Manchester, along with HCAC moving some fall sports to spring

(Image supplied/Manchester University)

Many college athletes in Indiana will have to wait to play their sport.

On Monday morning, the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference announced that some fall sports will be moved to the spring due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The HCAC Council of Presidents classified football, soccer and volleyball as “high contact risk sports,” and will be moving their 2020 seasons to the spring of 2021. However, cross-country, golf and tennis will still have a season this fall.

In the released statement, the conference said, “The decisions on shifting the competitive seasons for these high contact risk sports came after careful analysis of whether HCAC institutions could successfully fulfill NCAA testing recommendations without drawing vital health resources from their local communities. In addition, the conference feels that as continued scientific and testing gains are made with respect to the CoVid-19 virus, a spring season for the high contact risk sports will be safer for our student-athletes.”

There are six schools from Indiana in the HCAC — Anderson University, Earlham College, Franklin College, Hanover College, Manchester University and Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology.