Biola Athletics continues scholarships
The Athletics Department decided to award aid to athletes even with COVID-19 pushing back the fall season to next year.
Photo by Maria Weyne // THE CHIMES
October 5, 2020
While some colleges and universities across the country are picking back up sports competitions, Biola and the PacWest have decided to sit this semester out as a safety precaution due to COVID-19. Since athletes are not traveling and competing in games this semester, the financial aid athletes were supposed to receive was up in the air. Thankfully, Biola was able to keep funding and awarding aid for our Eagles.
“Biola made the decision to keep all athletic aid intact for the 2020-21 academic year,” said Assistant Athletic Director Neil Morgan. “This semester, while not competing, our student-athletes are still participating in workouts and other team activities. It was [the] best practice among athletic departments to retain all athletic aid for those student-athletes who receive it.”
FRESHMEN PERSPECTIVE
The good news is that the athletes will continue to receive their scholarships. The bad news: they still cannot compete or have a normal freshman year of college. Biola’s campus is open to predominantly athletes, allowing them to live on campus and train for when games resume in the future. However, they are still missing out on a big part of college, the culture.
Cade Anderson, freshman midfielder on Biola’s men’s soccer team, is feeling these effects of a soft transition.
“I would say the biggest challenge for me is the social aspect of everything,” Anderson said. “I love being around and meeting new people, so being on campus and not being able to do anything or really hang out with people here is pretty hard. Online college is also a lot harder than high school, so that was another thing to get used to.”
However, Mary McDonnell, a freshman libero on the volleyball team, found that the soft opening of Biola’s campus was beneficial to the start of her collegiate career.
“I think this was probably one of the easiest transitions. Starting off the school year in quarantine allowed me [to] easily transition from high school to college,” McDonnell said. “After quarantine, we have started to lift weights and soon we will be starting our ‘spring season’ with practices and hopefully local matches. I feel like I would’ve been extremely overwhelmed with all the new transitions and heavy season schedule if things would have been normal.”
With so much uncertainty revolving around the sports world, it is understandable how eager the athletes want to get back to their sport.
Malvin Payero, freshman point guard for the men’s basketball team, put it bluntly, “I really wanna play.”
Andi Basista is a junior journalism major who loves basketball, underground music and is highly appreciative of a good beach day.
Originally from a small farm town in Ohio, I have put aside my corn shucking gloves to embrace a new life in the Angel City to study sports journalism. It is true what they say about culture shock and LA traffic. I am used to being late to work because of getting stuck behind a John Deere tractor, but now it is because of gridlock on the I5. However, I have quickly...
While some of the students and student athletes are experiencing loneliness on campus, other athletes live off campus. Some have posted social media pics while being off campus without masks on and not social distancing. It would make an interesting story to see what privileges are given to athletes prior to and after Covid close of the campus. For instance where they live on campus, where they sit together in the cafeteria when campus was open and how others feel more isolated and left out. This can relate to being a minority, someone with a disability and being a non-athlete… Read more »