“This might be the last game we ever play,” Blarr said, looking at her fellow seniors.
“No, don’t say that to me,” Kimmell said. “I don’t want to think about that.”
At the same time, Kimmell started to think it could be real, and that was the night the NBA suspended its season. The NCAA tournaments were cancelled the next day. The cancellation of spring sports followed. Dayton finished the season 8-12.
»BASEBALL: Flyers mourn loss of promising season
The Dayton softball players found out in various ways, mostly through a text from their coach, Cara LaPlaca. They weren’t able to gather for a team meeting because the players had gone home for the weekend.
“I didn’t get to say goodbye to them, which was really sad,” said Kimmell, who has been at home in Indianapolis since then. “That was devastating.”
The NCAA will give the season of eligibility back to all the spring athletes, not just the seniors, but the seniors have to decide if they want it. Kimmell was a redshirt junior — she missed her sophomore year with a torn labrum in her shoulder — who still had one season left after this one and wasn't planning to use it until she didn't get to finish the season.
“I came into this year and said I have one solid year left to play and I want to go out on a high note,” she said. “I had goals for myself and wanted to tackle them and have a senior day and feel good about it and leave. Obviously, that didn’t get to happen. I mean we didn’t even get to play a home game. So I’m kind of keeping my options open. I’ve had an interesting career for sure, but I’ve only really gotten to be on the playing field for two years. I know there’s a part of me in my heart that still wants to be playing, so I don’t know what I’m going to do.”
» MORE DISAPPOINTMENT: Javelin thrower expected big year | Unsatisfying end for runner
Kimmell is a special education major who’s doing student teaching this spring through virtual courses as she completes her degree.
Outfielder Katherine Schwartz, from Chesterfield, Mich., is a senior who has decided not to take advantage of the extra year.
“This was my year, and it came to an unfortunate ending,” she said, “but I think it’s still my time.”
Schwartz will complete a degree in mechanical engineering this semester. With all the good memories she’ll have from her career, she’ll also have the “horrible” memory of how her career ended.
The Flyers had a team meeting the morning of March 12 and found out their Friday game against Wright State, which would have been their home opener, and the Saturday home game against Western Michigan had been postponed. The players still didn’t think at that point the season would be lost.
“We weren’t really all prepared for what we were going to hear later on,” Schwartz said. “We just thought we are going home for the weekend and we’ll regroup and then come back ready to train harder for the conference to start, so we knew nothing about it.”
» ARCHDEACON: UD soccer star from Norway stranded in Dayton
Then one text message ended everything. The seniors started calling each other, Schwartz said, and there were emotional conversations.
“It’s something you work for all year,” she said. “You train for years. To not get that ending and see those results is hard.”
Another senior, first baseman Ellie Ziegler, of River Forest, Ill., has similar feelings.
“I never could have guessed my career would end this way,” she said. “Obviously, being a senior, you know your career is going to end soon. I figured it would end in my hands with one final at-bat or one final time out on defense. To have it end in a way where it was just kind of taken away from me, that was the most shocking.”
Ziegler hasn’t 100 percent decided about whether she’ll return but most likely will not. She’s finishing a degree in sports management and is looking for a job.
“I’ve just been working on homework and stuff online,” she said. “I have one class that uses Zoom a lot. I’ve been working with my dad on networking and reaching out to people who could help me with my job search. I’ve been having a bunch of those calls, which has been interesting and fun. I definitely think I’m heading in the right direction. I think it’s helping my job search already.”
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