By Matthew Bruin and Samantha McCleery
Quinnipiac University’s spring 2021 semester has included weekly testing and athletic tournament cancellations with an exclusion of spring break.
Although administrators have been doing what they can to keep the Quinnipiac and Hamden communities safe, mental health and exhaustion are affecting many athletes, coaches, students and faculty.
With the COVID-19 pandemic still a concern and the end of the spring semester approaching, these issues have hit extra hard and the burn out is becoming difficult to overcome.
Athletes:
Marisa Bruno – Senior Athlete – Acrobatics and Tumbling
After dealing with a few injuries and challenges throughout her athletic career at Quinnipiac, Marisa Bruno’s past two athletic seasons have drastically changed as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The last three years haven’t been the easiest in terms of physical skills on the mat for me and then you know just when I was trying to come back, COVID hit,” Bruno said. “Being on that schedule of waking up every morning and going to practice, that for me is my outlet, it’s my way away from my roommates, away from class, it’s kind of like a distraction and it’s really hard when that’s been taken away from us.”
Bruno said dealing with the uncertainty and an infrequent previous season has been another challenge.
“Sometimes we have it for a period of time, and then we’re quarantining for two weeks, and then we have it again, and then we get the season taken away from us, so I just think that’s like a big adjustment when we’re used to having it all the time,” she said.
Just last week, Bruno, along with the rest of her team, traveled to Maryland to compete in their first meet of this season against Frostburg State University. As soon as the bus arrived at their hotel, Bruno and her teammates were notified that someone related to their team had tested positive for COVID-19. Bruno said she was in shock.
“It was just like heartbreaking and devastating to know that we weren’t sure if we were going to compete at all, and then it felt like we finally got to that point and the whole season we were practicing not really knowing, and then when we got on that bus Friday morning I was like oh my god, are we actually going,” Bruno said. “Then to get there, and to hear we’re not competing, it affected the rest of our season and it was just really kind of heartbreaking.”
Putting the most recent upset aside, Bruno said although her athletic career at Quinnipiac was not what she expected due to COVID-19, she felt that she definitely grew as a person.
“I am one of those people that’s like go go go, like I need to be moving 24-7,” Bruno said. “I think if I have learned anything from COVID, it’s just that as a student and an athlete you need to like slow yourself down and kind of learn how to roll with the punches a little bit better.”
Melanie Mancini – Athlete – Acrobatics and Tumbling
After having her senior season on the acrobatics and tumbling team taken away last year because of the pandemic, returning to the team for a fifth year and having the same thing happen again seemed impossible to Melanie Mancini.
“I think a lot of the devastation, for me, happened last year, because I am overturning fifth year, so I got my senior season taken away last year and I was just like I can’t believe it’s happening to everyone again,” said Mancini.
On top of the general frustration given the circumstances of the pandemic, Mancini is tired of online classes and misses seeing everybody in person.
“I think it made me realize how much like human interaction is important, with each other, whether it’s sitting in the cafe doing homework together like you’ve really lost that connection with someone, like looking at them through zoom it’s just still not the same.”
Regardless of the uncertainty, Mancini said the pandemic has taught her to take a step back and really appreciate whatever she is given.
“A win might not necessarily be a win of a meet or getting to nationals or whatever, but our win this year was definitely just finally being able to be all together as a team on the mat practicing,” she said. “However many 40 of us are there and just be one big family, one big team, and just have each others back.”
Maggie Baker – Junior Athlete – Volleyball
As a student athlete on the volleyball team, Maggie Baker has felt the full mental and physical burnout of being a Division One athlete amid a pandemic.
“It’s always the uncertainty that really has gotten to us. We practice for five days really hard in a row, and then all of the sudden, we are in a ten day quarantine,” said Baker. “Then after the ten day quarantine, we have a match the first day we are out.”
On top of this exhaustion, Baker said sometimes it’s hard to keep having to adjust.
“It’s a lot mentally, obviously, like trying to stay tough and keep yourself in the right mindset, but then physically, it has been hard on the body. From going to 100 to zero then zero to 100. It’s just been a lot of off and on.”
Although Baker said that Zoom has made attending class as an athlete easier as she travels, she emphasized that the stresses that have come with the pandemic have been frustrating.
“Competitions are always nerve racking but then, knowing that this can be your last, or it could be canceled, and the whole season be done, with an already small minimized season anyways it’s tough,” said Baker. “I am a junior so I have two years left to play hopefully, but for our seniors our hearts go out to them hoping we can give as many games to them as possible, because this is their last go for it.”
