NAIA group in competition in spite of school closure

• Myron Medcalf, ESPN

  • Personnel WriterMar 8, 2024, 11:39 AM ET Close Covers college basketball
  • Signed up with ESPN.com in 2011
  • Graduate of Minnesota State University, Mankato

Just hours before his school was set to close down for good, Antelope Valley men’s basketball coach Jordan Mast said he enjoyed the guys’s and ladies’s basketball groups will get the opportunity to complete the year after raising $40,000 to pay for their postseasons.They will not, nevertheless,

have a campus to call home when they return.Despite its school no longer running after a federal government order to” stop operation of all degree programs “by a Friday due date because of financial mismanagement, Antelope Valley’s males’s team is a 6-seed that will deal with 11-seed Huntington(Indiana )in the preliminary in Glendale, Arizona, on March 15, following Thursday’s NAIA competition bracket reveal. The females’s team, which got approved for the NAIA competition after it won the California Pacific Conference regular-season title, is a 13-seed that will deal with 4-seed Southern Oregon in Ashland, Oregon, on March 15.” Unlike many groups this year who may be pleased or upset with their seeding or match, we

are feeling beyond blessed that we even get to compete, “Mast informed ESPN. “The players have actually been through a lot as our school has formally revealed it is closing [Friday] They have actually still not communicated to any of us or the trainees what their strategies are for helping trainees find a new school, or real estate or complete their degree. The problem has fallen on the trainees, their households, our personnel, and others in the community that care about the wellness of these boys and ladies. “Last month, officials at Antelope Valley, an independent school in Lancaster, California, informed Mast and the other coaches at the school

that the teams’seasons would be canceled due to the fact that of the pending closure of the school due to financial difficulties and they would not be allowed to take part in the NAIA competition. Mast knew problem was ahead when he and other staffers got simply 25%of their normal paychecks last month.Editor’s Picks

But the school agreed to permit Mast to raise the money to finish the year for the men’s and women’s teams however recommended him that professional athletes would be eliminated from their dorms and barred from on-campus athletic facilities, giving some members of the groups simply days to scramble and try to find housing and a brand-new place to practice.As Antelope Valley’s circumstance went viral last month, Mast’s GoFundMe struck its objective of$40,000 within 72 hours, extending the basketball season for the men’s and females’s teams.Mast stated the basketball groups negotiated to continue practicing in their fitness center however he is still unsure of the next steps after the school’s main shutdown on Friday. The seasons of other teams on school were canceled midseason since of the school’s circumstance. The Antelope Valley baseball team’s season ended today after a 9-6 start.Basketball, however, has given the players peace amidst the chaos, Mast said.

“Basketball has provided normalcy for our teams,”he said.”The court has been a location for them to forget the problems and problems they are dealing with. It has actually been a location where their tension and stress and anxiety has been forgotten even if just for a short moment. So for other teams, the competition might be a bright area or a benefit for a great season, however for us, it indicates we get to go on a little while longer. We get to do something we love with the people we enjoy for a couple of more days or weeks, and we get to be together up until we lose or win it all and the truth of our situation truly sets in.”