SAN ANGELO, Texas — If this year was a baseball pitch, it would be a curve ball, and if it were a football play, it would be a flea flicker.
Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, everything has been catching West Texas off guard. On July 24, the Lone Star Conference announced all fall sports will be delayed.
The LSC is the conference Angelo State University competes in every year for football and volleyball, and means the Rams and Rambelles will have to wait before they can hit the court and field.
"We as athletic directors had put forward to the president's council to look at delaying the start of the fall sports practices and contest," ASU Athletic Director James Reid said. "We felt like that July was too soon to make a decision regarding things that were occurring a month or so down the road."
The delay means fall practices would start no later than Aug. 24, and the start date for games would be the week of Sept. 21. Reid said this was the best choice moving forward.
"The decision that we made to delay was better than what other people had done, which was to cancel," Reid said. "So our coaches and our athletes want to play so if starting late means we get to play versus not playing, then they're all for it."
Reid and the entire ASU administration know how much sports means to the community as well as the student body.
"Our campus is trying to do is provide as normal of an experience for our students and Angelo State University as possible," Reid said. "Part of that normalcy does involve athletics."
Reid and his team will continue to monitor COVID-19, and each decision is made day-to-day. Until then, Reid is like the rest of us - just waiting for sports to return.