Spring Forward

Usually October is one of the busiest months in college athletics. Fall sports teams are gearing up for their stretch runs toward postseason participation. Winter sports squads are preparing for the start of their campaigns. Student-athletes whose sport seasons typically take place during the spring are in the midst of fall training to get a head start.

Under normal circumstances, Roosevelt Athletics would have had an abnormal autumn due to its extensive busyness in 2020. Thanks to a long list of new teams in the fold following the integration with Robert Morris University Illinois, Roosevelt now features more than 25 programs with new offerings ranging from football to bowling to eSports.

However, what was to be a unique action-packed fall turned out to be much less eventful than anticipated.

The impacts of COVID-19 halted athletics this past spring. The public health space that the nation remains in as of publication pushed pause on fall activities and created a mass movement of sport schedules to the spring 2021 semester.

Starting in January, sports that are used to being in the thick of their seasons will be merely starting an abbreviated slate as the men’s and women’s basketball teams are scheduled to open the 14-game Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference (CCAC) campaign on Jan. 2.

Roosevelt University women’s volleyball vs. Governors State in 2019.

January will also feature action with different types of nets as the women’s and men’s volleyball teams start their league slates later in the month. Roosevelt unveils its men’s volleyball program to the world on Jan. 19 when the Lakers host Cardinal Stritch. The women’s volleyball team will be ready for a Jan. 28 clash against Governors State in University Park.

From there it becomes a domino of sports engaging in their respective regular seasons. The new Roosevelt football team opens with a Mid-States Football Association home date against St. Ambrose on Feb. 6 in Arlington Heights.

February also marks the start of the other brand of football for the Lakers, as fixtures for the RU men’s and women’s soccer sides gear up with CCAC action six months after their usual August openers. The women’s team opens on Feb. 20 against Saint Xavier, and the men’s team hopes to build off of last year’s NAIA National Championship berth beginning with a road lid-lifter at Governors State on Feb. 27.

Roosevelt welcomes Peoria Campus athletics action in the spring, when the football and baseball teams expect to have action ramping up in the post-New Year’s months. The new men’s and women’s bowling programs will also navigate the United States Bowling Congress Collegiate side with tournaments in early 2021. Roosevelt men’s and women’s hockey will debut on the ice inside The Edge Ice Arena in Bensenville amidst the wintry conditions outside.

Spring championship seasons for Chicago-based programs such as softball, baseball, men’s golf, men’s and women’s track and field, and men’s and women’s tennis will commence as well. After the past spring ended so abruptly due to a global pandemic, the student-athletes on those teams are hungry to get their 2021 seasons in full swing and finish them strong.

Roosevelt will also feature additional spirit support in cheer and dance, teams that aid the cause of other programs while also featuring a competitive side that brought national recognition to the RMUI editions of the squads prior to the integration. The new Roosevelt Lakers Performing Arts programs bring band, theatre, choir, color guard/winter guard, string and drumline elements to the athletics department. The eSports team will take part in an array of competitive tournaments against gamers across the world.

Gerardo Flores (left) and Jose Rivera in a 2019 game vs. CMU

Roosevelt Athletics has a new look, and the fall of 2020 had a look unlike any other.

Even with new start dates, every Laker wants to have what was old to be new again: the consistency of practice, the thrill of competition, the joy of being around teammates.