Bethlehem Catholic and Freedom’s track and field coaches continued to hold out hope for a spring sports season until Pa. Gov. Tom Wolf closed schools throughout the state for the remainder of the school year on April 9.

“When I heard the governor closed schools, I thought, this is not good,” said Becahi coach Fred Rice.

The following day, Rice’s fears were confirmed by Becahi athletic director Chris Domyan via text message that the spring sports season was officially canceled. Rice then worked on putting together an email message for his Hawks.

“I let them know I am hurt for them way more than for myself, and for the seniors who have no closure, it’s a bridge we never crossed before, but I want them all to be safe and hope we all get though this,” Rice said.

Freedom coach Charlie Heidecker turned to milesplit.com after hearing the governor’s announcement.

“The first thing I saw was that the remainder of the winter season and spring sports were canceled,” Heidecker said. “Although I’m not completely surprised with the cancellation, still, it is sad.”

As the weeks without school and practice went by, Heidecker had allowed himself to wonder what a shortened track season would look like and knew that something would need to be done soon to salvage the season.

“We will continue to communicate with our athletes and be supportive to them,” said Heidecker. “We’ll deal with the adversity the way you have to in sports: accept the position we are in, use it as a learning-teaching tool, and pull together our energies to continue to improve.”