On Monday, January 18th, the CCIW released schedules for some fall sports that were previously cancelled due to COVID-19.
The sports included in this makeshift schedule are the football team, mens and womens soccer teams, and womens volleyball.
Each sport has a different number of games, all of which will remain as in-conference competition as either exhibitions, scrimmage or conference counting games which will total out to be around 40-50 percent of a normal season.
There will be no opportunity for conference championships or National College Athletic Association tournaments for fall sports. The typical spring sports will have little to no difference in schedules and will include outside of conference games, conference championships and NCAA tournaments.
Women’s volleyball will start the week of February 21, followed by men’s and women’s soccer and football starting on March 20th.
While there are still no fans permitted at these sporting events, IWU’s athletic department, led by athletic director Mike Wagner has made some improvements for fans to be able to participate in these seasons virtually.
“In a collaborative effort between IWU Athletics Communications director Katie Gonzales, associate athletic director Tony Bankston and Titan Streaming director Curtis Kelch, we will be live streaming as many games as possible this Winter and Spring” Wagner said.
In addition to the streaming services and plans for watching the games remotely the athletic department has also resurrected the radio station.
“We are also very excited to have WESN be the new home of broadcasting Titan Athletic contests. The university administration, Associate AD-Tony Bankston and Derek Bohlmann have worked very hard to resurrect the station and we are excited to be a small part of it” Wagner said.
The men’s basketball team has their first competitive game Saturday, January 23rd at Carroll University in Waukesha, Wisconsin. Links to the game and other Titan sporting events can be found at www.iwusports.com.
“Our goal is to bring a ring back to IWU. We have worked hard without knowing whether we would even be able to play a season this year” sophomore basketball player Ryan Verhulst said.
“We are just excited to be able to play games against another team. With all that’s gone on with the pandemic and quarantine we all appreciate the opportunity to go out and play even more. We are going to make some noise this year” sophomore basketball player Luke Yoder said.
They head into this shortened season as the number four team in the nation and favorites to win the CCIW for the first time since the title was shared with Augustana in 2018.
Stay tuned to the Argus for updates, results and stories of this semester’s Titan athletics.
All photos courtesy of IWU Athletics (Instagram: @iwusports).