, leadership in athletic achievement, and service. in the community.
