Angelina College Basketball, Spring Sports Get Disappointing News

A little over a week ago, the Angelina College men's basketball team clinched a berth in the NJCAA basketball tournament with their Region 14 championship in Shreveport.  Then, the Roadrunners got the news that the national tournament would be postponed in response to the ongoing COVID-19 threat.  Now, the team has learned that the NJCAA tournament has been canceled altogether.  In fact, all Spring sports have also been canceled.

Here's the official statement from the NJCAA:

Following the recent recommendations from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the NJCAA has made the difficult decision to cancel all upcoming basketball championships as well as spring competition, effective immediately.

“In light of the progressive evolvement of the COVID-19 situation, the NJCAA has decided to end all competition for the remainder of the academic year,” stated Dr. Christopher Parker, NJCAA President & CEO. “As an association, the NJCAA exhausted all possible avenues to potentially postpone competition for both upcoming basketball championships and spring sport competition. We believe following the recommendations of the CDC is in the best interest of our member colleges and our student-athletes.”

Spring competition includes all practices, regular season, postseason, and national championship play.

Regarding eligibility for spring sports, no spring sport student-athlete who was enrolled at a member college in 2020 will be charged a year of participation.

Along with the cancellation of competition, all on and off-campus recruiting for all sports will be halted until April 15 with further evaluation to be assessed at that point in time.

The NJCAA will explore the opportunity to expand allowable Letters of Intent for spring sports for both the 2020-21 and 2021-22 academic years under the recommendation of the NJCAA Eligibility Committee*.

*The eligibility committee will meet this Thursday, March 19 to review potential Letters of Intent increases. This information will be provided to membership following the meeting.

The NJCAA will continue to monitor the situation and provide updates as more information becomes available.