BUFFALO, NY (WKBW — The season has come to an end for the Canisius women's basketball team. The school announced Thursday that the team will no longer compete and forgo the rest of their season due to health and safety concerns.
According to the school, the decision was made following conversations between the student-athletes, coaches, and athletic department administration.
“The women in our program discussed the challenges of this most recent pause and made the difficult choice to end their competitive season,” Canisius Director of Athletics Bill Maher said in a press release. “The administration at the College supports their decision, as we have supported the choices made by all student-athletes at Canisius during this unprecedented time. Canisius will maintain its current schedule of competition in other sports and will continue to observe our rigorous health and safety protocols, which include regular testing for all student-athletes, based on guidance from Erie County, New York State and the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference.”
The Golden Griffs played in just five regular season games, the last played on December 20th. Every game since then had been postponed due to COVID-19 test results. They weren't scheduled to return to play until at least February 18th.
"The women in our program did their best to remain diligent with the difficult Covid-19 protocols that we have in place, but quarantines and injuries were taking a toll on all of us," head coach Scott Hemer said. "After listening to the team discuss how the constant uncertainty and endless unknowns have affected each individual member, we realized that this was creating a significant amount of stress and anxiety. I am proud of the resiliency that our players have demonstrated since they returned to campus in August. As is always the case, our staff is focused on the health and safety of our student-athletes. Although disappointing, we believe this decision the best for all parties involved.”
