So much has happened over the past 2 years, but at the same time March 2020 still feels like yesterday. That dreaded month that started a cavalcade of negative news and heartache.
From strictly a baseball perspective, so many kids had their high school baseball careers end without much of a warning. So much unfinished business on the field. Those dreary days of March that seemingly never ended, followed by the beautiful spring weather of April and May that came and went without as much as a home run, no-hitter or walk-off win.
I wanted to get the perspective of a high school and college coach, so I asked two trusted people – John Galanoudis of Molloy and Matt Rocchio of John Glenn to look back on what it was like during the time period and how they’ve turned the page.
“Looking back at COVID two years later, it has impacted multiple facets of college baseball. Of course, the shutdown of the 2020 season was beyond words: not only for college programs, but high school baseball as well as travel baseball and other levels of youth/amateur baseball. Seeing college and high school seniors having to end what for many of them were their baseball career in that manner was heartbreaking.
When the 2020-’21 academic year came around, everyone was excited to get back out on the field but there were still challenges. At many programs – including ours, protocols came into place along with COVID testing to ensure that athletics could resume in a safe manner. It was something that college coaches never even thought of prior to the pandemic but came to the forefront in managing the day-to-day operations of a college baseball program. Administrators, coaches and players all had to adjust and speaking for our program directly, the players were great with the protocols and had a “whatever we need to do to play” mentality. It was very challenging for most, if not all, college baseball programs in the area across all divisions.
On the recruiting end, COVID had an immediate impact once baseball resumed as many programs had a certain number of incoming freshmen committed to come in, not realizing that many of their “graduating” seniors would still be on their roster in 2021 – due to the NCAA granting an extra year of eligibility for all players affected. Fast forward to where we are now, and many programs have adjusted and are transitioning back to normal roster sizes and a normal flow of recruiting. Of course, not everyone is in the same boat and every program has their own challenges, but overall, I would say recruiting is in a much better place than where it was this time two years ago or even last year. Hopefully, we continue to move forward out of this pandemic. I truly believe the reason why college baseball was able to bounce back was due to the perseverance of the student-athletes, coaches, and staff who all love the game and would do anything to be on the field.”
-John Galanoudis
Assistant Coach, Molloy
And now here’s Matt Rocchio:
March 13th 2020 is a day that I’m sure most baseball coaches will never forget. For me I was entering my 4th year as the head coach of John Glenn and hopes have never been higher entering a new season. We were returning 8 starters from the previous year, all three starting pitchers and the lineup was going to be filled with players who are now committed or playing college baseball right now. 4 days is all we had as a team. The senior leadership was amazing and it showed through the trying times we were about to head into.
I still remember updating the Section XI website all morning with hopes that we would somehow be saved. Nassau County came out that morning and postponed the season by 2 weeks. The text messages started flowing in from players and concerned parents. In all of our minds this was going to be over quickly and Section XI was staying the course. However, a little bit after lunch time, the press release stated “All practices and games suspended until April 3rd”. It was a punch in the stomach. I had to now tell my entire program that we couldn’t practice or gather as a team for at least 3 weeks. Panic was setting in for me. I didn’t want these seniors to lose out on all the hard work they put in. They gathered players from October to January to workout in the school gym 3 days a week. These seniors did what every coach hopes for, they bought in and were going all in to build this program. So to send that message out was gut wrenching, because deep down I didn’t have a good feeling about this. After the initial shock of our season being delayed, we now as a coaching staff had to figure out how to keep these players upbeat, passionate and in game shape all without meeting them. All the while the entire country is being shut down. Baseball was their outlet, so while we couldn’t be in person together, we had to do something to keep their minds in a positive state. A google classroom was created so we can share hitting drills and pitching drills. We adapted a throwing program to keep our pitchers in line with April 3rd. Our thought process was if April 3rd is the day we may be back, playing by April 6 was our hope and we needed to be ready. Players went to each other’s house to take videos and posted them. We had google meets to talk about stuff we heard and also to keep that comraderie because there was a special bond with this group. Being in the gym 3 times a week for three months and then 2 days a week during winter workouts, a bond was created. We had to continue that especially with so much negativity going around at the time.
April 3rd came and I think reality started hitting all of us. The season was delayed one more time but the writing was on the wall. It was getting harder to motivate our players and we went more into easing them into the reality that we weren’t going to have a season. On April 21st it was official. Section XI canceled the 2020 Spring Sports season. My goal was to call all the seniors to inform them, but with social media everyone knew right away. I still made the calls and it sucked. We felt it was coming which made the sting a little less, but still awful to tell these athletes they weren’t getting a shot in their final year. Because schools were shut down, I finally got a chance to see our players in May at a local park to give them their apparel they ordered 5 months earlier. It was gut wrenching but uplifting at the same time. I was giving them John Glenn gear that they will never get to wear as a student there. Things started to look up in May so being able to talk to everyone in person again started to feel normal. The Town of Brookhaven was doing a great thing and having a High School Baseball Tournament. Unfortunately, the dates didn’t work with most of our seniors so we had to pass up that great chance to be on the field together.
Fast forward one year later. Our season started about 7 weeks later than usual. Our first home game we brought back every 2020 graduate and while it wasn’t during the 2020 season they all threw out the first pitch of the 2021 season which was great to see.
I never would have thought leaving the field on March 12th 2020 that no one will play on this field for the rest of the school year. No one will shag fly balls. No one will throw a fastball. No one will be cheering from the bleachers and there will be no more wins or losses in 2020. If there is one lesson this whole ordeal taught us, it is you never know when your last game will be. ALWAYS leave it on the field.
For the love of the game,
Matthew Rocchio Jr
