As a talented offensive lineman, Zach Suter has become accustomed to taking hard hits.
But the recent graduate of St. Joseph High School of Metuchen was unprepared for the news that he and many other student-athletes entering or returning to the College of New Jersey recently learned.
While students may attend college classes in person during the fall semester, they will not be allowed to practice high-contact sports as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, according to a community mission school president, Kathryn A. Foster, issued on Friday afternoon.
Foster’s letter details several restrictions, including cancellation of any “high human density, high in-person contact activity.”
The canceled college and intramural sports include soccer, football, field hockey, basketball, wrestling, and rugby, according to Foster’s letter.
Other NCAA Division III schools that canceled fall sports earlier this week include Bowdoin, Pratt Institute (NY), and UMass-Boston. Morehouse College, a Division II school in Atlanta, also canceled its fall sports season.
An incoming freshman at TCNJ, Suter said he was “obviously disappointed” to miss the soccer season, but appreciates the university’s efforts to ensure the well-being of all students.
“I am grateful that they are attentive to our safety because you never know what can happen,” said Suter. “All this summer and the quarantine was dedicated to me to train and improve and keep fit. I have to take it with a grain of salt. They are looking for the best for us.”
TCNJ junior Dave Jachera learned of the cancellation by email on Friday morning.
“I still don’t know how to feel about it,” said Jachera, a Pequannock marketing specialist who comes from a torn right ACL that he suffered in a game last November.
“I can’t put my thoughts together. I still haven’t processed it yet. Obviously I’m disappointed … You could see that the intensity in the weight room was different (before the campus closed for spring break)” Our Attitudes were different towards the season. We were all very excited. “
New Seneca high school graduate Malin Jasinski had used the impending soccer season as a distraction to lose his senior year with the baseball program.
“Spring was my prep time,” said the three-sports star of his half-full glass approach. “The last two months have been difficult to lift and condition, and mentally with the playbook, talking to coaches every week, Zoom meetings, reviewing plays, (coaches) keeping us informed about the season. Now that he’s gone, he gives me back. I was preparing for this moment and now it’s gone. “
Jasinski is still committed to TCNJ, but it would be a difficult pill to swallow if it were the only program at the New Jersey Athletic Conference to cancel his campaign.
“My hope is that (if) TCNJ and the board see that none of the NJACs are canceling they can undo their final statement,” he said.
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TCNJ also offers cross country and tennis equipment in the fall. Other sports, such as swimming and diving, track and field, baseball, and women’s lacrosse, were not specifically mentioned.
All coaches and trainers will be able to organize trainings and other individual physical activities.
“We know how important activities beyond the classroom are to the TCNJ educational experience and how central any particular activity can be to student retention and success,” Foster wrote in his letter.
“Student activities liven up the campus and bring great joy to community members and visitors. Unfortunately, but necessarily, and in alignment with our logic and actions in instruction, residential education, and other operations, I have decided that for reasons For health and safety, we will restrict the menu of in-person student activities this fall to low human density and low in-person contact or proximity activities only. “
The college’s fall schedule has also been affected. Students will return to campus for in-person classes until Thanksgiving, after which TCNJ will switch to online instruction.
Foster wrote that he understands how unfortunate and deeply disappointing the news on Friday is for athletes, coaches and supporters looking forward to a fall season.
“I also look forward to it,” he wrote. “However, the science at COVID-19 finds that high-contact or close-in-person activities are most likely to spread the virus rapidly and widely, a circumstance that at TCNJ could mean campus closure.”
“We are looking to return to these activities as soon as it is safe to do so. If all goes well in the fall, we will be able to allow for some performance and preparation for winter sports.”
Zach Miller contributed to this report.
