BY TODD VINYARD CONTRIBUTING WRITER ach athletic season has its challenges, but the 2020-2021 season has more obstacles than usual as teams try to play on safely during a pandemic. Western Carolina University Athletic Director Alex Gray was named the Catamounts athletic director on Feb. 28. The former member of the 2001-2004 WCU Baseball team then had to join the world in dealing with a pandemic. When would it be safe to return to play? How would travel be handled? How would the department face revenue challenges from not having fans at
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On Sunday, November 22nd at 10:15 AM Let’s Band Together as God’s People to Have a Day of Prayer for the Coronavirus, the Riots & Unrest, and for Revival in the United States. 2 Chronicles 7:14
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games? Those are all questions the new WCU athletic director and his staff had to jump right in to face in 2020. While happy to see sports safely returning with cross country, golf, football and soon basketball, Gary and the WCU athletics staff know they must be careful in these uncertain times. “We’re happy to see teams and our student-athletes able to return to play, but there will be no sense of relief until the entire athletic season is over and we’ve done it safely,” Gary said. “We can’t let our guard down. We’ve got to follow protocols and do the things like washing hands, practicing social distancing and wearing a mask.” Western Carolina athletes are beginning to compete again while following strict safety guidelines. The football team began practicing in October for a season of three
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WCU quarterback, Mark Wright.
games with Liberty (Nov. 14), Eastern Kentucky (Nov. 21) and North Carolina (Dec. 5). All three games will be played on the road. “We took our time planning the football season. We wanted to see other schools and conferences playing football and what it would look like to play and travel,” Gary said. The Catamounts will have a Southern Conference football spring season of eight contests starting on Feb. 20 that includes home games in Cullowhee. WCU football coach Mark Speir said the team has dealt with safety precautions like team meetings with coaches and others on Zoom during a position team meeting. The Zoom meetings didn’t make it easy to build team chemistry and put in new systems from new coaches like defensive coordinator Andy McCollum. “We’ve talked about how things are going to be different this year,” Speir said. “They are different for all the teams and they have to deal with COVID just like we will. Just like on the football field when things go against you, you have to react and keep going. We’re fortunate to be able to play again, and I appreciate all the efforts of our Chancellor Dr. Kelli Brown and our Athletic Director Alex Gary. Alex has done a great job in the whole situation, like setting up a Zoom call for our players and parents with medical doctors from the NCAA and doctors who helped the Big 10 return to play. It was really helpful to hear that information from those people involved.” Speir and his team were able to take the field for the first time in 2020 in a tough task at undefeated Liberty. A 58-14 loss included using two quarterbacks Will Jones and Mark Wright. The Catamounts plan to play hard this fall season while giving plenty of players a chance to play. “We are going to approach it like an NFL exhibition season,” Speir said before the opening game with Liberty. “NFL teams go in wanting to win, but they also have an agenda of playing as many people as they can. Out of 109 players, we have 51 who are freshmen, so these games give us a chance to see what we have got and give players a
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Western Carolina University athletics returns to play
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