Three questions with Justin Fetcho
<b>Was the team on the road when the COVID-19 news came out?</b>
We stayed in Nashville on Wednesday night since we had a flight out of there in the morning. As we were driving down to Nashville, the guys began to see news about the NBA canceling its season. It took us by surprise and we began to see bits and pieces moving forward. We figured that changes may be possible into the next morning, but our tournament was still set to go, so we got on the plane and flew to New Orleans. We were planning to spend the day in New Orleans and then drive down to practice in the afternoon. We were eating lunch in New Orleans when we got word that the NCAA was canceling all championships. SIU wanted us back home shortly after, so all we did was eat our lunch in New Orleans and hop right back on a plane toward campus. It was a whirlwind in those 24 hours with how quickly everything escalated. When we got to Louisiana, we had an idea that parts of the season may be postponed or canceled. I did not think in our wildest dreams that the season would be over.
<b>What was the next step for the team after the season was canceled?</b>
It started as a mixture. We had some international guys that wanted to remain over here because the coronavirus was hitting their country worse than ours at the time. They just wanted to stay over here and practice and attempt to have some normalcy in a sense. There were some talks about international travel once things started to get worse in the U.S. I think it rattled some of our players and their families about traveling back home. Most of our guys have ended up going back home after talks with their families. I believe we will end up with two guys in Carbondale for the foreseeable future. They decided to just ride it out here. With social distancing and how the virus was progressing here, it made sense for the majority of our athletes to go back home to their families. Nobody knows what is happening, so I am glad they could all make their own decision, whether it was going back to their families or staying here. We have been in constant contact with guys still here to make sure they are taken care of and so forth.
<b>Was your team starting to gain momentum when the coronavirus hit?</b>
We had talked about finding that little bit of momentum and turning it on at the right time. We have been fortunate in the past several years to hit that stride in the middle of the spring, which carried to postseason play. You do not know exactly what would have happened, but I think we were starting to do some good things. We had some guys that were playing better golf and gaining confidence. I believe that was only going to get better and help the team overall. There is not a time where you cannot be disappointed with this situation. We were not very satisfied with our results in the majority of our tournaments. However, we knew we had it in us to be better all season long. I am not saying we found the spark quite yet, but we were moving close to that particular point in the season. We are disappointed to not hit that stride and see all of our hard work unfold as it has in the past.