W
ith only two online classes and no lacrosse to be played, Kaeli Huff has been forced to find ways to pass the time. The USC senior is used to having her life scheduled down to the minute. That’s not the case any longer.
Since the news broke that the NCAA was canceling all spring championships, Huff said she’s been working out and running around her Eastport (N.Y.) neighborhood. Her family has played board games and worked on puzzles to fill the void.
“Of course, you finish the puzzle and can’t find the last piece, and so I’m basically ready to flip over the table to find it,” Huff said.
This is the new reality for spring athletes. Huff and her Women of Troy teammates were 6-0 and ranked No. 8 in the Nike/US Lacrosse Division I Women’s Top 20. They were on a bus to Arizona to play Arizona State when they found out the season had been canceled. They turned around and went home without playing.
“You start thinking about the last game you played and how you never expected to go into that game with it being your last one,” Huff said.
“The day after, I remember in our house, we have five seniors in there, we were just crying in a room together. I think the tears have stopped, but personally, I don’t even feel like it’s hit me yet. I feel like I’m on a weird break from school.”
Huff doesn’t speak as if she’s in disbelief. She laughs at jokes and makes some of her own. Same goes for Kerrigan Miller, another USC senior facing this new reality.
“I’m not really one to dwell on the negative,” Miller said. “It’s not how I was raised. Obviously, things like this happen. You can’t foresee any of this coming about, but I’m enjoying being home.”
Miller said her mother, a true “Long Island lax mom,” might have taken the news harder than her daughter. “She loves lacrosse season,” Miller said.
But that doesn’t mean this has been easy for the standout midfielder from Bayport (N.Y.). Miller said this USC team was as talented — if not, more so — than any other team she’d ever played on.
“The team chemistry from freshmen to seniors, I’ve never been on a team where there was no concern about classes,” Miller said.
Huff echoed that sentiment, saying that freshmen always felt comfortable just walking into the senior house to hang out. That made the team truly special, she said.
The last 10 days have been something of whirlwind. Miller said she and her teammates were basically rushed out of school, mostly in an effort to travel home from the West Coast before any potential travel restrictions were put in place.
The Women of Troy have had FaceTime chats, and they have a Wednesday morning “team meeting” planned on Zoom — a video chatting app that allows for more users than FaceTime. It’s expected to include all 32 players and coach Lindsey Munday. Maybe more.
“Lacrosse is lacrosse and you love it, but for me, what I’ve taken from it, is my teammates,” Huff said. “I’m still talking to them every day. They’re still making me laugh. You cherish those relationships so much more.
“It’s sad. I miss them all.”
Now comes the big decision. Will Miller or Huff use the extra year of eligibility granted by the NCAA to play again in 2021?
Miller offered a resounding “yes,” though she’s not ready to say where she’ll suit up. She hopes to pursue a graduate degree in sports administration or sports management.
Huff, though, said she’s “right in the middle right now.”
“You always want to play,” said Huff, a business major who is considering a career in finance. “It’s such a tough decision because you have in your head, ‘This is your last year.’ That’s your mindset for the whole year. Then you start making plans for after graduation. Now, I feel like I’m just lost.”
And so the whirlwind will likely continue for Huff and others in her position, one with a wealth of options — for better or worse.
But one thing’s certain. There was no preparing (on the lacrosse field, anyway) for such a situation.
“At the time,” Miller said, “I would have never thought it would have ended our season.”