The COVID-19 pandemic is beginning to affect the landscape of collegiate athletics at a national level. Some Division I conferences have made the decision to play conference-only schedules across many sports. The American Rivers Conference has not made any decisions regarding what sports may look like this upcoming academic year, but individual schools are implementing their own procedures to ensure health and safety.

At Central College, coaches are not currently allowed to go out on the road to recruit prospective student-athletes. Instead, recruiting is being done by campus visits, video chats and phone calls. Men’s Basketball head coach Craig Douma says that this decision is to ensure that the student-athletes can continue to enjoy the college experience to its full potential.

“Central has made a decision not to let us go out, because our focus is coming back to this campus healthy, and having the healthiest campus we can have. We know there’s going to be situations, you can’t avoid that. We’re seeing all these Division I programs are bringing their teams back, and no matter what you do, there’s going to be a few cases here and there. But we have to do whatever we can to limit that, and to be healthy and live life the right way. Because we want our fall sports to play. We’re just praying and hoping that these kids can experience that extra part. That enhances their college experience and their educational experience at Central.”

The first athletic events of the school year are a pair of women’s tennis meets on Saturday, August 29th.