By McKenna Dirks, Community Reporter
All but one of the current seniors on the UW-Eau Claire football team are planning to defer their graduation so they can use their final season of eligibility next fall, according to head coach Wesley Beschorner.
Seniors on the UW-EC women’s volleyball and soccer teams have similar plans, their coaches said in recent Zoom interviews with the CVPost. Fall 2020 schedules for those three teams were cancelled by the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) because of the COVID-19 pandemic, leaving seniors on them with the prospect of missing their final year of competition.
If the fall schedules in these sports are played in 2021, seniors who delayed completing their undergraduate work will get to use that final year of eligibility.
Football outlook
Beschorner said the football team next fall will have returning players in their fourth year, fifth year and sixth years.
“I know some guys deferred their graduation until next fall, taking a few last credits they could’ve completed this spring and summer, and graduated,” Beschorner said.
Members of winter and spring athletic teams will have a somewhat similar choice to make after playing abbreviated schedules this year because of COVID-19. UW-EC’s Assistant Sports Information Director, Nick Hoven, said that – because of those disruptions – the NCAA has provided a blanket eligibility waiver this year across Division I, II and III levels, so competing this academic year will not cost any athlete a year of eligibility.
Other coaches’ perspectives
UW-EC’s volleyball coach, Kim Wudi, had a response similar to Beschorner’s comments. She said when the fall season was cancelled, she talked with the senior players about the option to return.
Wudi said the decision came down to whether the student’s academic plan allowed returning as an option. She said for one of her athletes, it wasn’t a possibility.
“She was actually graduating in December, 2020, so she decided really early she wasn’t going to consider it,” Wudi said. “She had plans for grad school, so for her, it wasn’t an option.”
According to Wudi, three of the six current seniors are planning to return next fall. She said there is a fourth player who is planning to graduate in December 2021, but whether she will play depends on her nursing class schedule.
Sean Yengo, head coach of UWEC’s women’s soccer team, said the team had seven seniors who would have used up their last year of eligibility in 2020 if it weren’t for COVID-19. He said six of them have decided to return for the 2021 season.
Yengo said for some senior athletes, it was an easy decision since they weren’t scheduled to graduate in May 2021. That made it easy for them to use their last year of eligibility, he said.
Because UW-EC is a Division III school and doesn’t offer athletic scholarships, Yengo said the decision is made was more difficult for the seniors because returning means paying additional tuition.
“It’s a difficult decision for all of them obviously,” Yengo said. “It’s something I’m sure none of them anticipated they would have to decide a couple years ago.”
The senior athletes’ perspective
Anna Kautzman, a fourth-year student and one of the captains of the women’s soccer team, said in a Zoom interview the greatest factor in deciding to return was how the previous season ended.
Kautzman said unexpectedly losing the last game was hard at first, but motivated the team to work harder in the off-season. She said looking back and thinking about that game as her last competitive soccer game didn’t sit well with her.
Being able to play for one more semester wasn’t in doubt, especially living with three of her teammates, Kautzman said. She said they all had the same mindset of returning and doing what they can to make sure their academic plans line up for it.
“I think coming back to a team I love and coaches I love and respect made the decision very easy,” Kautzman said.
Another UW-EC senior athlete had a similar experience in making the decision to return. Austin Belot, a fourth-year football player, said he decided to stay another year because of his eligibility.
Because his academic plan was already being pushed toward four and a half years of school, Belot said he was already considering returning for his last season. He was UW-EC’s leading rusher in the 2019 season with a total of 958 yards gained.
Not only did academics play a factor in Belot’s decision to return, but so did the lessons his coaches taught him throughout his football career, he said.
“Our coaches are very personable,” Belot said. “I think having that kind of relationship, player-coach relationship, is really a good thing about this team.
Belot said Beschorner once taught him and his teammates to ‘remember who packs your parachute,’ which means remembering who was there during those tough times giving those lessons. He said remembering those kinds of lessons helped him through the effects of the pandemic and his decision to return.
In returning for the upcoming season, Belot said he hopes for a complete season, despite hiccups and other factors that could occur. He said returning brings him excitement in fulfilling why he wanted to play football initially.
Beschorner said that the one non-returning senior does not wish to be identified publicly. He added that he’s especially excited for the players returning and the work they’ve already put in for the next season. As a team, the goal is to get to the playoffs, and if that happens, anything is possible, he said.
NOTE: the photos accompanying this article were provided by the Sports Information office in the UW-Eau Claire Athletics Department. The home page photo shows Austin Belot taking a handoff from quarterback Jonathan Malueg during the 2019 football season.