New Paltz Softball Senior Will

Rejoin Team for Another Season

Payton Ellison
paytonmalloye@yahoo.com

NEW PALTZ, NY — Currently, only one of the six seniors or graduate students on the New

Paltz Hawks softball team plan on returning to the team for the 2021 spring season.

The worldwide implications of the coronavirus forced the NCAA to cancel all remaining

2020 winter and spring sport championships on Mar. 12. The decision, according to graduate

infielder Taylor LaFrance, was devastating.

“This was the year that we were going to win SUNYACs [Playoffs],” she said. “I have

never been surrounded by such hard-working talented, and driven individuals who'd push me

every day to become a better player and person. We absolutely have the right chemistry that we

needed in order to be successful.”

Fellow graduate student, catcher/infielder Madison Rappold shares the same sentiment:

“The cancellation of the 2020 season was definitely hard on us at the time. The state wasn't really

closed yet, public schools were still open. So I feel like when the NCAA canceled all spring

sports championships…I think it really hit us hard. We were really upset for various different

reasons, but now that I see the severity of COVID-19, I understand why these conferences had to

make this decision to cancel our season for the benefit of everybody else in this country and in

this world.” Like LaFrance, that doesn’t stop her from pondering on what could have been. “We

really had a good shot at winning the SUNYAC Championship. We had a strong returning senior

class as well as depth behind us in all the classes.”

 A week after the decision, the Division III council approved measures to give all spring

athletes the opportunity to return for another season. According to the official press release

(http://www.ncaa.org/about/resources/media-center/news/diii-schools-granted-extra-flexibility-

spring-sports-response-covid-19-situation), the measures include an additional semester and

season of eligibility, as well as flexibility for schools to assist potential displaced students with

travel, lodging and meals.

“I 100% agree that this was the right decision,” LaFrance said of the NCAA’s decision,

“When you come on campus as a freshman student-athlete you're looking forward to the next

four seasons of being able to compete at a higher level that not many athletes are able to do.”

Rappold is the only senior or graduate student preparing to return for the spring 2021

semester. “This decision didn't come easy to me, it took a lot of self-reflection and time,” she

said, “But ultimately, I'm going to be here next year for my master's in special education

anyways, so I just felt that it was right for me to come back and play my final season of softball.”

She will return to a softball team that went 26-12 overall in 2019, the best record in

program history that included the program’s first playoff win since 2008. LaFrance and Rappold,

the latter was behind the plate for the historic win, say that this was their favorite memory as a

Hawk. The Hawks were prepared to go further in the 2020 season before COVID-19 prematurely

ended their season after four games.

With an extra year of eligibility granted, Rappold and her teammates will try to replicate

the same aspirations they had. However, LaFrance will not follow the same path. She will be

hanging up the cleats and moving on from softball, although she admitted that should change her

mind “an hour from now”.

 “I don't think I would ever be able to step on the field without my fellow seniors moving

on after this semester despite the fact that I love all of the returners so much,” she said. “Coming

back this year felt normal to me since we didn't lose that many people, but it would be a

completely different team next year and I don't know if I could do it. I also just don't know if I

could be 23 years old desperately trying to hold on to a career and take rights away from an 18

year old who has potential in her whole career ahead of her. I think I would feel selfish and being

selfish is not what New Paltz softball is all about.”

Neither girl was comfortable speaking for the other five seniors that were not returning or

had not made the decision yet, though they cited potential circumstances, including job

opportunities, as a reason. But both seniors gave advice to other college students and high

schoolers that do not have the extra year at their disposal.

“You don't have to walk away from this game entirely,” LaFrance said, “You can still stay

involved. You can continue to be a part of it by coaching, supporting your local Rec team,

supporting your travel team, anything that you feel would be a way of supporting the game.”