CACC Golf The same but different
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ou may be a lot like me in becoming very tired of nearly every article, website, news broadcast and work-related announcement beginning with: Due to COVID-19, we have had to make certain adjustments to … blah, blah, blah. Anyone who has a position of responsibility over people has had to write, rewrite and usually rewrite again new policies and procedures that are prefaced about the virus. One day, hopefully soon, we will be high-fiving, handshaking, whooping, singing, dancing and celebrating in large happy groups again. At the college athletics level, coaches, athletes and fans have been sitting on pins and needles for months wondering if it would be possible to proceed with a fall season. Some sports will have the opportunity to have some level of competition, but some will not. For those that won’t, I feel especially bad for the athletes that have dreamt about competing in their chosen sports all of their lives. Coaches, athletic directors, conference commissioners, college presidents and others have tried to conceive of ideas and schemes to make it happen. Any day of the week and nearly any hour of the day, ESPN and other sports news broadcasts offer up-to-date reports on what is happening in college football, but for college golf, fans must know someone involved in the college or dig much deeper into the sporting news to find out the plans. If you like college golf, especially at the level of Central Alabama Community College, you’re in luck. I’m going to fill you in on our plans and the schedule for this fall, at least for now: By tomorrow, things could change. Early this 2020 spring COVID-19 virus shutdown, it was reported to me that our fall season would be shortened at best. The first report for golf was that the fall season would be shortened to 60 days, beginning Sept. 1 and running through 14 Lake Martin Living
Oct. 31. That knocked out CACC’s home tournament, The Trojan Invitational, which was to be played Nov. 1-3 at Willow Point Country Club. Golf traffic at Willow Point has increased through these pandemic days tremendously. I felt it best to call Matt Sheppard, the PGA director of golf at the club, when I learned about the altered season to cancel my tournament. Not very long after that decision of the season’s parameter date announcement, the NJCAA took a left turn and altered these dates for fall again. The new dates became Sept. 7 through Nov. 5. I got excited for a minute thinking we could save the Trojan Invitational at Willow Point; however, those dates were already filled with other plans at the club. I wasn’t shocked. After all, who doesn’t want to play Willow Point? Other plans had to be made. Normally, our fall season begins on Aug. 1 and runs through Nov. 15. I don’t normally call my golf team in that early, but I do start team practice and qualifying the week of the first day of classes in mid-August. This year, until Sept. 7, I am limited to eight hours of mandatory practice. This is called offseason practice time. That is a small fraction of time that I normally would work with my team. We’re making the best of it right now. With all classes being virtual or online Dave Jennings at CACC this fall, I know that I need to get my golf team on a schedule, and in my opinion, the best time to do schoolwork is early in the morning. To assure that the boys are up and awake to do their daily online classes, I host morning wedge practice sessions on the campus track from 6:30 a.m. to 7:30 a.m. I have a great group of young men again this year; they’ve shown up for these morning practice sessions at 6:15 a.m. each day. After practice, they return to their apartments and knock out their schoolwork; and then, at 1 p.m., we’re on the practice
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