NJCAA pushes back start of wrestling season

NIC’s first matches will be in January, with nationals in April

Avoiding a possible second wave of the coronavirus pandemic, coupled with a push to make wrestling a one-semester sport has North Idaho College wrestling coach Mike Sebaaly feeling as confident as is possible during these uncertain times.

Saying it wanted “to protect the best interest for student-athlete health and safety,” the NJCAA on Friday pushed back the bulk of its upcoming wrestling season, which affects NIC.

Fall practice will still begin on Oct. 1, and run through Oct. 31. Practice for the regular season will begin Jan. 1, with Jan. 20 being the first day allowed for competition.

The NJCAA Wrestling Championship is scheduled for April 23-24 at the Mid-American Center in Council Bluffs, Iowa.

“I’m super excited about it, in the fact that it means we’re going to have a season,” Sebaaly said. “There’s always that fear ... with wrestling being such a high-contact, close-contact sport — how are we going to do this? And we avoid the second wave of (COVID-19 in) November-December with this decision.”

Wrestling is the lone NIC program remaining in the NJCAA. The Cardinals’ other programs are in the more-regional Northwest Athletic Conference.

“The NWAC has not made any specific recommendations yet (for the resumption of sports in the fall),” NIC athletic director Bobby Lee said. “The schools are in so many different places in relation to the COVID and budget status, I am not sure what will happen.”

Lee, who was named AD at NIC in November, said the school has not announced a plan for its students and athletes to return to campus.

“My hope is to have everyone back on campus for the start of fall,” Lee said, “but the health and safety of all involved is the most important.”

NIC usually starts its preseason practices on Oct. 1, with its first competition being either the last weekend in October or the first weekend in November.

Now, NJCAA wrestlers will essentially take a two-month break, which will run through the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays. Sebaaly said experts predict a second wave of the coronavirus to take place around November and December.

In previous years, the Cardinals wrestled before, between and after those holidays, and weight management was an issue with its athletes, who often wrestled days after returning from campus.

“My kids can go eat,” said Sebaaly, who will be in his second season as NIC coach. “They can enjoy the holidays with their families.”

The Tri-State Invitational, a popular high school wrestling tournament hosted by NIC, is scheduled for Dec. 18-19.

The modification to the NJCAA wrestling season is just a one-year deal, said Sebaaly, who wouldn’t mind if the new dates became permanent.

“There’s some great things about this,” he said. “I think it’s going to help with retention as well, because in the first semester kids can focus on their grades a little bit more, because they’re now just going to have a one-semester season. Often when the season ends in March, we have to keep them in line for two months without sports. With the national tournament April 23-24, when we get back to campus, there’s only going to be two weeks of school left.”

In past years, the national tournament was either in late February or early March.

“Often times we go to nationals, they come back, they go to spring break ... student-athletes sometimes lose their motivation.”

Sebaaly said he’ll have to put together a new schedule for this season.

“We had a lot of things scheduled between Oct. 28, which was our Red-Gray match, and Jan. 20th. All of those are off.”

Also, NIC often wrestles against NCAA and NAIA schools, in duals and at tournaments, mostly in November and December, and neither of those organizations have adjusted their seasons — yet.

“Finding competition might be a little more difficult, but I think it’s an exciting opportunity and we’ll see how it goes,” Sebaaly said.

The total length of the season will be roughly the same — just spread out more. Between fall camp and preseason practices, wrestlers will actually have an additional week or two on the mat before their first competition than under the old schedule.

“It gives you some time in October to maybe work on technique a little bit more,” Sebaaly said. “You’ve got more time to work on development.”

As for the extra precautions that have to be taken as sports resume, Sebaaly said wrestling is better suited for this than other sports.

“People think about the close contact of it, but wrestling has been showering after practice,” Sebaaly said. “Wrestling has been mopping down mats before and after practice. Wrestling has been worried about disinfectant because of skin issues. So, making sure we’re sanitizing is not new to wrestling. It’s something we’ve already been doing.

“We always wipe down those spin bikes afterward,” he said. “Now they want to take your temperature before practice. Well, we were already doing skin checks before competition, so when you’re doing their skin check, pop their forehead, make sure they don’t have a temperature. For wrestling, a lot of these procedures and protocols are already in place, and it’s not going to change what we do.”