Fresno State bringing spring sports seniors back next season – but there’s a catch

When the NCAA approved an additional year of eligibility for spring sports student-athletes who had their seasons and championship events canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic, the immediate questions at Fresno State and many other schools had to deal with the costs involved.

The additional scholarships for returning student-athletes at schools across the country ranged from $250,000 to $750,000 and the Bulldogs, with 10 spring sports, would land somewhere in between.

But while Fresno State has welcomed all of its seniors back, athletics director Terry Tumey said the athletics department will not be able to fund any additional scholarships with the COVID-19 squeezing an already tight budget

“Everything,” Tumey said, “is going to have to be done within the existing framework.”

That means Bulldogs spring sports coaches will have to find ways to fit additional student-athletes into existing NCAA scholarship limits – baseball still will have the equivalent of 11.7 scholarships, softball will have 12,0, men’s tennis 4.5, women’s lacrosse 12.0, women’s water polo 8.0.

And, that could lead to some tough decisions – returning seniors from 2020 in the equivalency sports can come back at the same level of aid they received last season, at a reduced level or with no scholarship aid.

Softball: Garza’s ‘juggling act’

“I’ve got some work to do,” softball coach Linda Garza said. “I have to keep 28 kids happy and we’re talented, so we’re going to see how good I am at this juggling act.”

Garza and the Bulldogs were 21-4 when their season was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and ranked 23rd in the ESPN/USA Softball Top 25. They had six seniors, and all but one will be returning.

Third baseman Haley Fuller is headed to grad school, but Kaitlyn Jennings, Hayleigh Galvan, Kelcey Carrasco, Schuylar Broussard and Miranda Rohleder all will be back next season.

There obviously is an upside to that.

The Bulldogs, Garza said, will be loaded with almost all of their 2020 team returning and six incoming freshmen.

“I’m glad the NCAA gave it to us,” Garza said. “It worked out in our favor right now just because kids, our student-athletes were coming back to finish up school, and we were able to financially make it work.

“The juggling act is making sure we can take care of everybody emotionally and still meet their needs because still only nine or 10 players play in the game. There are 18 players that aren’t going to be on the field. How do you manage that? If we can get them to buy into all of their roles, once we establish what those roles are, I will play anybody in the country. I feel like we’ll have the personnel to do it. We have the circle. We have the pitchers that can do it. That’s the biggest thing.”

Coaches in other sports also have made adjustments to accommodate returning 2020 seniors.

“I have some folks who get it,” Tumey said. “Coaches are doing some things that are unique and are staying within our scholarship allotment. If people were on aid, they’re keeping them on aid at either the same level or they may make some reductions. They’re coming up with ways to make it work to where we’re not spending more money.

“It takes an effort from all of us to get it there. We’re making some cuts. We’re going to have to make some drastic changes and everyone is doing it – every coach, every administrator is doing it, because at the end of the day we’re trying to make this work in a very difficult environment.”

The Bulldogs men’s tennis team had five seniors and three will be back including 2019 Mountain West player of the year Zdenek Derkas. One not returning, Bailey Gong from Exeter, is headed to graduate school at Cornell.

“We were in a pretty good spot because we hadn’t filled in a couple of roster positions and I’d say we’re more of a last-minute (recruiting) program,” coach Luke Shields said.

“We do land transfers and some other kids last-minute, and it just so happened when this happened we did have some scholarship space, which was nice, and we have a good administration that was willing to work with us and be a little flexible.”

Baseball: Batesole waiting on draft

Fresno State baseball coach Mike Batesole most years loses a number of juniors in the June draft – last year it was eight including Ryan Jensen, the first-round pick of the Chicago Cubs. But Major League Baseball has yet to finalize when, where and how many rounds there will be in the 2020 draft.

It could be as few as five or six rounds, which means the Bulldogs could have a number of 2020 juniors returning next season along with seniors Nik Cardinal and Ryan Sullivan and an incoming class of recruits.

Batesole has just the 11.7 scholarships to work with, but for now is waiting to see what happens with the MLB Draft.

“I have a lot more questions than answers right now,” Batesole said.

“The draft is probably the biggest factor in this. If they have 20 rounds, or five rounds. Then, who signs … until they hand down the rules, nobody knows. We have great kids, they all want to come back and we have smart people making those decisions, so let them make them.”

This story was originally published April 21, 2020 at 1:34 PM.