First Season In Arkansas Didn’t End As Planned For Stephens
Alison Stephens competing in the hammer throw for the University of Arkansas at Little Rock
Then came the coronavirus news.
“I couldn’t believe it when I first heard the NCAA was cancelling the season,” Stephens said.
“I had seen that the Ivy League and other schools and sports organizations were cancelling or talking about cancelling and knew in the back of my head that it was going to happen with us sooner or later, but it hasn’t really hit me until now. I am absolutely devastated.”
Stephens recently finished her first indoor season with the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, but was looking forward to completing her freshman NCAA campaign.
“I waited excitedly and worked extremely hard all indoor season for my first outdoor season as a collegiate athlete and to have that ripped from me so suddenly breaks my heart.”
Despite that, Stephens, who won a National silver in discus last year, and finished 17th in her conference in the weight throw indoors, has still enjoyed her first season at UALR.
“My first season at UALR was great,” she said. “Although indoor season didn’t go the way I had hoped it would, I have learned so much about this sport and the transition from high school to university as well as made some of the best friends I have ever had. It has been a great first year this far and I wish I had the chance to see how much better it was go.”
Right now, Stephens is left with only uncertainty. Will she be allowed to stay? Train? Will she be allowed to leave? It seems many questions are still left for athletes, including for this Chatham product.
“Right now a lot of questions haven’t been answered.”
“I don’t know if our coaches will still have us stay but that is currently being decided. I don’t know if I’m allowed to leave the state or country. I’m not sure if I will go home if our coaches stop practice. There are a lot of things my teammates and I are thinking about but it is too soon to say exactly what will happen. All I know is we are all stunned and feeling a lot of different emotions right now.”