SPORTS/Student Section

Monday, April 4, 2022

@DailyNU_Sports

Fans pack Welsh-Ryan Arena as restrictions lift

By GABRIELA CARROLL the daily northwestern @gablcarroll

Northwestern men’s basketball played its entire 2020-21 season without fans in the building. As fans returned to WelshRyan Arena for the 2021-22 season, the Wildcats sold out three games and saw signi cantly higher student turnout.

Gone were the days of fans writing essays in the student section — NU students packed the stands and provided a legitimate fan presence to build energy amid hordes of opposing fans from schools like Illinois, Wisconsin and Indiana, according to coach Chris Collins.

On Feb. 16 at a game against Purdue, so many students wanted to a end the game that some were turned away at the door. According to Paul Kennedy, associate athletic director for strategic initiatives and communications, that was the rst time NU ever turned students away from a basketball game in the new Welsh-Ryan Arena.

“ is year is interesting, because people just want to do stu . You’ve been cooped up for a whole year and a half,” former Inside NU editor in chief and Medill junior Ben Chasen said. “ e opportunity to go out to a sporting event, that was something that we lost for a year and a half.”

NU Wildside, the organization that runs the student section, had new t-shirt, sweatshirt and sweatpants giveaways for every game, and students lined up well before half-time to redeem their vouchers and pick up the newest item.

These giveaways have long been a feature of NU athletic events, but men’s basketball didn’t see similar a endance numbers in the last pre-pandemic season. e NU student section formerly took up the end zones, but now only includes the center sections, to centralize the crowd on television and increase ticket revenue, according to Kennedy. e increased student turnout for games against big name opponents this year has the athletic department considering adding those sections back to the student section for certain games.

“The turnout, especially given the record of the team, that gives us the ammunition on the day to decide, ‘Okay, let’s plan for these four games to be sold out, and we’re going to have students and we’re going to reserve a lot,’” Kennedy said. “But it’s costly, because it is a huge loss for us.”

Masks were required for fans at NU athletic events until March 1, when NU li ed the mask mandate. However, the policy was loosely enforced, if at all, and photos

Gabe Bider/The Daily Northwestern of the crowd at Welsh-Ryan Arena show that a substantial percentage of fans did not follow the policy.

Some students on campus expressed discomfort on social media platforms like Twi er and YikYak with the lack of mask-wearing at games, speci cally a er the Jan. 18 matchup against Wisconsin. at game came just a er the end of the mandatory two-week Wildcat Wellness period, during which students were not allowed to a end classes in person or go to sporting events.

“Just to be able to put on these sporting events is something that’s just tremendous, and to see the students respond to it positively like they have… we really appreciate the student support, and I know that the student athletes do.” Vice President for Athletics and Recreation Derrick Gragg told e Daily in March.

However, the lack of masking didn’t deter many students from coming to games. With the exception of sparsely a ended contests against Nebraska and Rutgers, students lled the student section even for midweek conference games.

NU’s sports teams have always su ered from low a endance, especially when they perform poorly, which makes this basketball season a signi cant outlier. e Cats won just seven conference games, with three of those wins coming on the road.

Of the three sold out games, NU won just one, against an Indiana team down ve regulars due to internal suspensions. But, students continued to return to games with the regular season nale against Minnesota seeing a full student crowd.

“It’s a smaller group overall, and compared to your average Big Ten school, it’s a smaller percentage who quote unquote care,” said John Lacombe (Medill ’02), co-host of the West Lot Pirates podcast, which focuses on NU sports. “ e people who care really care. e people who care about Northwestern sports care at a level that matches the level that you’ll nd anywhere.”

gabrielacarroll2023@u.northwestern.edu

Club sports teams look back on the pandemic’s impact

By LUCAS KIM the daily northwestern

Over the past two years, Northwestern club sports teams have dealt with season cancellations, limited contact, masking mandates and other inconveniences caused by the pandemic.

In the 2021-22 academic year, however, many club sports team members say loosened COVID-19 restrictions have brought a sense of normalcy with more competitions against other schools and enriched connections between teammates.

Water polo player and Weinberg freshman Theo Faugeres said although health-related and logistical challenges have forced the team to adapt, they made significant progress through the reintroduction of intercollegiate tournaments.

“Up until the fall, the school wouldn’t let us play teams that weren’t fully vaccinated, so we were in a tight spot. We ended up not playing a single Big Ten team, and we reorganized our games around teams that were fully vaccinated,” said Faugeres. “This quarter, we’re back in the Big Ten and we’re finally allowed to host home tournaments.”

At NU, approximately 1,200 unique athletes participate in 38 club sports annually, according to NU Recreation data from 2015. Club sports at the University include options like ice hockey, track, field hockey and taekwondo.

The University initially halted all club sports and closed its recreational facilities for the 2019-20 academic year on March 13, 2020. Club sports resumed for limited activity the following school year though with masking and distancing protocols in place as well as no intercollegiate competition.

Medill junior and Women’s Crew Captain Andrea Hancock said not being able to practice in person for almost all of her first two years with the team was mentally and physically challenging. She said the crew team was where she made some of her closest friends, but it’s harder to build those relationships remotely.

“A big part of the sport is you’re in a boat with a bunch of other people, and so that’s really motivating to keep going because they rely on you and when you remove that aspect of it, it’s tough,” Hancock said. “We tried to do some social events over Zoom and that was really the extent of the team’s operation.”

The 2021-22 school year began with fewer restrictive protocols, though indoor masking was still required.

After a nationwide outbreak of the Omicron variant in December 2021, the University issued a mandatory Wildcat Wellness quarantine period for the first two weeks of Winter Quarter.

Weinberg freshman William Wang, who is on the club swim team, said the two-week suspension of team activities during Wildcat Wellness impacted the team’s preparation for meets.

“We host our own home meet once a year and that happens to be a month after Winter Quarter starts, so Wildcat Wellness really cut into our recovery time,” said Wang. “We could go to our own practices and book our own times at the pool, which you can do with a couple friends, but it’s not the same as going to a practice.”

The University lifted the indoor mask mandate Feb. 28 for non-classroom spaces, and there are now virtually no official restrictions on masking or distancing for both indoor and outdoor activities. Wang said these changes will help reestablish some of the intimacy and chemistry club teams enjoyed before the pandemic.

“I think in terms of practice itself, it’s fully gone back to normal,” Wang said. “Everybody comes and shows up. People still wear masks in the pool area, which is fine and that’s all completely optional, but everything is mostly back to normal, which is actually pretty crazy to say.”

Club athletes, however, are not completely satisfied with their current situations. The pandemic amplified and exacerbated many long-standing challenges to club sports, such as inadequate funding and a lack of communication with the University.

Teams at other colleges around the country, including The George Washington University and Williams College, have also reported a lack of institutional funding and access to practice space during the pandemic.

Photo courtesy of Jimmy He

Hancock said the crew team has been repeatedly forced to move its indoor practice locations and has encountered financial issues – problems that stand out in contrast to the treatment of NU’s varsity sports.

“Obviously I understand that some of the varsity athletes perform in sports that bring in revenue for the university, but it’s really tough,” Hancock said. “ There’s a lot of money that we have to rely on donors and participants for. That’s something that I wish the University could help us more with.”