One hour before start, Alabama postpones spring practice 'until further notice' - USA TODAY

Alex Byington Montgomery Advertiser

Published 4:02 PM EDT Mar 13, 2020

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Roughly an hour before it was scheduled to return to the field to kick off its annual spring practice schedule, Alabama's football team announced it would join the rest of the sports world and postpone all activities in light of the ongoing conoravirus pandemic.

"Alabama has suspended spring football practices until further notice, including all football media-related activities," the program announced over social media. "We will provide updates when more information is available."

Even amid the turmoil and uncertainty surrounding the global health scare associated with the outbreak of COVID-19, it was business as usual inside the Mal Moore Athletic Complex as the Crimson Tide appeared on target to begin its usual 15-day practice slate with head coach Nick Saban also scheduled to hold a news conference.

But neither of those will happen, at least not for the foreseeable future.

The scheduled practice Friday was to precede student-athletes and coaches taking a week-long hiatus as part of the university's yearly spring break before a resumption of practice on March 23. Instead, the program shifted gear at literally the 11th hour. It is unclear when the team would resume its practice schedule.

This move comes a day after the rest of the sports world was turned on its head with the widespread postponements or outright cancellations of events as a precaution to avoid the spread of the coronavirus pandemic spreading across the nation.

Alabama was among the last remaining states in the country without a confirmed case until Friday when the state health department announced its first confirmed case of an adult male from Montgomery who fell ill after returning from out-of-state travel.

The NCAA took the unprecedented move of canceling all its spring national championship events, including the NCAA men's and women's national championship tournaments scheduled to begin next week, along with the Women's College World Series for softball and baseball's College World Series set for late May and early June, respectively.

The Southeastern Conference announced the suspension of all regular-season sports competitions through March 30 on Thursday, shortly after it canceled the remainder of its annual SEC men's basketball tournament in Nashville, Tennessee, roughly an hour before Alabama was set to play Tennessee at noon Thursday to start the second day of the five-day event inside Bridgestone Arena.

The conference also announced it'd be suspending all on- and off-campus recruiting across all sports through the end of March, a move the NCAA followed suit with Friday when it announced a recruiting dead period for all sports until at least April 15, restricting all official and unofficial visits, in-person contact and evaluations during this time. Phone calls and text messages will be permissible.

Among the other SEC football programs that also suspended spring football practices include Auburn, Georgia, SEC West rival LSU, the defending national champions, are also expected to postpone the remainder of their spring practices after beginning earlier this week, according to reports.

Let's block ads! (Why?)

"football" - Google News
March 14, 2020 at 03:02AM
https://ift.tt/39SlpUK

One hour before start, Alabama postpones spring practice 'until further notice' - USA TODAY
"football" - Google News
https://ift.tt/2ST7s35
Shoes Man Tutorial
Pos News Update
Meme Update
Korean Entertainment News
Japan News Update

Bagikan Berita Ini