By DACODA MCDOWELL-WAHPEKECHE, Sports Editor
Northwestern’s spring football season has been canceled.
The football team’s season was set to start Saturday.
The university’s athletic department announced in December 2020 that the team’s season included four events in the spring. Now, the online schedule shows only one event, which is against Fort Hays State University.
Matt Walter, Northwestern’s head football coach, said there won’t be a season.
“We’re the only sport in the conference that isn’t having a championship series,” Walter said. “It may not be the right time because the season won’t be counted towards a conference championship.”
The Rangers were set to play the Missouri Southern State University Lions, the New Mexico Highlands University Cowboys and the Fort Hays State University Tigers.
Northwestern is a member of the Great American Conference, and all the opposing teams are members of other conferences. Northwestern wouldn’t normally play these teams.
As of press time, none of the athletic departments at those universities had news articles on their websites about playing games against Northwestern.
The Rangers were set to start their season in Alva on Feb. 27 against Missouri Southern. The Rangers would have gone to Joplin, Missouri, on March 11 to play the Lions again.
Missouri Southern, a member of the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association, was without a head coach at the time Northwestern announced its season.
“There are several factors that were involved in that with not playing that game that I really don’t want to get into,” Walter said. “It’s not going to be feasible on either side to play that game.”
Northwestern is set to play the Tigers of Fort Hays State, another member of the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association, on March 6.
Walter said the contest will not be a game, but instead will be a joint practice.
“We are going to do what’s called a joint practice with Fort Hays on March 6,” Walter said. “Hopefully, maybe, we can get something else in if we can.
We had a game scheduled against Fort Hays, so we are going to do that.
Now, with that being said, its structure will be changed. … We’ll do things that will make us better as a program against an opponent that we won’t play.”
Northwestern would have gone to Las Vegas, New Mexico, to play the New Mexico Highlands University Cowboys on March 27.
The university is a member of the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference.
“We were going to play New Mexico, had that set up, but unfortunately due to some of the restrictions that they have, they are just not going to be able to play that game,” Walter said. “There are so many factors, not just COVID, but that’s definitely one of them.”
New Mexico Department of Health officials said in an article discussing coronavirus safety protocols that student athletes at New Mexico colleges have to test for the coronavirus with a PCR test at least three times each week.
Officials said visiting athletes must provide negative coronavirus PCR test results. They did not say how to turn in completed PCR tests.
Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference officials officals, in an August 2020 news article, said their member institutions can play conference and non-conference games in the spring semester.
As of press time, The Great American Conference – the athletic conference Northwestern is a member of – did not have a news article discussing spring football posted on its website.
But Great American Conference member institutions Southern Nazarene University and East Central University have games scheduled for the spring.
“These other schools might be playing other teams, but we were never, ever considering playing a conference opponent,” Walter said. “That was never going to be something I wanted to do. I already play those guys enough. I already know them.”
TEAM MEMBERS DISAPPOINTED AT LOSS OF SEASON
Northwestern football won’t compete until fall 2021. Freshman linebacker Riley Myers said he is disheartened that he won’t be able to play this spring.
“It’s kind of disappointing because we’ve been practicing for a while,” Myers said. “In the fall, we started practicing and now in the spring, too.
We’re just getting better for the fall. Those games definitely would have helped us get better.”
Although Northwestern is not playing this spring, Myers said the additional practice time the team will have is beneficial.
“It would have been weird since it was in the spring,” Myers said. “None of us have ever played football in the spring.”
Jacob Comp, a senior mass communication student, ended his playing career because of the season’s cancellation.
“I knew coming into the spring semester that I was going be done at some point with football,” Comp said. “When they announced that we were going to have those four games early on, I knew that I wanted to play in those four games.
“As the semester progressed and we got closer and closer to playing these games, it became clearer that we weren’t going to be playing. So, I just decided to be done with football because of the fact that I’m graduating.”
Comp said he doesn’t see a reason to finish the semester with the team because he will graduate soon.
“I’m positive there are other people in the same position as me,” Comp said. “There are other people who aren’t necessarily seniors around the country dealing with this. … As an athlete, you’re just in there thinking, ‘When is this going to end? When am I going to be able to play again?’”
Several of the Great American Conference’s member institutions have not announced plans to play during the spring.
“No one has ever dealt with this before,” Walter said. “Who knows what the best thing to do is? I know the best thing for me is to make sure no one gets hurt. … It is unfortunate that we didn’t get to play games, but at the same time, we’re not looking at it that way. We’re looking at the positives of it and continue to battle.”
Northwestern’s football team will play its first game of the 2021 season on Sept. 4 against Southern Arkansas University at Ranger Field.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Jacob Comp is a student reporter for the Northwestern News. He did not contribute to or review this story in any way prior to publication.