Per the announcement of the postponement of all fall sports competition until Spring 2021 as the Hawks continue to prioritize the health and safety of all student-athletes, coaches, and staff with regard to COVID-19 pandemic, SJUHawks.com sat down with senior leaders from the field hockey, men's and women's cross country, and men's and women's soccer programs to discuss the unconventional fall on Hawk Hill.

Field hockey senior forward Jordan Olenginski, men's cross country distance runner Matthew Scarpill, women's cross country graduate student distance runner Meridith Twomey, men's soccer senior defender Daniel Morales, and women's soccer senior midfielder/defender Sofia Filippo present their views below in a Q&A.

Q: In returning to campus this month to COVID-19 precautions combined with a postponement of all sports, what is the overall atmosphere like on Hawk Hill? How do the vibes differ from previous years?
Matthew Scarpill (Men's Cross Country): For the track and cross country guys, we have not been doing any type of practices for this week and the upcoming week, so everything's been on our own. This is really unique for the distance runners because we have cross country, indoor track, and outdoor track year-round. Now, we don't get to see our coach every single day, and it really makes us take a step back and realize how much of our identity is centered around the sport and how much camaraderie we have. I definitely think that the team is really eager to get this two-week period in and get back together, because it really is unfamiliar and seems like it's just unnatural to be away from there for this long when we're so close at the same time.

Meridith Twomey (Women's Cross Country): I definitely agree [with Matthew] there. There's so much of the team aspect that we're just missing out on. We didn't even have the preseason, and that was definitely the weirdest part for me, because all four years, we've had a week where everyone's back and we get to know each other pretty well. Now, we're kind of getting to know each other just by seeing everyone around, like showing a freshman a route to run just so they know something they can do since the freshmen don't really know where to go. That's definitely the weirdest part for me, that we didn't have a whole introduction to the season.

Jordan Olenginski (Field Hockey): I just want to hug all my teammates, and it's weird not being able to be normal with everyone. The facilities are really strict right now, so we can't go on our field and hit around. It's just not how it usually is.

Sofia Filippo (Women's Soccer): I agree with Jordan. The overall feeling is just unfamiliar, because as fall athletes, for every fall for your life, you almost don't really have an August because you're preparing for a season. So for our first day on campus to be with the rest of the students, it's been different. It's different not having a game already and practicing only a few times a week instead of six days a week. Like Jordan said, with the facilities, you can't just walk in and out. Practice times are always changing, and we can't practice as a team. We're practicing in pods, so it's all just unfamiliar territory.

Daniel Morales (Men's Soccer): I'd say everything along the same lines. For us, our pods are split up by houses. There's a senior house and a junior house, and then sophomores and freshmen have their own kind of group at the dorms. It's tough because we all would usually work out together, but now the freshmen have to work out by themselves. It's tricky not being able to just be together as a team and build that team camaraderie a little bit; I'd say that's the toughest part. All of us here enjoy our sports, and not being able to step on Sweeney Field or go running, it's tricky not being able to just be out there.

Q: How has communication changed within your respective programs?
Daniel Morales (Men's Soccer): For us, since quarantine started back in March, we've had bi-weekly meetings as a team. It stinks not being able to see everyone as much, but now it's a little easier since we're on campus. Last week, we held a meeting out by the SJU Softball Field, but we all split up and wore our masks. We've been doing bi-weekly Zoom meetings, which have really helped.

Sofia Filippo (Women's Soccer): Similar to what Daniel said, we have been doing meetings, as well. Thursday nights were usually our game nights in the fall, so we're doing Zooms every Thursday night just to reconnect. Communication has definitely been completely different, because a big part of your sport is the chemistry with your teammates. So to not really get to fully interact with everyone, especially the freshmen, has been weird because before, you're hanging in the locker room before and after practice or you're going to Campion and talking about the practice you just had and the practice for the following day. We're usually always in constant communication, so it has definitely been different. The communication is still there, it's just more virtual.

Q: The weight room has moved outside; how is that different for Sparta Science testing and lifts? Do you feel like it's a bit easier to focus on workouts now that you're back on campus? 
Daniel Morales (Men's Soccer): We did the Sparta Science test and then were lucky enough to get a lift in on Wednesday (August 26). I personally prefer inside because it's just a more comfortable environment. It's hot outside, so it's a little tricky, especially with the masks since they make it really tough to breathe. But other than that, just being able to go back in the weight room again is a blessing in itself. It's nice to just be there as a team and be able to do that. As a team, collectively, in just being together and doing the weights and stuff, we're always pushing each other. That's one thing that I love about my team: everyone is super competitive and engaged. Being back, we will always push ourselves to run harder, work harder, and even out our skill-sets on the field. It's nice to have the team back together.

