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NECC Knights getting back to competition this spring

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As the spring sports semester begins Northern Essex Community College intends to return to competition.

The first sports to get this underway will be the men’s basketball team and the women’s volleyball team along with the esports team.

After COVID had canceled sports during the fall semester the plan to follow the strict Massachusetts guidelines and have the athletes resume their time playing.

“The college will follow all Massachusetts COVID guidelines, which means spectators will not be permitted unless limitations are lifted by the state,” acording to the NECC Knights website.

With everything going on NECC is looking to make the sports return a safe environment and make sure no athlete or person is at risk of getting COVID.

“Competition schedules are also in development for men’s soccer, softball, golf, and track, and field,” according to the website.

The Knight’s baseball team started on March 7.  NECC could use the early sports of basketball and volleyball to use as a guide going forward with the later starting sports. How everything is going on NECC is looking to slowly incorporate more of the sports over time but since this is the first time for everyone, they are taking it slowly making sure athletes and coaches are not at risk of catching the virus. “

We have developed schedules for basketball, baseball, and volleyball. We are working on the other sports as well.” said Athletic director Dan Blair.

While the setting has changed for what is going with the sports world, NECC is stil recruiting athletes.

“Recruitment hasn’t changed, our coaches are still doing what they traditionally do, just in a different setting,” said Blair.

The new season is upon us as NECC looks to reopen the competition side of sports and get the athletes back out there.

If there are any questions about sports, in what will happen, or in need of anything alongside that you can contact the Director of Athletics, Dan Blair at (dblair@necc.mass.edu).

 

Home Page Featured News, Sports

Pandemic impacts fall sports schedule

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The fall sports season looks different this year for NECC’s athletes, coaches and fans.

Cross country and esports are participating in regular activities this fall but other sports have had their seasons adjusted or moved because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

 “In the fall semester, all of the NECC’s athletic programs will be permitted to practice and hold their non-traditional seasons, while only the cross country and esports teams will participate in regular season competition,” according to the NECC Knights website.

” The men’s soccer and women’s volleyball regular seasons have been shifted to the spring semester. The start of competition in basketball will also be delayed to January,” according to the website.

With the news of all the sports coming back eventually, athletes can now prepare themselves for a resurgence of sports. 

With COVID still around the athletic department is following strict guidelines with sports coming back to play in which to keep the coaches and players as safe as possible. 

“As a department we are following specific guidelines for masks, disinfectant, sanitizers and other PPE. We purchased a couple of small disinfecting machines that assist us with sanitizing. We’re following recommendations of the national governing body and the U.S. Council for Athletes Health,” said NECC Athletic director Dan Blair. 

With how important sports are to athletes the athletic department is doing what they can for the athletes to be able to play. Besides esports and cross country the other sports will be allowed to practice or take part in their non-traditional season during the fall semester. 

Northern Essex Community College competes as a member of the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) and sponsors 12 varsity intercollegiate sports including baseball, men’s basketball, women’s basketball, softball, women’s volleyball, men’s and women’s cross country, men’s soccer, Esports and men’s and women’s track and field. For more information on Northern Essex Community College Athletics please visit the official website of Northern Essex Athletics (www.neccknights.com). If there are any questions about sports, in what will happen or in need of anything alongside that you can contact the Director of Athletics, Dan Blair at (dblair@necc.mass.edu).  

 

Opinion

Adjusting to our new normal

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Recently with the extension of the Stay-At-Home order given by the governor of New Hampshire, it looks like they are trying to re-open the state slowly and effectively. The new order is now in effect until at least May 31st.

Personally, I think it was a good idea to extend the order considering Massachusetts did as well because if New Hampshire were to re-open while Mass stayed closed then a lot of those residents would come up here and spread it, even more, considering they are a top state with cases. As one of the states with fewer cases, I don’t see the rush they have to re-open it and boost cases drastically.

Sports are postponed for the time being. The NBA suspended operations about a month ago, along with the NHL, and the MLB delayed their opening day and have yet to set a new date for the beginning of the season.

The only sport that wants to try and start on time is the NFL but that won’t be until at least September. The NFL is trying hard to keep the season, but it is looking less and less likely with each passing week.

Recently Korean baseball has begun with huge restrictions. The only problem is if you want to watch it live you must be up around 2 am to watch it. Without sports, it has been a very boring quarantine but that is fine if this ends sooner rather than later if they pushed to bring them up. 

My work has changed as well. Working at a credit union, at first other workers were coming to our branch to work with their place closing. With rules from the state of groups of 10+ not allowed, our big group was then split into teams to work every other day so there was less contamination. Now with the new rules, we must wear masks 24/7 while at work and keep a distance away from our coworkers as much as possible. 

All the rules and regulations needed to be followed is a lot to handle with everything going on. Now I excessively wash my hands to a point where it seems like too much but with our current situation too much probably isn’t even enough.

As much as people dislike staying at home, if we can limit the spread of everything, we expect things to come back to a completely normal matter a lot sooner.

 

 

Sports

Esports continue

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Northern Essex Community College currently has only one sport still continuing games and that is esports. With the situation at hand canceling a lot of sports this semester, esports is able to continue playing due to the fact they won’t have to be in-person to play. Some of their games were canceled when the campus was closed, but some of them were still able to be played. 

Coach David Arivella has been able to help the esports athletes during this time by keeping some of the games going. “Our Overwatch team was unable to continue playing as some of our players required the equipment on campus so the Overwatch team was forced to drop out. So, players who cannot play from home were unfortunately unable to continue competing,” Arivella said. The esports team was able to continue with its Smash Brothers Ultimate and Rocket League games though.

The difficulty of streaming Smash Brothers Ultimate has been hard for the team considering they don’t have the proper equipment to be able to stream the games. “Unfortunately, we do not have a capture card for streaming Smash Bros which makes it hard for anyone to follow. Matches are played but no one actually gets to watch them,” Arivella said. “We will hopefully be getting a capture card for next semester which should allow a Smash player to stream.” The esports team is looking to acquire a capture card that would upload the games to a screen and then the team would be able to stream it for the audience.

The esports Rocket League team recently won the championship on April 29. For anyone interested in following the esports team you can see how their tournament system is set up at https://njcaae.leaguespot.gg/league and if you want to see the overall standings for the esports team you can check that out at https://www.neccknights.com/sports/esports/2019-20/schedule. 

Sports

Spring sports season canceled

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On Thursday, March 12th, students got an email stating the college would be shut down at least until Monday, March 16th.

They told everyone that the goal was to try and re-open come April 7th but that plan didn’t work out and eventually, they would go the rest of the semester online.

This would be a new learning way for a lot of athletes who now would be losing the chance to play, as this also the end of spring sports. 

The process is now heading in a different direction with what is happening after sports have been canceled as they are planning to help the athletes with remote-learning and going forward with sports possibly coming back in the fall.

“We are at a point now where we are moving forward and looking to help our students in their new “remote learning” environment”, said Director of Athletics, Dan Blair.

The baseball team was scheduled to leave for Florida March 12 for a spring trip but that was ultimately canceled due to the pandemic. “The team was very upset, but the picture became clearer for them when sports at all levels nationally were canceled, they started to understand it more clearly” Blair said.

The timetable for sports to resume is not available as of now so Colleges must have a different way to recruit students instead of face to face interviews. “Coaches are still recruiting, we’re taking advantage of Zoom to have video calls in place of regular meetings. Schedules for fall and winter sports are almost completed” Blair said.

The spring semester may be over but going forward Northern Essex is still getting ready for the new semester coming in the fall.