Coaches:
Mary Ann Powers – Head Coach – Acrobatics and Tumbling
After months of on and off training for the acrobatics and tumbling team this year, competing in three meets for the 2021 season was a step in the right direction for Mary Ann Powers, head coach. However, after traveling over eight hours to compete in their first meet last week, one of the athletes on their bus tested positive for COVID-19 forcing them to turn around and cancel the rest of the season.
“Simply stated, I felt that I was an alien on another planet, I felt like how do I get back on this bus and say this to these kids, and let them know at some point that it was all going to be ok, when in that moment it was not,” Powers said.
On top of changing her coaching methods over the course of the year, Powers said that this was just another obstacle that made being a coach difficult.
“How do I take the emotions of 35 people on a bus and try to keep them in a place where they could be allowed to express anger and disappointment and anxiety,” she said. “And recognize that those were going to be byproducts of that realization, but at the same time set them forward to return to campus and just hang on.”
Although Powers has remained hopeful on and off the mat, as a coach, she, just like many in the Quinnipiac community, is doing whatever it takes to make things better, even if it means facing harsh realities.
“My exhaustion comes from just wanting to make it better, and to find methodology to just continuously lift people,” she said. “But at some point you have to sit back and you have to do some self care and you have to realize that this is out of our control, and you have to be very accepting of that.”
Camren Diaz – Assistant Coach – Acrobatics and Tumbling
Camren Diaz, currently an assistant coach for the acrobatics and tumbling team, has faced many challenges throughout the pandemic with trying to get her team to compete.
“At least last season we had three meets before COVID really hit and we had to stop competing, but this year we haven’t had a single meet yet,” she said. “Normally, we have anywhere between five to six regular season meets before national championships, and this year we only had three scheduled.”
The constant cancellation of meets due to COVID-19 caused Diaz and her team to have to make sacrifices such as having a busier schedule than normal.
“Because we had so many weeks of lost practice time because of COVID, we tried making our schedule as condensed as possible, so we scheduled all of our meets back to back weekends,” she said.
The team ran into another issue recently on their way to their first meet of the season: one of the teammates on the bus tested positive for COVID-19.
“Because this exposure happened on Friday, technically the team has to quarantine for ten days and so that already takes away two of our three meets,” Diaz said. “Then in order to return to practice, the entire team has to have a certain number of negative tests. With that, we will just be well into April and so we were forced to cancel all of our meets.”
While it has been hard for Diaz and her team to have to cancel even more thanks to COVID-19, she looks at the positive of what this means for the athletes and coaches.
“While it made us kind of on edge, I think that it has made us appreciate the time that we have had together,” she said. “Just knowing that one positive test could affect so much forces us to be so conscientious about where we are going and who we are seeing, and the decisions we are making in terms of our social lives…”
As a former athlete, Diaz sees the difficulties the athletes on her team have faced compared to what she remembered.
“I know a lot of our student athletes have really struggled with not going places and not seeing their friends like they have been able to in past seasons,” she said. “It’s even affected our team chemistry this year because the team really isn’t able to bond.”
Rebecca Carlson- Rugby Coach
As the person who her athletes rely on, there is a lot of pressure on Rebecca Carlson as she guides her rugby team through such uncertain times.
“COVID has helped to shine a light on how little we take care of our people,” she said.
While COVID-19 has been difficult for student athletes, the coaches of those students also have been faced with struggles throughout this past year.
“It’s always ‘this is what students are doing,’” Carlson said. “Coaches are the first people they go to, they see their coaches more than their professors sometimes, but coaches haven’t been a part of the conversation. We’re trying to keep the team together, but no one is there to take care of the people taking care of the athletes.”
This lack of attention toward athletic coaches has caused Carlson to have trouble finding a balance between her team and her personal life.
“Coaches are busy taking care of everything that sometimes coaches have a hard time putting focus on their personal lives,” she said.
Carlson and other athletic coaches are just as unaware of what is to come as everyone else.
“Coaches are flying through this blindly,” she said. “Coaches don’t have anything to lean on, you’re what your team leans on especially now during a pandemic, and we’re not psychiatrists.”
COVID-19 has created many issues within the athletic community at Quinnipiac and athletes as well as coaches are still learning and growing.
Students:
Alyssa Murphy – Senior media studies major- Q30 planning and engagement coordinator
As she is a very involved college student, the pressures of school, personal life and taking care of herself have taken a toll on Alyssa Murphy’s mental health.
