Soccer was the last thing on Northwestern men’s assistant soccer coach Erik Ronning’s mind as he traveled to an early-morning meeting last Tuesday.
Hearing of the horrific terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon from his car radio, Ronning immediately tried contacting his brother, who works in Manhattan. But it wasn’t until mid-afternoon that the first-year assistant was assured of his brother’s safety.
“I was in a little bit of a panic,” Ronning said. “I just didn’t know. That’s a horrible feeling.”
Ronning’s nightmarish experience echoed throughout the Wildcats athletic community, and, in an unprecedented move, NU’s administration canceled all sporting events last week because of the national tragedy. Athletics remained distant throughout the entire nation, as all Division I-A sports were put on hold.
The mood last week was something that NU Director of Athletics Rick Taylor said he could only compare with the day that President Kennedy was assassinated.
“This was much greater in the number and scope of people it affected,” Taylor said. “No one has been through anything of quite this magnitude.”
The events canceled included the cross country team’s meet against Illinois State, field hockey’s Big Ten/Big East Challenge, volleyball’s Wildcat Classic and the football team’s game against Navy. Both soccer squads along with the volleyball team have had matches postponed. No game has yet been rescheduled.
The football team has scheduled a game against Bowling Green on Nov. 17 to replace the Navy contest, while the cross country team will be running in the Illinois Invitational on Saturday in place of the Illinois State meet.
“There was no one that didn’t agree with this decision to cancel (athletic events),” Taylor said. “Sports, compared to what happened, is so miniscule and trivial. People can second-guess us, but I don’t care. We made the best decision we could.”
That decision came the day after last Tuesday’s tragedy. On the day of the terrorist attacks, most NU teams replaced practices with team meetings.
“We just shared with them about rallying around the country,” men’s head soccer coach Tim Lenahan said of a Sept. 11 meeting with his players.
“We spoke about representing the name (Northwestern) on the front of your shirt, and that (last Tuesday) we were not worried about being Northwestern. We were worried about being Americans.”
Although Ronning’s brother was safe, the attacks still hit home for the assistant coach. Ronning spent his college years playing for Colgate University in Hamilton, N.Y., and one of his former Colgate teammates died in the attack on the World Trade Center. Two other teammates are still missing.
No one’s mind appeared to be on sports last week.
“It was evident to me that our kids were altered,” field hockey coach Marisa Didio said. “There’s not very many athletes that I think would’ve been able to perform well (last) weekend.
“I think our group has done a great job with the practices that did occur last week. The kids have shown great resiliency and strength.”
Despite the insignificance of sports in the midst of the national crisis, NU coaches kept their teams focused on the upcoming season. Didio simulated her team’s match preparation during a practice last week by holding a normal pregame meeting, going through the pregame warmup and playing the pregame music.
Cats assistant volleyball coach Josh Grau saw the cancellations as a way for his team to rest and get extra practice for Big Ten competition. He also agreed that calling off athletic events was the right thing to do.
“It was our way of paying respect to the country,” he said. “Our pre-conference games are designed to get us ready for Big Ten matches. They allow us to solidify matchups. (Not playing) hurts us a little bit, but we were able to practice and it gave us extra time to prepare for our upcoming matches.”
Even as NU athletics return to a state of normalcy this weekend — with all fall sports teams competing — the vibrations of last week’s tragedy are still ringing.
Men’s tennis coach Paul Torricelli withdrew his team from this weekend’s Hurricane Fall Invitational in Miami because he doesn’t want his team to fly on a commercial airliner.
“My gut feeling was that things were still too uncertain and too close to the tragedy,” he said. “We missed out on some good competition, but it’s not a high priority right now.”
