FAYETTEVILLE — Experiencing the all-new makes Colby Hale appreciate the tried and true.
Hale coaches the Arkansas Razorbacks reigning SEC champion women’s soccer team beset working through the world turned coronavirus upside down.
Whether wondering if his team will play to monitoring team health every day, Hale recycles cliches in a positive way. They provide advice he’s imparted to his Razorbacks since all collegiate sports ceased last mid-March.
The same cliches sustained through an uncertain summer. Those uncertainties eventually eliminated nonconference games. They reduced Arkansas’ fall soccer schedule to eight SEC games and the SEC Tournament with maybe a NCAA Tournament postponed until spring.
“We kind of joke that all those cliches you remember in the good times, you kind of remember where they came from in the tough times,” Hale said. “Take it one day at a time. There are no guarantees in life. That’s one thing we’ve learned. There are no guarantees in life. I think this has been a growth process for all of us.”
An intangible process he sees tangibly.
“Our team is incredibly resilient and tough,” Hale said. “ I feel really confident we’ve handled it as well or better than anyone.”
He cited plenty of support from the SEC and Arkansas Athletic Director Hunter Yurachek.
“They’ve done a really good job keeping us in the loop,” Hale said. “Hunter has been fantastic. He did a couple of Zooms with our players. He’s kept me updated and asked my opinion. He really did a nice job with everything.”
Hale applauds the NCAA restoring 2020 eligibility through 2021 for all fall sports athletes.
“I think now they can wrap their arms around that I will get my season back if I want that,” Hale said.
Hale’s Razorbacks may play two academic year seasons. Instead of spring exhibitions they may play actual games leading into a postponed NCAA Tournament.
“If 50 percent teams drop out you can’t play a NCAA Tournament so they moved it to the spring,” Hale said, noting so many teams withdrew from 2020 fall sports. “I think it will be a modified NCAA Tournament in some way.”
A spring configured NCAA Tournament may seem a pipe dream. Playing anything this fall suffices for Arkansas returning the gist of a 17-4-1 2019. Hale’s 2019 Razorbacks upset No. 1 North Carolina. In the SEC they went 8-1-1 winning UA soccer’s first conference crown. They were SEC Tournament runner-up and delved two rounds into their fourth consecutive NCAA Tournament.
Arkansas returns SEC Co-Defensive Player of the Year Haley VanFossen, SEC Freshman of the Year forward Anna Podojil, and All SEC first-team forwards Taylor Malham and Parker Goins. Among others they add 2018 star midfielder Kayla McKeon, injured all 2019, and freshman Ellie Podojil, “Anna’s quite talented sister,” Hale said.
“I think we’d have to be picked pretty high,” Hale said. “But whatever our season it will be what we make of taking it day by day.”
They’ve come a long way fulfilling cliches.