LIHU‘E — The Mountain West Conference announced Monday the indefinite postponement of all scheduled fall sports contests and Mountain West championship events in response to ongoing challenges with the effective mitigation and management of the COVID-19 virus in conjunction with athletic competitions.
LIHU‘E — The Mountain West Conference announced Monday the indefinite postponement of all scheduled fall sports contests and Mountain West championship events in response to ongoing challenges with the effective mitigation and management of the COVID-19 virus in conjunction with athletic competitions.
The fall season sports affected by the decision include men’s and women’s cross country, football, women’s soccer, and women’s volleyball.
The University of Hawai‘i is a football-only member of the Mountain West that will start to explore the feasibility of rescheduling fall sports competition, including the possibility of the affected sports competing in the spring.
“The Mountain West Conference presidents are all focused on the health and wellbeing of our campus communities, and this pandemic has brought us all unique and unprecedented challenges,” said UH President David Lassner. “As a group, we could not see a path forward to conduct an athletic schedule this fall that we could be proud of. While today’s Mountain West decision only affects Rainbow Warrior football at the University of Hawai‘i at Manoa, this is the same conclusion the Big West Conference reached for our other fall sports.”
University of Hawai‘i Athletic Director David Matlin said, “We support today’s very difficult decision by the Mountain West Conference. We know that it was a difficult choice, but made wholly in the best interest of our student-athletes, our school, and our community. The absence of fall sports will be hard for us as a department, but more so for our student-athletes. We will continue to support them academically and mentally as we press forward with safe path to get them back to a new normal of competition. Our athletic ‘Ohana will get through these rough waters together.”
Previously, the University of Hawai‘i was scheduled to start its season on Sept. 26 against the Robert Morris University at the Aloha Stadium. This was after games against four schools were cancelled due to concerns about the pandemic. Hawai‘i was scheduled to meet Nevada, Oct. 3 at Aloha Stadium in its first Mountain West game.
•••
Dennis Fujimoto, staff writer and photographer, can be reached at 245-0453 or dfujimoto@thegardenisland.com.
