ABILENE, TX — Last week, Hardin-Simmons, McMurry and Howard Payne’s conference, the American Southwest, announced they will be delaying fall sports until the spring. This transition will be far from simple. “There is so many changes logistically that people don’t even realize,” said Hardin-Simmons Head Football Coach Jesse Burleson. “When are you going to recruit because the spring season is going to be, more than likely, getting started right in the heat of that recruiting battle.”
For the McMurry women’s soccer team, they were very much looking forward to this year after winning a program-record 12 games last year. “They all have taken this positive mindset,” said McMurry Head Women’s Soccer Coach Charles Nobles. “We can actually build a closer team this fall and get to know each other better and learn to play with each other.”
With the fall sports teams basically switching semesters, they will be getting a new outlook. “All the fall coaches are going to learn what it’s like to be a spring coach where you are keeping your athletes engaged all fall and keeping them involved in that classes and doing all those things and looking forward to games as opposed to we are so used to playing games at the beginning,” said Nobles.