Tim Vernick is going to miss suiting up with his teammates Saturday afternoons.

He's going to miss sprinting from sideline to sideline, unleashing bone-jarring hits and swallowing up ballcarriers as a fifth-year senior linebacker for the Slippery Rock University football team.

The Butler High School graduate is going to miss celebrating victories.

Most of all, though, Vernick is going to miss the camaraderie he shares with his buddies, with whom he goes to battle every day in green and white.

“I love the team,” Vernick said. “And I love all the guys on it. Everyone is really close, so it's tough. It's very tough.”

For the first time since 1944, there will be no sports played in the fall at SRU.

The resurgence of the coronavirus forced the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference, of which SRU is a member, to suspend all conference athletic events through the fall semester.

The official announcement came Wednesday morning after the board of directors voted Tuesday night to suspend sports through at least Dec. 31.

SRU has eight sports that participate in the fall: football, men's and women's cross country, men's and women's soccer, volleyball, field hockey and women's tennis.

“In my 26 years, I didn't expect we'd be doing this right now,” said SRU director of athletics Paul Lueken. “It's disappointing for the student-athletes and the coaches.”

[naviga:h3]Not unexpected[/naviga:h3]

Vernick wasn't shocked by the decision.

It was still a punch to the gut.

The PSAC became the latest athletic conference in the United States to scuttle its fall sports seasons.

Several other NCAA Division II leagues, including the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Conference and the California Collegiate Athletic Association, have already postponed fall sports.

Last week, the Division I Ivy League postponed all fall sports until at least Jan. 1 and the Patriot League followed Monday.

“I had an idea just from the virus getting worse and more cases, especially in the Pittsburgh area,” Vernick said. “I knew if it didn't slow down, news like this was probably going to come around eventually.”

The PSAC had hoped to play sports this fall, but conference commissioner Steve Murray said it had become apparent in recent days that, even with safety guidelines in place, the risk was too high for the student-athletes.

“The circumstances we find ourselves in are unprecedented,” Murray said. “Thus, we are taking unprecedented measures.”

SRU head football coach Shawn Lutz also wasn't surprised by the suspension of fall sports in the conference. He was hoping, however, that his fears wouldn't be realized.

“It's something we kind of all knew with what's going on and other conferences starting to do this,” Lutz said. “We had a team meeting (Tuesday night) and guys are definitely upset.”

The Rock football team was coming off one of the best seasons in school history.

SRU went 13-1, won the conference title and advanced to the NCAA Division II national semifinals.

With a large and talented senior class returning — including Vernick — nationally ranked SRU had lofty goals this fall.

They are hoping to get a chance to chase them in the spring.

“We're going to try to use this to our advantage,” Lutz said. “We're coming off the best season in school history. We're going to try to overcome, have that relentless attitude. We use that word all the time. Relentless. We're really going to try to go above and beyond in whatever we're allowed to do.”

[naviga:h3]Out of their hands[/naviga:h3]

Maria Lucas was looking forward to getting back out on the volleyball court as a sophomore defensive specialist at Shippensburg University.

But the Butler High graduate won't get that chance.

It's been a tough year for the Lucas family. Her brother, Isaiah, lost his baseball season at Allegheny College in the spring due to COVID-19.

Their mother, Meghan, is the high school girls volleyball coach at Butler, and she is worried about the PIAA possibly shutting down sports in the coming weeks.

“I was hoping things would clear up and we'd at least have a reduced season,” Maria Lucas said. “With today's circumstance, it's nothing any of us can really control. We just have to kind of roll with it and do what we can.

“It is hard knowing I'm going back to Shippensburg in the fall, but I won't have that volleyball routine I was used to.”

When the NCAA canceled spring sports, it granted affected athletes an extra year of eligibility.

Should the postponed fall seasons not be played in the winter or spring, Lutz expects the NCAA to grant those athletes an extra year of eligibility as well.

They'd rather play, even a truncated season.

“We're just trying to process everything,” Lucas said. “What's important to my team and me right now is to stay safe and stay healthy to insure that, hopefully, we will have a season in the spring.”

The question is: What will that look like?

[naviga:h3]What's next?[/naviga:h3]

Lueken and the other 17 directors of athletics in the PSAC are now faced with a monumental task: figuring out how to squeeze all those sports seasons into a finite amount of time.

“We're going to be looking at what a spring season looks like with all those sports playing (at the same time),” Lueken said. “It's not going to be easy.”

The member schools will also have to figure out what will be allowed during fall workouts.

The PSAC left it open that team activities could still take place this fall.

“We're going to look at what will work to make sure we're all at the same level and no one has an advantage,” Lueken said.

Lueken also said getting sports started up as soon as possible once the calendar turns to 2021 is paramount.

“We're hopeful we can get started right back up in January with (men's and women's basketball) and volleyball — get that season completed in early March,” Lueken said. “My guess is we won't have non-conference games. Just my guess.”

Having any games at all will be welcome.

Vernick said he already knows Sept. 12 is going to be a tough day. That's the day when The Rock was scheduled to open the football season against West Chester.

“It's not going to be fun at all,” Vernick said. “We're going to have to try to find something to stay busy, even if it's just going to the field and getting some conditioning in. Something to just be together.”