Q: How have the face masks affected training?
Sofia Filippo (Women's Soccer): We're just happy that we're back. I know a lot of schools that aren't even back as they're completely online, so I definitely understand why we need to wear the masks.

Meridith Twomey (Women's Cross Country): It's really difficult for sure, trying to run in the mask. Usually we're in a small enough group, and we can spread out. I have been trying to do runs that mainly go through neighborhoods so I can run in the street as opposed to runs down Montgomery where everyone is really close to one another. It's about avoiding routes where you're super close to everyone and going out with a small group. It's definitely hard to breathe with the heat, and I'm sure any kind of physical activity is pretty tough in the masks.

Matthew Scarpill (Men's Cross Country): To add onto that, what I have noticed, along with all of my teammates, is that there's really two levels to running with the mask. The first one is just that it's uncomfortable and a little hot, and it's a lot more difficult when it's humid out. But, it's for the safety of everyone, and I comply with that and am as proactive as possible. The second part of it is as we run longer and longer distances, we're going to be sweating more, and a lot of my teammates have said that for lack of a better term, it feels like waterboarding themselves because they have so much wetness in the mask and it just weighs them down that they're breathing in mist. The big thing within it is just we have to do it. It's more mental than physical, honestly.

Daniel Morales (Men's Soccer): For us, working out was tough with the masks, but the most important thing is just wearing it. Wearing the mask, in general, is so important to the community and being considerate to the community. I think that especially for us, as student-athletes, it's so important that we're seen wearing the masks and using them. Even though it's a little more difficult, it really just stresses that kind of solidarity within the community. We've been stressing to everyone on my team to just constantly wear their masks.

Q: How are you treating this season without games? How will you spend your energy during that time?
Sofia Filippo (Women's Soccer): I personally have been doing it as an off-season because I like the idea of having a season after this. Just having something to work towards, even if it's not in six days or five days or a few days . . .  Just the idea of there being a possibility of it in a few months is part of my mentality. I view it like it's an off-season as opposed to viewing it like we lost a season. I tell myself that it just got moved, because I feel like it adds more meaning to the workouts and you can give a little bit more instead of working out for something unknown. My teammates and I are just trying to act like this is for a game. We are prepping for a game; it's just not this week.

Jordan Olenginski (Field Hockey): It's definitely the same way for us. We talked about it as a team, and we agreed to treat this season as another off-season. We do a lot of work in the spring, like growing as a team, finding our culture, and really getting to know all the freshmen. So, we definitely are going to use this as an off-season and as if we're having a season. If we have the mentality that we don't know if we're going to have a season, then the training is going to be pointless. So right now, we're assuming that we're going to have a season and we're training like it.
 
Meridith Twomey (Women's Cross Country): In the summer for us, you would try to build your miles pretty high, but obviously we've been on our own since March, so it's just been doing a lot of base work and getting our miles up. It definitely gives you room to experiment with some sort of things. For example, if you've only been running 40 miles a week, you try to up that to 50. It has definitely been beneficial in that aspect. But we're just trying to do a lot of base work and nothing "race-ready" yet.

Matthew Scarpill (Men's Cross Country): On top of that, as cross country runners, we're also three-season athletes, so a postponement of the season isn't really much of an option for us. And the thing with distance running is that it really is a yearly build, and it's really centered around strength. The strength that we build in cross country in the summer is very impactful for our indoor and spring seasons when we start to do more speed stuff. We essentially have to be training as if we were racing cross country, because it is an integral part of our training down the road. The idea behind it is don't fix what's not broken. We're really just trying to simulate the season without pushing too hard. Coach Glavin has done a great job trying to accommodate that sense of purpose within us by doing some time trials every other week as if we were racing just to make things go as smoothly and effectively as possible.

Daniel Morales (Men's Soccer): I'd say almost exactly the same thing for us. We had a ton of workout plans throughout the entire summer, so our guys were all working towards that and building up runs and miles. Now that we're back, we're going to treat it the same way as we would an off-season. We're just going to work, as everyone was saying, towards our goals and towards competing for the A-10 title during the spring season. We're working as hard as we can and just doing the best we can.

Q: Spring competition means spring temperatures. How will you adapt?
Sofia Filippo (Women's Soccer): I'm 21 years old and have been playing soccer almost my whole life, and I've never gotten used to playing in the heat. I'm someone who would rather play in a blizzard. I'd rather play in negative-30 degree weather; that actually excites me more than the heat. I've never, ever gotten used to playing soccer in August. November? That's a different story. That's the best weather. That's the best everything. I think that's where my team has always thrived, during that perfect fall weather. Those are the memories that I enjoy the most. I'm actually looking forward to being able to play in a different temperature and a different environment in general. It's definitely sad, because I think soccer in the fall is the best. But, since that's not an option, I am definitely looking forward to seeing what it's like in the spring, because besides club, I've never played a school soccer in the spring. I'm excited for that.

