Knoch graduate and University of Arizona junior Jordan Geist won't get a chance to improve on his third-place finish in the shot put at the NCAA Division I Track and Field Championships this season. The NCAA canceled all spring sports in response to the coronavirus pandemic.

Holden Martin likens it to an elevator getting stuck between floors.

The Karns City graduate and Muskingum University senior pitcher is being told to get off before reaching his destination.

That's because in response to the coronavirus pandemic, the NCAA announced Thursday night that it was canceling all spring sports.

“It's like an elevator ride; you know how high you can go and you prepare for that,” Martin said. “But now you're being told the elevator is broken, get off.”

Martin, though, will have one more ride as a Division III baseball player. It won't reach the floor he was hoping, but at least it's something.

Muskingum will play Denison in a doubleheader Saturday. Martin will be the starting pitcher in the first game and it will be his chance to say goodbye to the sport.

For now.

“My career wasn't supposed to end like this,” Martin said. “It was supposed to end on my terms. I said to someone, it almost would have been better if I had a career-ending injury. It would have almost been better if I blew my elbow or my shoulder out. At least that would have been me doing it, not someone in a suit and tie telling me it is over.”

Martin, though, understands the decision to cancel spring sports.

So much is unknown about the pandemic and safety trumps any sport, he said.

It doesn't diminish the pain, however.

“Even knowing it would probably happen, I still wasn't prepared for it,” Martin said. “When I got the email, I was losing it.

“We had practice and I was sitting in the bullpen and I had to get up and walk away. I walked the warning track around the field and looked at things that I never really looked at before. I realized I'm done and soon I won't be a baseball player.”

Martin said Saturday's games will be strange.

There's no conference title to shoot for. There's no postseason bids to win.

It's just boils down to a two-game season.

“The games don't really mean anything,” Martin said. “But they mean everything to us.”

Martin is by no means alone. Butler County has nearly countless players affected by the decision to cancel spring sports.Mars native and Lafeyette College senior lacrosse player Bella Alampi also saw her career come to an abrupt end.“The one thing I learned it to be grateful,” said Alampi, who already played seven games this season for Division I Lafeyette, but had 10 games still left on the table. “I did get three-and-a-half years to play a college sport. I still think about our last game.”It wasn't a good one.Lafeyette lost to Rutgers, 19-10.Still the Leopards were 4-3 heading into the conference schedule and had high hopes.“I've always like that saying — play like it's your last game,” Alampi said. “You never know what's going to happen, what life will throw at you.”The NCAA announced Friday that it will extend eligibility to every athlete.For some that is an option.For others it is not.Knoch graduate Jordan Geist plans on using it.Geist, a junior at the University of Arizona, won't get the chance to try to improve on his third-place finish at the NCAA Track and Field Championships.Geist is still an Olympic hopeful — even though there is still a question if the Summer Games will be held in Tokyo this year or pushed back two years.“One of the problems is there may not be enough qualifying meets,” Geist said. “Some shot put throwers haven't even had one meet yet.”Geist, though, plans on going on his own to competitions not affiliated with the NCAA to stay sharp and to remain in a competitive flow.For Moniteau grad and Slippery Rock University red-shirt senior pitcher Dere Boben, his ride is over.Boben will actually have two years of eligibility left, but doesn't plan on using either.“It was definitely devastating and heartbreaking when we found out,” Boben said. “I hate to see my career end like that.“I kind of knew it was coming, that it was going to happen to us. It's never easy being done playing a sport.”Boben, though, understands why it has happened.“It's out of my control,” he said. “I'm at the point of my life when I know I have to hang it up.“What I will remember is all the coaches and teammates and family and friends who helped me the whole way through,” Boben added. “I want to thank (Slippery Rock University baseball coach Jeff Messer and assistant coach Billy Messer) for giving me an opportunity. I wouldn't trade any of it.”