Local collegiate athletes see seasons shortened

Former Niwot High School baseball player Caleb Martinez was shocked when he learned his sophomore season at Northwest Nazarene University in Idaho would be canceled due to the coronavirus. "It was just unreal," he said.

Martinez pitched for Niwot High from 2017-18 and pitched for the Boulder Collegians this past summer, and he was looking to make an impression after redshirting his freshman season. The coronavirus caught him and his teammates off guard.

"On Monday, we were getting ready for the game at the end of the week and on Thursday we were told everything has been cancelled and we have to get ready to go home," Martinez said. "It was really crazy how fast everything moved and I realized it was a very serious thing very quickly."

To make matters worse, Martinez and the Nighthawks were atop the Division II Great Northwest Athletic Conference with a 7-1 record. Martinez said his team was "devastated", but also found humor in naming themselves conference champions.

Fortunately for Martinez, he is only a sophomore and plans on utilizing the NCAA's recent move granting student-athletes an extra year of eligibility. But for the seniors on his team and around the country, that may not be a practical option with impending graduation, not to mention high school seniors who may be out of luck.

"We had a bunch of seniors," Martinez said. "I feel bad for them the most because their season's done and their career is over. They didn't even get a chance to have a say in it."

Martinez believes it will mostly depend on the player if they indeed use the extra year. Coaches will have decisions to make with a roster of incoming freshmen and returning seniors looking for another year.

"The coaches can't tell you 'the seniors can't come back,'" Martinez said. "But at the same time, they have all these new players coming in and they don't really know what to do about it."

Former Niwot High baseball star Skyler Messinger also saw his season cut short at the University of Kansas. The Jayhawks were 7-10 and just beginning Big 12 conference play when the news hit.

"I was obviously shocked but the way things were going, I wasn't totally surprised," Messinger said. "(I'm) obviously disappointed. I think any athlete with all the work they put in all year long for the season to come around, and when it's cut short it's obviously disappointing, but it's just something that's out of our control."

Fortunately for Messinger, he has been able to work out with his older brother and Niwot assistant baseball coach, Connor Messinger. With all the batting cages closed, the two have stayed sharp by playing catch and running local trails.

Baseball isn't the only sport suffering the consequences of the coronavirus. Stanford University track and field athlete Mary Gillett graduated from Niwot in 2018 and recently saw her sophomore campaign cancelled as well.

Gillett was the 2017 Colorado 4A Girls Athlete of the Year and opted to redshirt her freshman season at Stanford. She was three races deep into her sophomore campaign when her season came to a halt.

"It was definitely very shocking and immediately all my teammates and I were super disappointed," said Gillett, who competes in sprints and hurdles. "It's hard to describe how hard we work and everything we do basically revolves around track, especially the outdoor season, and I definitely took it really hard initially."

The Gillett family runs deep at Niwot with her younger sister Elise and younger brother Jeremy on the track and field team for 2020. Mary Gillett said she's keeping her fingers crossed their season can resume. Reconnecting with her family is a plus for Mary in the midst of a rough spring.

"(It's) nice to spend time with my family and be home with them because obviously I don't see them nearly as much anymore," Gillett said. "It's a good time to reconnect with my family and just relax a little bit."

Gillett plans on making the most of her time off by staying in shape and preparing for next season.

"I'm definitely trying to keep running," Gillett said. "It obviously looks different than the training I would normally be doing this time of year but I'd say I'm taking this time to increase my fitness and just refocus again to use this time to keep getting better."

Training at home as a high jumper is a little more difficult for University of Kansas sophomore Rylee Anderson. The Silver Creek High School graduate said acclimating to online classes was the biggest change for her.

"Obviously my family wasn't expecting to have me home this early, but I feel like the biggest adjustment is school being online," said Anderson, who was a four-time 4A high jump state champion.

Along with a shared disappointment, these student-athletes all believed the right decision was made to scrap the remaining season.

"I was pretty sad and disappointed, but I understand why they had to do it because it's obviously a big problem," Anderson said. "We've been working and practicing for this since August so it was kind of a let down, but we understand why they had to do it."