With the rest of the 2019-2020 school year moved online and the cancelation of the remainder of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics, content to fuel the Point Park athletics website has been sparse.

That being said, our sports information director Kevin Taylor has been doing an amazing job keeping everything up-to-date and content flowing through the website for those loyal Pioneer fans.

One step he has taken is providing question and answer sessions with the coaches in regards to how they took the news and what they have planned for the future.

While I am not going to be putting the entirety of every single session in this column, I do want to include some of the answers from the coaches because I think hearing their positivity in the midst of this chaos is helpful to everyone – not just the athletic department.

What did you say to your team when the news came about?

“I called my seniors as soon as I found out the season was canceled. Not a text, not an email — I wanted to hear their voices, and I wanted them to feel in my voice how disappointed I really was,” softball head coach Michelle Coultas said. “It was tough holding back the tears. I told them I felt for them because their last season was abruptly cut short.”

“We all have to put one foot in front of the other and continue to move forward,” baseball head coach Loren Torres said. “We are taking each player case by case and each day hour by hour so that we can move the entire group forward. The biggest challenge is hoping to bring some closure to the seniors that might not be back.”

What is the outlook for the seniors moving on or coming back?

“A couple [of] seniors expressed interest in coming back and would like to explore their options,” Coultas said. “I don’t make any judgments of the others. I love them all because they are so driven and determined, I want them to reach their professional goals and [I] will continue to support them in doing that. We will always be a Point Park family, and this crisis will keep us bonded and remind us how special playing collegiate softball is.”

“The seniors not returning will find closure from having no regrets in their efforts,” Torres said. “We train and prepare in a way that, win or lose, season-ending injury or pandemic, we absolutely have no doubt about doing our best and untapping all of our personal resources, which allows them to walk away with their heads up. They will move on with their lives with that mentality, their heads up and proud alumni of Point Park University and our baseball program.”

“The seniors did an incredible amount for the program,” track and field and cross country head coach Jim Spisak said. “The men and women both won a number of River States Conference championships in both indoor and outdoor track over their careers at Point Park. All of our seniors played major roles in these wins. This class has set the bar high for what a successful season looks like for our track and field team.”

For the full Q&As that Taylor conducted, you can head on over to pointparksports.com.