Written by: Kristen Fleury, women’s softball head coach

With the sudden cancelation of the 2020 spring season, the Blue Hawk softball team finished their 2020 campaign with an 11-5 record. The Blue Hawks were in Tucson, Arizona on their spring trip when the season was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Blue Hawks played six games in Arizona going 6-0 and finished the season on a high note. Fortunately for the Blue Hawks, there were no seniors on the 2020 roster, meaning the program will return a talented young group next season.  

The NAIA released the following official statement, allowing all spring student-athletes to return next year without losing any eligibility for their short competition participation this year: “In an effort to provide relief, no spring sport student-athlete will be charged a season of competition. Any spring sport student-athlete who was enrolled full-time in 2020 will be awarded two additional semester terms of attendance or the equivalent.”  

With everything going on in our world today regarding COVID-19, it was a sad day for us when we learned our 2020 season was canceled. We were fortunate to be together with many of our family members around supporting us. Though our season was cut short, being in Arizona at the time during our spring trip, a time for our team to grow and get better, I feel we did just that. We were blessed with the opportunity to play six games, six more than many other teams in the country. Our athletes really lived in the moment and took advantage of the opportunities we had on the field together, even with the thought of ‘this could be our last game.’  

We have a great young group of student athletes who showed great strides throughout our short season and we are excited for the future with them. The future is bright for our program and we will continue to grow and get better, and we look forward to coming back even stronger next year.