Tompkins Weekly

Cornell men’s hockey adjusts to pandemic



Cornell University men’s hockey coach Mike Schafer instructs his team in a huddle during a 2019 game against Arizona State. The Big Red are currently waiting for word from the ECAC on when next season will begin. Photo by Eldon Lindsay/Cornell Athletics.

Cornell University men’s hockey had one of the worst athletic outcomes possible when the COVID-19 pandemic began back in March. Its season ended as the top-ranked team in the nation, but players never got to compete for a national championship, which would have been their first in 50 years. Losing five key players from that team, the Big Red have been forced to retool and attempt to put themselves in a position to be number one again.

That starts with bringing in a solid recruiting class of four that featured two forwards and two defensemen. While it’s not those players’ jobs, there are sizable shoes to fill on the team after Hobey Baker finalist Morgan Barron and ECAC Best Defensive Defenseman winner Alex Green elected to sign with NHL organizations rather than return to Cornell for a senior season.

They each had major concerns regarding the uncertain start to next season due to the pandemic, which has still yet to be announced by the ECAC. The pandemic also affected the recruiting process to bring in those four new players. Head coach Mike Schafer already knew who he wanted to bring in pre-pandemic, fortunately, and even added that there’s a positive takeaway from this experience.

“The pandemic helped us maybe even get to know those guys a little bit better because we spent more time with them on Zoom calls in the springtime in the summertime then maybe we would normally have,” Schafer said. “We weren’t allowed to be on the road, so I think that’s helped us get to know them a little better than with any other freshmen coming in.”

Just this past week, the team was able to begin practicing on the ice again. Prior to that, the team was working out both in the gym and outdoors. Schafer was getting creative with team activities recently before they were able to hit the ice.

“We’re obviously much more limited,” Schafer said. “And I think there are two ways to look at it: You can complain about it or take advantage of all things that you can possibly do right now. We try to take advantage of it in the sense of doing some things that we’ve never done before, which is have some of our alumni talk to our athletes about life after hockey and have some guys that are out in the business world or the hospitality world, the professional world do Zoom calls and bring those guys in.”

Cornell University has helped lead a strong response to the coronavirus in Tompkins County, successfully quelling an uptick in cases when students first returned to campus. As a result, athletic teams are practicing together regularly again.

“The university has done a tremendous job of bringing the athletes and all the students back to campus,” Schafer said. “They’ve given our students a shot on campus to be successful. It seems like they’ve done a good job with that. We hope the university does the same thing with regards to our athletes, showing that if we follow the proper science and do the proper things that we can have a season and give our kids an opportunity to compete.”

Schafer and his players know that it’s better safe than sorry these days, as there have been college football teams with major outbreaks in the locker room.

“We just have to do the things necessary to keep our student-athletes safe to keep Cornell open and running,” Schafer said. “It’s a different time, and [the athletes] see what’s happening at places where maybe they opened too soon in athletics. There’s a lot of frustration, but there’s also a lot of understanding. I think those two can combine as long as you have the understanding that we’re in a different world right now.”

When figuring out how to hold practices safely upon the return to campus, Schafer was able to use what he’s seen in the sports world after two extraordinarily successful postseasons in the NHL and NBA in which there were zero positive tests.

“Getting started a little later, we have the ability to lean on some things with the NHL, where they’ve had startup protocols and you can see how they’re successful,” Schafer said. “We have the science of knowing that our guys need to wear masks and start off in smaller groups. The kids are already testing twice a week. They’re starting off in small pods and making sure that we ease into things.”

Of course, all the hard work put in by the school, the coaches and the players can be undone quickly. Schafer is making sure his team understands that.

“The bottom line comes down to the commitment of the athletes away from the rink, when they’re around people making the right decisions, when they’re walking through Collegetown or being in Collegetown or hanging out in their dorm rooms,” he said. “Regardless of what’s going on, I think that commitment to be safe and keep their teammates safe is going to be crucial.”

Schafer and his team are taking it one day at a time, as the ball is in the athletic conference’s court when it comes to when the season will begin and how it will look when it does. While the unknown can be frustrating, Schafer would rather have that than an announced start date for the season that ends up not happening. For now, the Big Red will continue to put the work in.

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