Sinclair Community College will be extending the suspension of intercollegiate athletics for the 2021-2022 sports season, with a possibility of canceling athletics altogether.
The announcement came earlier this month after athletics were canceled nearly a year ago for the 2020-2021 season.
The Sinclair College Board of Trustees extended the suspension originally at the outset of the COVID-19 outbreak, and though vaccines started being distributed as far back as December, only a fourth of Ohio’s population has thus far started their vaccinations. This, in marriage with classes being predominantly virtual since last March, has forced the college to extend the suspension and seek other possibilities for assets normally allocated for sports.
“As a result of the COVID-19 global pandemic, the nation and world are dealing with enormous changes affecting employment and education, perhaps the most significant changes since the industrial revolution,” said Cathy Peterson, Chief of Public Information for Sinclair. “It is highly likely that many things we do will need to be adjusted as the education and employment landscapes change due to the pandemic. The analysis will consider all these factors.”
The continued suspension and shift in direction in the wake of the global pandemic are in turn forcing Sinclair to decide the college’s future of sports as a whole, too.
“The Board of Trustees authorized a full and thorough analysis to review the strategic value to the community of Sinclair intercollegiate athletics,” said Peterson, explaining the change of direction. “And the resources needed to continue Sinclair’s athletic programs in the future. The analysis will review the balance of costs and benefits of maintaining an intercollegiate athletic program, with the time and resources needed to strategically increase the scale of apprenticeships, health care certificate training, skilled trades training, advanced manufacturing education, and supporting increased minority student success.”
Though the analysis is just beginning and nothing will be set in stone until February 2022, the college has already started outlining future initiatives.
Of the initiatives, 10 were laid out to better pinpoint where the college would be working towards, with each assigned a score of importance. They are, in descending order of importance:
- Expanded skilled trades training
- Better persuade students to study in fields with good local jobs
- Increase student field experiences
- Close the minority student success gap
- Increase student “life-coaching”
- Expand innovative instructional approaches
- Develop even more seamless partnerships
- Engage more Sinclair alumni
- Refresh the regional learning center strategy
- Encourage and support student entrepreneurs
Jeff Price, the college’s Athletic Director, will continue to maintain full-time employment as well as the head coaches, whose job it will be to support student-athletes and “participate in the ongoing analysis of Athletics at Sinclair.” Assistant coaches were not retained for the 2020-2021 season and will not be retained for the foreseeable future.
18 of the 88 will continue their education at Sinclair, with all 88 being student-athletes being offered a free waiver to study and total tuition in place of participation in intercollegiate athletics. Those students’ waivers will extend for another academic year, if needed, to complete an associate degree at Sinclair.
Richard Foltz
Associate Editor