The pandemic continues to shut down sports events. This time, the world of college sports has been rattled. The Duke women’s basketball team has decided to end their season due to covid-19. “The student-athletes on the Duke women's basketball team have made the difficult decision to conclude their current season due to safety concerns,” stated Michael Schoenfeld, Duke's vice president for public affairs and government relations and chief communications officer, in a statement. “We support their decision, as we have supported the choices made by all student-athletes at Duke during this unprecedented time.”
“Duke will maintain our current schedule of competition in other sports and will continue to observe our rigorous health and safety protocols, which include daily testing for all student-athletes and are based on guidance from leading medical experts," he continued. The season initially stopped for Duke on December 16 because of two confirmed cases within the team's ranks. The Blue suspended games against Miami, NC State, and UNC Wilmington before finally throwing in the towel for the entire season.
Duke men’s coach Mike Krzyzewski has been vocal about his opinions about ongoing sports during the pandemic. “People are saying the next six weeks are going to be the worst,” Krzyzewski said. “To me, it's already pretty bad. On the other side of it, there are these vaccines that are coming out. By the end of the month, 20 million vaccine shots will be given. By the end of January or in February, another 100 million. Should we not reassess that? See just what would be best?”
“I would just like for the safety, the mental and physical health of players and staff to assess where we're at,” he continued. Duke’s women’s team is the first Power 5 team to shut down.