Westfield State assistant track and field coach Marlee Berg looks on at a meet earlier this season. (WESTFIELD STATE UNIVERSITY SPORTS FILE PHOTO)
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – “We were pretty much on the edge of our seats like everyone else,” said Westfield State assistant track and field coach Marlee Berg ‘09, who had a behind the scenes view of the NCAA’s cancellation of winter and spring championships due to the rapidly-developing COVID-19 crisis as a member of the NCAA Division III Track and Field committee.
Berg is the New England representative as one of eight coaches and administrators that annually manage the sport’s national championship events.
She arrived in North Carolina on Tues., March 10 for the meet scheduled March 13-14 at the JDL Fast Track Facility in Winston-Salem, N.C.
“Coaches were already starting to reach out to us about what was going to happen with championships, and as a committee we were getting information not much faster than everyone else was in real time,” said Berg. “But we were trying to go about making the championships the best experience for the student-athletes.”
Like elsewhere in the sporting world, bits and pieces started to fall quickly.
“On Wednesday, the coaches meeting and the banquet was announced as cancelled, so we spent time making sure we had all the necessary information compiled to distribute to coaches,” said Berg. “Then we learned some teams were not going to be able to travel, so we were in a conference room making a lot of calls and e-mails trying to be sure we could keep the fields full in the event. Honestly, it was all kind of a blur.”
The announcement was made that no spectators would be permitted at the event.
“We tried to figure out the capacity of the facility, and wanted to keep it at around one-third of capacity for social distancing, which ended up being just athletes and coaches,” said Berg. “JDL was really great in working with us. Their staff was awesome in making changes to be ready.”
Finally, on Thursday afternoon, the event was cancelled.
“We were joking earlier in the day that as a committee, it was a short day with no meeting and no banquet,” said Berg. “But then our sport liaison, Laura Peterson got a phone call from NCAA headquarters, and it was done.”
“It’s indescribable,” said Berg of the feeling when finding out the championship was cancelled. She herself was a national champion in the high jump as an undergraduate student-athlete at Westfield State. “Wearing the hat of an NCAA rep, a coach, an administrator and an athlete, the championship event is kind of all of our ‘baby.’ As the committee, we work with the NCAA, the facility, and the host institution all year long to be ready, and it’s hard to see all of that work go away for the athletes.”
“But at the same time, when the NHL, and NBA and other events started shutting down, you knew in the back of your head that we might be next,” said Berg. “And through it all, you realize that athletics is just one pin-point in the scope of trying to do what’s best for the community at large.” – Courtesy of Westfield State University Associate Athletics Director Dave Caspole