“I am starting to feel burnt out now that the semester is coming to an end because this entire year has been so demanding with the pandemic, being in my senior year of college and being very involved on campus,” Murphy said.
The burnout has not made the end of this spring semester easy for Murphy.
“At the end of the year everything is starting to pick up with things needing to get done. We are at the time where I want everything to slow down, but it is suddenly speeding up even more,” she said.
With the challenges of the past year, Murphy has found it challenging being so involved with Q30 and school while trying to maintain healthy friendships and relationships.
“It has been difficult to balance everything because it almost feels as if there is just not enough time in the day to get things done,” she said. “I have found myself wanting to put my best foot forward with Q30 and wanting to make sure I pass all my classes and I do well academically. So, it is almost as if my social life and friendships have taken a bit of a backburner, which is not something I am happy about.”
Michael Ulitsch – Junior entrepreneurship major in the 3+1 accelerated masters program.
Students have been struggling with the burnout of this past semester and year in general with COVID-19. With no spring break, Michael Ulitsch and other college students have struggled with no time off from school work.
“I had kind of a lighter semester workload wise so that’s been nice, but, obviously without a spring break it’s kind of weird,” Ulitsch said. “You see kids from other schools, having their spring break and having fun, getting a nice break from school when they need it, but not us.”
While Quinnipiac did provide a few mental health days for students in place of spring break, it may not have been enough.
“The mental health days are cool, but it’s just kind of weird that professors still do assign work on the mental health days and all that,” Ulitsch said.
Ulitsch also mentioned COVID-19 guidelines within the Quinnipiac bubble and how this has impacted his social life.
“Living on campus this semester definitely has been tough with all the COVID guidelines and the limitations and stuff like that,” he said. “You know I feel like it’s kind of a chore to like to see my friends, which is just not how it should be.”
While this semester has been challenging, Ulitsch has been trying to remain optimistic.
“I’m trying to make the best out of it so even now i’m trying to enjoy school, but you know it’s challenging at times with the guidelines and the different attitudes.”
Christopher Ball- Associate Professor of Economics at Quinnipiac University
Professors, such as Christopher Ball, are also feeling the effects of burnout as this school year comes to an end. With more classes to teach and meetings to attend, the exhaustion of school during COVID-19 is beginning to hit.
“All the professors at Quinnipiac are teaching an extra class.m So if you taught two you are teaching three and if you taught three you are teaching four. Yet, everything we do takes ten times more effort,” Ball said.
On top of this, COVID-19 has caused a lot more work in general for professors, especially when it comes to everything now being virtual. Ball has been experiencing this issue first hand.
“There are meetings all of the time and because of COVID they can just schedule them any time because everybody is virtual,” he said. “So you just get burned out where all day every day you get meeting invites or you are meeting with students.”
Ball also touched upon the fact that the work load does not get easier as the semester comes to an end.
“I think it gets worse until right after the graduation ceremonies,” he said. “My guess is mid-May is going to come around and nobody is going to want to meet for anything.”
Faculty such as Ball are feeling the effects of burnout and mental exhaustion. Ball quoted something his friend said to him once that summed up his overall feelings about this challenging year.
“COVID gave us all more work and less life,” he said.
Tom Ellett- Chief Experience Officer at Quinnipiac University
Tom Ellett has seen first hand how COVID-19 has been affecting the Quinnipiac community. The students and faculty have been feeling the mental exhaustion of not having a spring break, having more work to do and more classes to teach.
“You know it’s not only about students, it’s about faculty getting a spring break. They need a break you know, instead of the routine class, grade papers, etc. Everyone needs it, so was [no spring break] ideal absolutely not. Is there something better, I don’t think so,” said Ellett. “It’s a pandemic, let’s not lose sight of that.”
On a more personal level, Ellett has felt the effects of the pandemic in his own life.
“My mother got COVID and she is now in a nursing home,” he said. “So personally, it certainly affected me to some degree.”
While this year has not been easy for Ellett, he looks to the brighter side of things.
“She is 92, so I have had a blessed life of having her all my life to date. Yes it impacted me, but different from others.”
Ellett also spoke on how Quinnipiac students, faculty and staff can work past the burnout everyone is feeling during the remainder of this school year.
“I think everything in life is overwhelming if you allow it to be. You have to think about creating strategies for yourself that will make you more successful. Making sure you start the day by doing exercise and eating healthy,” he said. “One thing we all have that is equal is time. It’s how we use our time… I think that’s really important.”
Additional reporting by Karyse Gocoul