hletic department address.)
Kenney remains
optimistic for Bona
sports in 2020-21
ST. BONAVENTURE, N.Y. — In an unrelentingly overcast era in sports, Tim Kenney chose to be refreshingly optimistic.
The affable St. Bonaventure athletic director, with some pop and pep in his presentation, used phrases such “going on as normal,” “there’s a lot of good stuff here” and “we’re going forward.” Much like he’s been in previous public proclamations since the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Kenney was more a rallying point than doomsday predictor.
The fifth-year AD, to be sure, acknowledged that there’s still plenty of uncertainty when it comes to the continuation of athletics — and school life, in general — at Bona.
“I’ve said this to the staff plenty of times … you’re going to hear some words all the time coming out of my mouth: ‘I don’t know,’” he stressed in a conference call with season ticket holders in late April. “Because we don’t know. There’s so many different ways this can go.”
Mostly, though, he presented a positive outlook on the state of the athletic department, particularly with its flagship program: Men’s basketball.
“From a basketball standpoint, everything is going as normal right now (within the context of established rules and guidelines),” he said, “until we’re told it can’t, and we’re hoping that doesn’t happen.
“But if it does, then we’re going to have to be ready to pivot — left, right, wherever it is — to figure out what can be done. But right now, everything is going smooth for us.”
THE BASIS for being able to breathe (relatively) easy lie in the state of St. Bonaventure as a whole.
While other schools have already suffered severe financial losses as a result of the coronavirus — and stand to lose tens of millions more if there’s no collegiate football season — Bona has mostly been able to weather the metaphorical storm.
That’s not to say that the local Atlantic 10 school is immune to the effect.
“We know we’re getting some revenue cuts,” Kenney conceded. “We all have to tighten our belts; we understand that.”
But as Bona has hung in there, so have the athletics programs.
“The irony of all the trials and tribulations that have happened at St. Bonaventure at times (in the past) …,” he said, “we’re more prepared to handle this type of thing than a lot of these schools. Case in point: I (recently received) an email update saying we’re only nine deposits down in freshmen from a year ago. Only nine.
“There’s school’s that are 20 percent down, 30 percent down, they’re all petrified. The stuff that’s been laid in, that we’ve been doing for the past four, five years, has really taken hold, and so far, I’m knocking on wood, that’s a great thing.”
ABOUT 10 weeks before fall teams are due to report to campus, Kenney said Bona is “banking on” reopening at its typical late-August start date.
That means that coaches can proceed under their normal timelines … or as close to normal as they can be right now. But it doesn’t mean that those seasons will necessarily start on time.
Echoing what A-10 commissioner Bernadette McGlade outlined to reporters earlier this month, Kenney noted that a number of potential contingency plans are in the works should COVID-19-related issues remain.
“(In) New York, we’ve hit a peak, maybe we’re coming down,” he said. “But Chicago, it might be higher again through the fall, or the midwest, or other places that it’s catching up. And that continuity across the country is the concerning part as to, can certain areas play and others not? Is that fair? You start to juggle those things.
“I can tell you right now, we’re looking at other contingency models, certain things such as shortening some conference seasons, to be prepared if we have to wait. You name it, there’s all these different things. But every time you open one contingency, it opens up about 20 options all in that one.”
KENNEY commended the school’s admissions department, saying that the staff has “worked its tail off” to be down only nine deposits from last year.
He asserted that, despite the myriad challenges athletic departments are currently facing, Bona is “probably” on track to have more student-athletes in 2020-21 than it did last school year.
And that isn’t the case everywhere. Many schools have, sadly, already begun the process of eliminating athletics programs, cutting budgets and laying off/furloughing coaches and other officials.
“That’s the amazing part of that,” Kenney said.
Bona, like any other school across the country, is far from in the clear from a financial and logistics standpoint — “We just don’t know,” he reiterated. At the moment, however, there’s reason to be hopeful.
And amid the continuing onslaught of bad news, that’s a welcome message.
“I feel positive, and I’m going to continue to keep thinking positive that we’ll be able to enter the fall and be fine,” he said. “Until then, if not, then I don’t know … I’ll lose all my hair and just have nothing but a beard left. But so far, so good.
“There’s no talk yet about basketball being canceled. You hear a lot about football, and that’s the concerning one, because the big boys in football stand to lose (millions of dollars) if it doesn’t go, and that’s where all the focus has been right now, which has allowed us to say, ‘well, we can always just go along that timeline and see how basketball goes.”
“But,” he added, “as of right now, it’s all guns blazing, we’re going forward.”
(J.P. Butler, Bradford Publishing Company group sports editor, can be reached at jbutler@oleantimesherald.com)
