DOVER — Another day brought another major change in sports caused by the coronavirus pandemic. Rod Milstead This time it was the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference announcing on Thursday that it will …
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DOVER — Another day brought another major change in sports caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
This time it was the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference announcing on Thursday that it will not be playing spring football as a league in the next few months after all.
Delaware State, however, also announced that it’s still planning to play football this spring.
DSU officials said they will play either a three- or five-game schedule with contests against MEAC members Howard and South Carolina State as well as the University of Delaware.
The Hornets have been practicing in preparation for a spring season opener at Morgan State on Feb. 20. Instead, they expect to begin playing in March.
DSU is slated to host Delaware for the first time on April 10.
DelState coach Rod Milstead has said that his players have already dealt with playing in the cold and dealing with COVID-19 protocols.
“These young men have done everything we’ve asked of them and more,” Milstead said. “I met with them this morning, and general cheering broke out when I told them we still had a shot at a season.”
At the onset of the pandemic, Delaware State entered into a partnership with Testing for America to develop a testing program and related protocol for the entire university community.
Over 40,000 tests have been administered with less than half of one-percent COVID-positive rate. Late last year, the school also set up its own Molecular Diagnostic Testing facility and will soon be servicing the university population directly and other sister-HBCUs and citizens throughout the state.
MEAC Commissioner Dr. Dennis E. Thomas cited the difficulties in scheduling full-scale conference play created by varying local and state trends in the spread of the COVID-19 virus. There is also an array of different travel restrictions for MEAC institutions.
The conference includes schools in seven states.
“We are confident that member schools that continue to play have some of the safest on-campus COVID-19 standards in the country,” said Thomas. “We support each of them wholeheartedly.”
