Liberty has announced that the school will grant spring senior student-athletes the opportunity to return for the 2020-21 academic year.
“Liberty is in agreement with the NCAA granting a blanket waiver to afford a fifth year of eligibility for spring sport senior student-athletes who had their seasons cut short,” Liberty athletic director Ian McCaw said in the school’s release. “With that, there are 19 Liberty spring sport seniors who desire to return next year and we are very excited to afford them the opportunity to continue their student-athlete experience next year. These student-athletes are leaders in their respective programs and we look forward to them making important contributions and thriving athletically, academically, spiritually and socially in 2020-21.”
In late March, the NCAA Division I Council voted to allow college athletes who compete in spring sports a way to get back the season they lost due to the coronavirus outbreak.
NCAA Division I sports at Liberty affected by this include baseball, golf, men’s and women’s tennis, men’s and women’s outdoor track & field, women’s lacrosse, and softball. McCaw stated recently the University was preparing for about 50% of senior spring sport student-athletes to return.
Of those sports, Liberty had 39 student-athletes on scholarship and 19 of them have expressed a desire to return – 8 men and 11 women.
For baseball, Cam Locklear and Trey McDyre will return. Softball’s Amber Bishop and Kayla Harris will return while Carly White for women’s lacrosse says she is leaning towards returning but hasn’t completely made her mind up.
