PROVO — There are only three seniors on the 2020 BYU baseball team’s roster, and pitchers Jarod Lessar and Ben Weese and catcher Abe Valdez will almost certainly get their year of eligibility back if they want it.
But that doesn’t mean the NCAA’s cancellation of all spring sports seasons last Thursday due to the spread of COVID-19 was easy to take for coach Mike Littlewood’s team, the Cougars’ skipper since 2012 said Monday in his first public comments about the news that rocked the collegiate sports world.
“There wasn’t a dry eye in the clubhouse, especially with the seniors,” Littlewood said, recalling the moment he gathered his players at Miller Park three hours or so before they were to open the West Coast Conference portion of their schedule against Loyola Marymount. “They took it really tough, because they had worked so hard and prepared so much for this moment. To have it taken away from them was brutal.”
Littlewood brought Dr. Tom Golightly, associate clinical director for BYU Counseling and Psychological Services, in to offer support and guidance and answer questions. And, of course, he offered his own advice.
“As I went in to talk to the team, I kinda got this calm feeling that everything was going to be fine,” Littlewood said, after getting the news around 3:30 p.m. Thursday from BYU Deputy Athletic Director Brian Santiago that the season was over. “We just let them know that everybody else in the country is going through this — it is not just us. ... I think the guys kinda knew what was happening, but until we got the final word we still had a little bit of hope.”
“There wasn’t a dry eye in the clubhouse, especially with the seniors They took it really tough, because they had worked so hard and prepared so much for this moment. To have it taken away from them was brutal.” — BYU baseball coach Mike Littlewood
For the record, Littlewood said he is “in total agreement” with school, conference and NCAA officials who made the call to cancel the season.
“I think we all have a responsibility to try to get this pandemic under control,” he said. “Baseball is so important to all of us. I mean, it is my life. It is my coaching staff’s life. When you are in this profession, it is not just a job.”
But it was the right thing to do.
“So it was a total shock,” Littlewood said. “To some degree, it is like, ‘What do we do now? We are looking around like, ‘What should we do?’”
Littlewood met individually with the seniors and other draft-eligible players such as pitchers Mitch McIntyre and Justin Sterner, but had few answers because Major League Baseball has not decided how it will handle June’s amateur draft yet, let alone its own season. Littlewood has already talked to former BYU stars Jackson Cluff and Taylor Cole, recently sent home from spring training sites because of the uncertainty.
“It is going to be really hard to evaluate players when there are no games,” Littlewood said.
The coach noted that he and his assistants would contact every scout they know and trust in the four corners area to get input about their players and extol what they could bring to an organization.
“Right now, it is just like the faucet has been turned off, as far as information goes, because I don’t think anybody knows what is going to happen,” Littlewood said. “And everybody is (cautious) about throwing out opinions because there are so many unknowns.”
Other questions left unanswered are whether all student-athletes will get the year of eligibility back, or just the seniors, how the scholarship situation will work, and whether there will be roster limitations.
“We are traveling a map-less road right here,” Littlewood said. “We are really just trying to roll with the punches and hope we don’t get hit with a knockout punch and just stay on our feet.”
Littlewood said coaches met at the field Monday with small groups of players to work on individual strengths and weaknesses to keep them in shape and prepare them for summer ball — which obviously isn’t a given yet, either. And he is also playing school guidance counselor, as almost all college coaches throughout the country undoubtedly are.
“The No. 1 thing I am concerned about right now is their mental and social health, and their academics,” he said. “We have 16 freshmen who I am hoping can go home and have the time management skills to actually get their schoolwork done online and get good grades.”
So the Cougars finished the 2020 season with seven wins and nine losses, which is about how Littlewood predicted they would start with such a young, talented and inexperienced roster. With a top-25 signing class coming in this fall, he said the program continues on an upward trajectory.
“To see how our 5-6 freshmen who were in there a lot really battled, and how they grew in the first 16 games was really, really impressive to me. I am really excited about it,” he said. “I wish we would have had 40 more games for them to get under their belt, but they will go play summer ball and come back with a lot more experience. Next fall, I can see them being leaders instead of deer-in-headlights (guys). They are sponges. They want to work hard. They are a coach’s dream for me. I am excited about where we are at. I loved the growth and development of our club.”
BYU baseball’s three graduating seniors
• Jarod Lessar, RHP; Price, Utah (Utah State Eastern)
• Abraham Valdez, Catcher; San Diego, California (Southwestern College)
• Ben Weese, LHP; River Heights, Utah (SLCC)