As colleges and universities across the country scramble with their game plans as to how they will go-about educating their students and re-establishing some sort of normalcy on their campuses this fall, Lycoming College has announced their intentions to conduct a ‘full residential campus opening’ when classes resume.

Inquiring as to how that plan will affect Lycoming College sports, Director of Athletics and head football coach Mike Clark sat down with Webb Weekly to discuss.
WW: How will Lycoming’s athletic programs be affected?

Clark: “The pandemic has affected everything that is happening in our country and at Lycoming College. Like other businesses and organizations, it has forced us to solve some things we’ve never had to work through before. Institutionally, led by President Trachte, we’ve formed a working group charged with the task of getting us back to residential education in the fall. As a subset of that initiative we have an athletic group concentrating on how our athletic programs will fit into this plan. This is not unique to us. Every other school in our conference is doing something very similar. We’re trying to do everything we can for our students to have as normal of a school year and athletic season as we possibly can. This is definitely a work in progress. We are waiting for additional guidance from the NCAA, but we remain optimistic that both the educational and athletic processes can be conducted as close to normal as they possibly can.”
WW: Have dates been determined for athletes return to campus?

Clark: “We are working towards that elusive objective but I can’t give specific dates as to when Lycoming athletes may be able to return for preparations for the various fall seasons. Part of the challenge is we are just trying to navigate our way through some choppy waters. For us to say at this point that we have a specific date or dates for the athletes return would be hard to do. We’re hoping for the best, but there is still some uncertainty before we arrive at those final dates.”
WW: What have the past two months been like for you?

Clark: “As football coaches we split our team into groups with different position coaches communicating with our players since school shutdown in March. It was unfortunate because we lost a great opportunity this spring. We were scheduled to go to Canada on May 3 to play a game. That didn’t happen and took away the opportunity for two additional weeks of practice. Personally, I called all 65 of our returning players to check in with them and see how they were doing. The extra time also gave us a chance to do some professional development things that we wouldn’t have had the time to do.
We did miss the spring practice phase of 2020, but we don’t look at that as a disadvantage because everyone else missed the same time.”
WW: Has your recruiting process been affected?

Clark: “Fortunately, our recruiting process wasn’t severely affected. We traveled post-Thanksgiving up until Christmas and then again in January and February. I was actually in high schools in the beginning of March, when our spring break began, when this whole thing started. The day when the NBA pulled the plug I was returning from a recruiting trip in the Philadelphia area. We had the majority of our prospects here on campus between the games last fall and then thru the January/February period. So overall, our recruiting process didn’t change that much.”
WW: Has the MAC establishing any rules regarding re-opening?

Clark: “The re-opening process will be mainly achieved by each individual school. The conference won’t be regulating everything. Institutionally, the challenge to each of us is being respectful of the others and we want the conference to play. But each school is facing different circumstances. In Pennsylvania some of the schools are in the various red, yellow and green stages. The MAC also has schools in New Jersey and Maryland so it is way too early for the conference to make any rules. That said we continue to have virtual meetings with the member schools and we will continue to formulate plans moving forward.”
WW: Around the country several Division One colleges have announced plans to eliminate some sports programs. Will all Lycoming College sports programs be retained?

Clark: “Absolutely. I have zero reservations about that. Athletics are a huge part of what we are institutionally. Lycoming College sports are all safe. We have no intentions to eliminate any of our sports.”
WW: Regarding football, what is your outlook for the 2020 season?

Clark: “Looking back, the way we started last year was not good. Honestly, it was incredibly disappointing. After the first six games there were people who had written us off. We did some soul searching and were able to finish the season on a positive note. The off season was also going really good until the pandemic hit. For 2020 we return a two-year starter at quarterback, four-fifths of the offensive line, the two leading rushers from the last two seasons and three tight ends that we feel good about on offense. One thing that we did well at the end of last season was run the ball better.

Defensively we are also excited. We did lose two all-league defensive linemen in Amhad Curtis and Duane Boone, but we return a lot of guys up front and three guys with experience in the secondary. We did take a big hit at linebacker but Jase Wright, a local kid from Hughesville, we think is going to be a really good player, so we are optimistic and feel good about it. We think we are bringing in a lot of athleticism with this year’s recruiting class. We are excited for the upcoming year and look forward to getting things cranked back up later this summer.”