Ivy League: Players find creative ways to train, compete during pandemic

Quinn Cleary and three of his Yale classmates decided to train in Florida this semester. (Courtesy photo)

From the sudden end to the 2020 season in March to a changed summer and fall routine to the uncertainty that remains about what is to come this spring, saying that college baseball players nationwide have had a wild year would be an understatement.

The start to the academic year from a baseball perspective was largely unchanged for some schools, but it was a most unique fall on the Ivy League’s four New England campuses. At Brown, Dartmouth, Harvard and Yale, traditional baseball workouts were few and far between with the number of students on campus limited, to varying degrees, due to the continuing COVID-19 pandemic.

With options for on- and off-campus living and remote learning, the Ancient Eight’s fall and winter sports were completely canceled. While spring teams won’t compete until at least March, hope for some sort of baseball season remained alive following what was a non-traditional yet productive fall.

“To put a positive spin on it, there were fewer guys around and that meant everyone got more attention,” said Harvard coach Bill Decker, whose freshman class was able to take part in more traditional workouts in Cambridge. Players living locally and off-campus trained on a field adjacent to Harvard’s athletic facilities.