UMAC announces 2020 Spring Salute campaign
ST. PAUL, Minn.---Following the cancellation of remaining spring sport seasons and tournaments and championships due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Upper Midwest Athletic Conference (UMAC) will launch the "2020 Spring Salute" as a means to honor all spring conference programs, coaches and student-athletes during the remainder of the 2019-20 academic year, it was announced Wednesday.
Throughout the remaining weeks of the spring season, the UMAC will recognize all nine full-member institutions with a dedicated day of content for spring sports on its website and social media platforms. The content will honor spring sport seniors as well as provide words of gratitude and appreciation from coaches. On those days, UMAC fans are encouraged to share messages of support and gratitude on social media using #UMACsalute and mentioning the conference (@umacathletics).
Additionally, the conference will conduct and publish video interviews with UMAC spring sport senior student-athletes to share their personal stories about their collegiate experiences. Other interviews will include campus coaches and staff. The UMAC will also provide opportunity for fan engagement on its social media platforms which will include fan polls.
All information and published content can be found on the
"2020 Spring Salute" homepage.
A message from UMAC Assistant Commissioner Sara Quinnell:
It's hard to put into words what the last two weeks have been like for anyone no matter what type of career field you work in. That's saying a lot for someone who has spent the first 10 years of her career using words to tell stories. No one in our lifetime has really experienced anything like this – Sept. 11, 2001 was my 13th birthday, and I remember the 2008 economic downturn as it was a backdrop to my final two years in college. This COVID-19 thing, though, is something different that will forever change our world. For those of us who work in college athletics, I think it will forever change how we do our jobs and how we feel about them.
I personally know that I will never again take for granted the opportunity I have to publish conference postseason awards or to hand out trophies and t-shirts to a championship-winning team. Now that I can't do those things for so many student-athletes, I am finally starting to understand how important those little actions really are. Over the last two weeks I've realized that sports really ARE important. In fact, you could say the moment the NBA halted its season, that's when things were put into motion. The devastation was truly realized for so many of us when the NCAA canceled all remaining winter and spring sport championships for 2019-20 the following day.
What came next was heartbreaking. Numerous conference calls of our administrators weighing options and discussing campus challenges and conversations in the wake of what seemed like an ever-changing problem that may never stop. Announcing that we were canceling all remaining UMAC regular season contests, tournaments and championships was gut-wrenching. Though it was inevitable, posting the release on our website was by far the most difficult action I've taken in my career.
Being a Division III student-athlete is what propelled me into this career. My experience of being a four-year athlete changed me and helped me become a strong, resilient individual who was prepared to take on any challenge. I would say the lessons I learned over 10 years ago from being a collegiate athlete have really shown through during this difficult time. Seeing the opportunity for so many student-athletes cut short still haunts me every day right now. I hate knowing that decisions that were made with so little knowledge of what the future might look like has forced our amazing coaches and staff to have difficult conversations with their young people that they never could have imagined. I still struggle daily knowing so many seniors won't have a proper end to their careers, one that I am still forever grateful that I had.
However, I get it. I know that this is about saving lives. I am 100-percent on board. The only thing left for us to do is embrace this situation and make the most of it. That's why we developed the 2020 Spring Salute. While so many people in my seat are now challenged with promoting a conference brand without actually having a product, creativity has taken over for many of us. I thought long and hard about what we could do – we could honor each and every senior and team with photos and videos and ... the list goes on. Instead, we're taking this approach and hoping to recognize our programs and coaches in subtle ways, while also having student-athletes and coaches share their own stories.
We also hope that fans and parents and campus members will join in – share your messages of gratitude, support and love with our programs and teams. Participate in our interactive content when we have it. We know this has impacted so many beyond just our teams and coaches. The 2020 Spring Salute is about everyone coming together around our love of college athletics. While I know that this won't take away the pain and challenge of what has happened and what lies ahead, I hope it is an opportunity for joy.
Through all of this, I know that the UMAC will be fine. We have an incredible leader in our Commissioner Corey Borchardt and campus presidents and chancellors who are working tirelessly to protect their students, faculty and staff while still keeping things on par. We have fantastic, caring and strong athletics administrators who are doing the best they can to support student-athletes, coaches and staff during this difficult time. We have dedicated coaches who are putting aside their own grief and heartache to do what they do best – support and care for their student-athletes. We have resilient support staff in our athletics trainers, game managers, athletics communications personnel and other administrators who always put student-athletes first. Most of all, we have incredible Division III student-athletes who are going to go out and make a difference in the world no matter what. All of these people make me incredibly proud to be part of the UMAC and confident that we're going to come out on the other end of this even stronger than before.
Thank you, UMAC.