Daniel Morales (Men's Soccer): I'm the absolute opposite. You can ask anybody on the team. I'm that guy. Like when it's cold, you may need an extra stretcher or something to bring me off the field. I've always naturally been like that. My freshman year, we had a game in October, and it was like 55 or 60 degrees, which isn't even that bad for you guys. But to me, that was freezing. I remember I was putting leggings on and Matt Crawford, who was our captain at the time, was like, "What are you doing?" I was freezing the whole game.

Jordan Olenginski (Field Hockey): I'm sort of the same way, but not as extreme. I enjoy the hot weather, but I'm not complaining about 55 degrees. That's pretty good for me. It's hard for field hockey because we hit the ball, so it's kind of like baseball and softball where your hands really hurt in the cold. That's what I'm really not looking forward to, especially since I'm a forward and always shooting. That's going to be a tricky part that we're going to have to figure out. I'm not looking forward to the weather, but we'll figure it out.
 
Meridith Twomey (Women's Cross Country): Depending on what is scheduled, it would be kind of strange running cross country in the snow. We have raced cross country in the snow and in cold weather, but it's not my ideal weather. One thing about that, though, is that you just let your legs go numb, and it is what it is. If that happens, it would be kind of funny. January and February is when the National Championships for club teams from around the world are usually scheduled, so it could be cool racing at the same time as those events are going on.

Matthew Scarpill (Men's Cross Country): With cross country, we really get a taste of 110-degree running in the first week, perfect conditions in the middle of the season, and colder weather towards the end of November. Throughout my three years at the IC4A Championships in New York, the hottest day was like 45 degrees. We definitely are used to running year-round in all temperatures, but as Coach Glavin said, it seems a little impractical from a training standpoint that you can have cross country and track back-to-back, because if you're training for cross-country, you can't train for track, and if you train for track, you can't really train for cross country.

Q: What are the team goals heading into spring competition? What is one match-up or meet that you hope remains on the schedule?
Sofia Filippo (Women's Soccer): Our team goal has always been to win an A-10 Championship. Even though our season is in the spring, that's definitely still our goal. We're always working towards that. We take it day-by-day and step-by-step; we're not narrow-minded and only thinking about the Championship. But in the back of our minds, that's always our goal. A match-up that I still would want to happen would definitely be vs. La Salle, just because that's such a fun rival. I love a good rival game. It's two Philly schools, really aggressive, and everyone's pretty enthusiastic on the teams. If we're allowed to have fans, it's always a fun game, and you never know who is going to win. My freshman year, they beat us. My sophomore year, we beat them. It's just a fun game.

Jordan Olenginski (Field Hockey): We talked about our team goals before we even knew our season was canceled. Our goals would be to defend the A-10 title, make it past the first round of the NCAA Tournament since we've never made it past the first round, and earn a Top 15 ranking, which we've had the past three years. We were really excited for our scheduled game with Syracuse because they beat us last year and it was just a really bad game, so we were looking forward to some payback, but it's not looking like we're going to play outside of the conference.

Matthew Scarpill (Men's Cross Country): The meet that we would miss the most, by far, would be the A-10 Championship. That's the one meet where almost everyone on the team will drive down, both sprinter and distance runner, which is a really unique thing. Like if it's down in Virginia, you will have 30 guys there to cheer you on. That's probably the favorite meet for almost everyone throughout the year on the guys' side of things. We definitely will be missing that, and that's really what we train for the entire year. Everything that we talk about is for A-10s. We suffer for A-10s through all of our workouts. Our team goals have really shifted to just being as strong as possible as a runner, but also not hurt. The goal really has just shifted to having a really good base, being in a mentally-good spot, and gearing up for indoors.

Meridith Twomey (Women's Cross Country): I definitely agree with Matt that the meet we always strive for is A-10s. That's where you get to see every school in the A-10. Sometimes you don't get to race against a certain school all season, which is different from other sports where they have conference play throughout the season and then the playoffs. I definitely think A-10s is the one that we would be looking forward to the most, and our goal is always to show up the best there.

Daniel Morales (Men's Soccer): Similar to Sof's goal, ours is always the A-10 playoffs. Over the years, especially recently, our goal has been to develop this culture and this mindset of holding not only the team to a high standard, but ourselves, as well. I can't even begin to say how great the guys on the team are right now and how proud I am of the way they've stepped up. I view all of them as leaders. With that said, our mindset is huge this year. That's a huge goal for us, to keep that mindset, to believe that we can be any team. And as Sof said, the La Salle game is one game I can't wait to play.
 
The Hawk Will Never Die.