A Promising Season Halted By Our First Global Pandemic
By Al Wermer, Men’s Tennis Coach
April 1, 2020
On March 12, I was driving in a mini-van with our team for a match in Buffalo. Assistant coach Josh Page was a few hundred yards behind us in another vehicle with the other four players. Over those previous couple of days, many scheduled sports events had begun to unravel. Nevertheless, we were ready and excited for the next day and our MAC-opening match of 2020. Still, there was certainly some trepidation in the air, wondering if we’d really get to play or not.
Five hours into our trip, just after we crossed the New York state line, we got the message: our match against Buffalo had been canceled. So we turned around at the next toll stop and headed home. It was a surreal moment for all of us.
The next day—Friday the 13th—things really started to dissolve: the NCAA Basketball tourneys were halted; UToledo and most other schools were going to online format; all NCAA spring sports were instantly canceled; and our campus was essentially closing down. Again, surreal.
With six international students on our team, we knew they'd be pressing to get home quickly. The next day, I was trading all kinds of messages from team members about rides to Detroit Metro Airport, etc. Flight arrangements were unbelievably fluid and complicated. One of our players spent 10 hours in constant search of flight to Europe.
Sunday morning, still in disbelief, I started creating a "gear turn-in" checklist when I got another message from our Polish player, Krzysztof Wetoszka: "Can you get me to the airport today!?" Poland had scrambled a few flights for students out of NYC or Chicago, to be reserved through their embassy, and Krzysztof had managed to get a seat. At the same time, we quickly pivoted to call a quick team "end of year" lunch meeting, joined by our academic advisor, Emily Patton.
Danilo Vukotic, a who will graduate (remotely) in May, came to his "senior year recognition luncheon" with all his possessions packed in two giant travel bags for his trip home to Serbia, departing DTW at 7:00 p.m. Suddenly, this senior's college tennis career was over! After our impromptu comments, Danilo said goodbye to his teammates, and he joined Krys and I out the door to the airport.
On our way to the airport, Danilo read a message from his dad: "Armed military will be patrolling streets of Belgrade to enforce the lockdown. Those in violation will be subject to three years in jail." Again, surreal.
Now it's been two weeks since all this happened. Ernie (Thawin Suksathaporn, from Thailand) is only guy is left here, studying at his campus apartment and awaiting summer and next-year engineering internships. Today I will deliver him a home-made mask he can wear to the grocery store. Everyone else made it out of town--most over those few days after our "year-end" team meeting. All were confined to minimum of the 14-day “shelter-in-place” upon arrival -- even our guy in St. Louis, Max Skaer!
Since that hasty breakup, our group messages typically entail a bit of administrative items, academics online logistics, etc. But most of the message content has involved random jabs at each other (typical team stuff) and well-wishes. Maybe we’ll do a group Zoom this week. It's the first global pandemic for all of us, so I guess we’re not that sure how to react.
Stay well everybody and Go Rockets!
Krzysztof Wetoszka and Danilo Vukotic head into the terminal at Detroit Metro Airport on
their way to their respective homes on March 15.
Previous Rocket Blogs
Coming Together as a Team to Help Sara (March 31, 2020)
Isolation Can Make Time Management a Challenge For Students (March 28, 2020)
Many Challenges Are Ahead for Rocket Athletics (March 25, 2020)
Waking Up From a Perfect Dream to Face a New Reality (March 20, 2020)
Saranlak Tumfong Begins Fight Against Cancer (March 19, 2020)
Healthy Ways to Deal with Anxiety During a Health Crisis (March 18, 2020)
A Note From the Athletic Director: Stay Strong Rocket Nation! (March 17, 2020)
How Can We Live Without Sports? For Now, We Must (March 14, 2020)
They Call it March Madness for a Reason (March 10, 2020)
Networking Connects Student-Athletes to Potential Futures Outside of Their Sport (Feb. 28, 2020)
The Battle Against Breast Cancer is Everyone's Fight (Feb. 20, 2020)
Organ Donation is the Greatest Gift You Can Give (Feb. 12, 2020)
Rockets Keep Winning the Recruiting War (Feb. 6, 2020)
Candle's assistant coach hires are great news for the Rockets (Jan. 31, 2020)
