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GNAC cancels winter season; Rivier still hopes for few games

By Tom King - Staff Writer | Nov 4, 2020

NASHUA – There won’t be any Great Northeast Athletic Conference men’s and women’s basketball games at Rivier University’s Muldoon Center this winter.

But don’t put the basketballs away just yet.

The GNAC announced Monday it’s Presidents’ Council unanimously cancelled conference athletic competition for winter sports due to COVID concerns, but the conference’s statement opened the door for member schools to play on if they can find opponents.

And, according to Rivier athletic director Joanne Merrill, they’ll try to do that.

“If you read what the Presidents put out there, it doesn’t preclude schools from trying to play if they can,” Merrill said. “Depending on how things go, we would love to see if it’s possible to play schools in New Hampshire.”

The GNAC said in its statement “with the health and well-being of students and staff as the highest priority, each CNAC institution may plan for student-athlete training, conditioning opportunities, and non-conference competition consistent with federal and state public health recommendations, the NCAA, and institutional guidelines.”

The five Division III schools in the state are Rivier, Plymouth State, Keene State, Colby-Sawyer (now in the GNAC) and New England College

“I think the five schools in New Hampshire would love to be able to do it,” Merrill said. “I don’t think there’d be any guarantees about it. … Individual schools can do what their state guidelines and local guidelines let them do. We’re not going to say that we’re not going to do anything. But there’s no guarantee on that.

“When everyone goes home and schools close down over the holidays in January, that’s a big unknown for everyone.”

In fact Rivier students are returning a week later than normal, January 25, if it’s possible. They’ve been on campus, doing in-person learning all fall.

Meanwhile, men’s and women’s basketball teams at Riv under head coach Lance Bisson (men) and Deanna Purcell (women) are in their third week of practice. Merrill said the hope is to have intersquad scrimmages before Thanksgiving – but with no spectators.

“If we were able to get to a point where we could play a few games in state,” Merrill said, “our plan is to have athletic engagement – whether it be strength and conditioning, etc. That’s our thought.”

And the season, Merrill said, according to the NCAA, will not count toward a student athlete’s eligibility.

Still, unless Riv can get some games against in-state opponents, the winter will be a repeat of the fall, a season which the GNAC also cancelled.

“Just like everything else this year, kind of incredibly sad about it,” Merrill said. “There were so many guidelines, so many moving parts that every school would have to follow.”

On the same day, Division I America East announced it’s tentative men’s and women’s basketball schedule, but Merrill said the Divison I schools like the University of New Hampshire have the ability to do all the necessary testing, etc. more than a small school would.

The America East announcement will have some Nashuans circling the date of Saturday, Dec. 5, as that is when North alum Kelsey Hogan will make her debut as the new UNH head women’s basketball coach vs. first-year conference member New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) at Lundholm Gym.

The UNH men open up at NJIT on Dec. 12

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