Note: In just a span of days, the COVID-19 outbreak brought collegiate athletics to a halt while greatly impacting everyday aspects of life. Winter sports were canceled in the middle of NCAA Championships and spring sports were canceled with their seasons just beginning or in some cases, yet to begin. In our new "How We Adjust" series, Elmhurst's spring sport coaches are discussing just how they dealt with the news that their seasons had ended and how they're adjusting to the current conditions. 
 
Elmhurst Director of Cross Country and Track & Field Jordan Bartolazzi was preparing to get the Bluejays ready for the outdoor season while the NCAA Division III Indoor Championship was just hours away from beginning when the NCAA announced the cancelation of its spring championships due to the COVID-19 outbreak and college athletics effectively came to a standstill. The news was hard to process for Bartolazzi and the Bluejays' men's and women's track and field squads.
 
"Everything happened so quickly that it was hard to process in real-time," said Bartolazzi. "We were coming off our most successful indoor season in the last fifteen years and really looking forward to outdoor and then it was suddenly gone. I personally love coaching outdoor track, and there's definitely going to be a noticeable void in my life on Saturday mornings this spring."
  
Bartolazzi was devastated to break the news to his team.
 
"The day we talked to our teams and told them the news officially was probably the hardest day so far in my coaching career," he said. "I completely agree that that the NCAA, CCIW, and Elmhurst College administration made the right decisions to cancel our seasons and prioritize health and safety, but that did not make it easier to talk to our team. I don't think the average person realizes how much work this team puts in to build a successful track and field program. Our distance runners had been logging 60-plus miles per week for months. Our sprints and jumps crew had been waking up at 6:00 a.m. since December to practice. Our throwers made so much progress this year in the weight room, and every single one of them was coming off a personal best throw at indoor conference and was looking forward to shifting outdoor. It was so hard to tell them all they would not have a season this year."
 
The impact was even harder for the seniors to swallow as collegiate careers ended suddenly and without warning.

"I especially felt for my seniors," said Bartolazzi. "That group of men and women has been through so much in their four years. They made it through multiple coaching changes and were key pieces in helping us steer our program in the right direction. To tell them they had already competed in their last college meet without knowing it was horrible. They're a mature group who understood the big picture, but it was a devastating conversation to have to have after seeing how much work they have put in to our program."
 
With his team now scattered and taking online classes for the remainder of the season, Bartolazzi and his coaching staff have utilized technology to keep in contact with their student-athletes to check in on their well-being and also make sure they're adapting to the transition to online classes.
 
"I am in touch with our team daily," said Bartolazzi. "We text all the time. I've spent more time on FaceTime and Zoom lately because it's the closest we can get to face-to-face for now. As far as working with the team, we will be connecting through video chat on a regular basis. We'll meet together as full event groups (distance, jumps, etc.) as well as smaller groups of 3-4 athletes plus a coach to make sure we stay connected. Many of our athletes have never done an online class before, so I also think it's really important that all of us coaches make ourselves available to help our athletes stay on track with their coursework."
 
Bartolazzi and his coaching staff have also dedicated the extra time to future planning and focusing on their recruiting efforts.
 
"I met with our coaching staff right away [after the season cancelation] and we talked about the importance of using this time wisely," he said. "I feel like I finally have some time to dedicate to 'big-picture' planning, and it's been nice to take a step back and have time to think through how to best utilize the next five months. We've obviously tried to take advantage of the extra time to recruit since most of our target athletes are also out of school. Plotting out our 2021 recruiting calendar and ramping up our contact with 2021s will be a major focus in the next month or so."
 
With the spring season also being shut down in high school athletics posing new challenges in recruiting, Bartolazzi has had to adjust his strategy slightly.
 
"[The outbreak has] changed recruiting and will continue to do so for a while," stated Bartolazzi. "We start recruiting athletes based on their sophomore seasons, so we will have no data for our 2022 class until they finish their junior year. Likewise, many juniors and seniors were hoping to improve their marks this year and they don't have that opportunity right now. I think that raises our responsibility to communicate well with high school coaches who know their athletes best and can recommend athletes who would be good fits for our program – even if they do not currently have marks to indicate that."
 
With Elmhurst's campus quiet and its students and staff working remotely, Bartolazzi is also adjusting to losing a pair of primary selling points of the program.
 
"One specific challenge we face currently is our inability to bring recruits on campus," he said. "Our beautiful campus and our team are our two best 'selling points' for recruits. Not being able to hang out with our team definitely hurts us in recruiting because our team does such a great job of sharing with recruits what it means to be part of the Elmhurst Track and Field community. In the meantime, we're using creative ways to keep our current athletes connected to the recruiting process. We've started having group video calls with our committed student-athletes, talking to them and introducing them to our team members earlier than they previously would have. As for students that haven't made a decision yet, we're trying to have as many face-to-face video calls to try and maintain as close to an in-person connection as possible. We're still trying to utilize our current team members to talk about their experiences at Elmhurst and the dynamics of our program. That element hasn't changed, just the method of communication has." 
 
While he hates being away from his student-athletes and Elmhurst's campus, Bartolazzi has enjoyed the extra family time.
 
"I have a two-year-old at home, so I've enjoyed a little extra time with her," he stated. "Coaching cross country in the fall and track all winter and spring means I very rarely have a free Saturday, so I am thankful for the extra time I get to spend at home. We've read a lot of books and have taken lots of walks!"
 
Bartolazzi is also enjoying one of the unique aspects his sports offer – the ability to train solo.

"I've spent more time reading lately than I normally do," he said. "Now's a good time to invest in my own coaching education. I try to make sure I get in at least a couple of walks every day and have also been able to enjoy my own running. I'm thankful that I coach and love a sport that can be done solo!"