Unfortunately the impacts of the Coronavirus and the most up-to-date measures to prevent spread have now terminally impacted the NCSA’s chances of hosting the 2020 NCSA World Series scheduled to be held May 14-17 in Columbus, GA.  At present there are only nine remaining NCSA member teams that have not officially been shut down for the remainder of the school year.   Despite the Governor of Georgia beginning the process of reopening the state this week, there are not enough potential teams available to successfully host the event which normally consists of a field of sixteen teams.  The NCSA is also of the opinion that there is not enough of league wide representation to effectively conduct a National Championship event in a modified format should health and safety concerns dissipate by mid-May.

The health and safety of our nationwide community and all those associated with the NCSA continues to be our No. 1 priority, and our hope is to play a role – responsibly – in the world’s return to enjoying the sports we love.

While we can all agree, this is certainly not how we envisioned or wanted this season to come to an end, it is the reality given the impact of COVID-19.  We thank you all for your continued support of the NCSA and the love for the game.  We do wish we were in a much different state of the world and had much better news to provide.  However, we have been optimistic throughout this process and will continue to do so.  We hope that you can share in our optimism and know that we as a league will be better than ever in 2020-2021.

We will be in touch in the coming days and weeks with updates on this past season and plans moving forward to prepare for next season.  If you have any questions in the meantime, please let us know.  Stay safe!

Sincerely,

Sandy Sanderson

President

National Club Softball Association

Unfortunately the impacts of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) and the most up-to-date measures to prevent its spread have now been prolonged past the scheduled dates of all the NCSA Regional Playoffs (April 18-19 & April 25-26). Thus we will have to cancel all eight regional playoffs as well as the remainder of the regular season. With the White House issuing an extension to national social distancing guidelines through April 30th and most states being under a “Stay at Home” order through the same date, hosting these events has become an impossibility given the circumstances.

With only 63% of the regular season having been completed prior to the outbreak, we have decided not to crown any Regional Champions this season. We are still optimistic that the 2020 NCSA World Series will still be able to take place May 14-17. Some people have asked why we haven’t cancelled the entire season like the NCAA, but we are approaching this crisis with a sense of hope and optimism. While we are preparing for the worst case scenario, it is easy (yet painful) to send an email and end the 2019-20 season completely. What we are also doing is preparing for the BEST case scenario which is much harder. IF this crisis were to improve quickly we would like to be in a position to still host the NCSA World Series for those deserving, able, and willing to compete. This will eventually end, life will eventually return to normal, and when it does we want to be able to help heal the psyche of our student-athletes through sport as quickly as possible. That said we are going to monitor the status of the situation and on April 24th reevaluate the situation and the feasibility of hosting the NCSA World Series and make the call at that time. If we are able to proceed with the NCSA World Series, the teams who have already clinched their conference would receive automatic bids, as well as any necessary At-Large Bid invites to get to a field of 16.

While we continue to work through these uncertain times, we want to thank all of our member teams for their continued support and patience. We wish we were coming to you in a much different state of the world, and we hope you share the same sense of hope and optimism we do. Please continue to stay safe and healthy, we will be in touch later in April with the final update on plans for the 2020 NCSA World Series and information for next season (2020-2021).

Sincerely,

Sandy Sanderson
President
National Club Softball Association