AUTHOR’S NOTE: The intention of this piece is not to mention EVERY Concordia athlete who has made use of the ‘COVID Year.’ There have been dozens of them since March of 2020. This story highlights a select few and includes commentary from those individuals. Please excuse any omissions.
Only the oddities associated with the COVID-19 pandemic could allow for a single individual to attain five First Team All-Great Plains Athletic Conference awards. Lane Napier accomplished that very feat while navigating a unique time in the history of college athletics. Additional eligibility granted by the NAIA also made it possible for Rachel Battershell and Erin Mapson to star as members of nine GPAC championship teams in track and field. The situation then opened the door for fifth-year baseball veterans Ben Berg, Jesse Garcia and Teyt Johnson to play in four national tournaments.
In the world of Concordia Athletics, there certainly were some agonizing ‘what-ifs’ that will forever go down as unknowns. When the world stood still in March of 2020, seasons – and even some athletic careers – were cut short. We’re left to wonder … would the top-ranked women’s basketball team have defended its national championship? How many strikeouts would the future pro pitcher Jason Munsch have racked up? How many more GPAC titles would Concordia teams have won? The Bulldogs had just completed a winter that included GPAC championships in men’s basketball, women’s basketball, women’s track & field and wrestling.
While women’s basketball seniors such as All-Americans Grace Barry and Philly Lammers experienced the heartbreak of abrupt endings to their careers with the national tournament still in progress, other Bulldogs have seized the opportunity to extend their athletic and academic pursuits. All-Americans like Napier have stated a strong case for making full use of the ‘COVID year.’ In the process, the course of Concordia Athletics history has been altered and record books have been impacted significantly.
In two separate rulings, the NAIA declared that student-athletes who competed either in the spring of 2020 or in fall or winter sports during the 2020-21 academic year would not be charged a season of competition. On March 16, 2020, the NAIA put forth communication that the spring sports season had been canceled while informing members that spring sport athletes had not exhausted any eligibility in 2020. Then on November 4, 2020, the NAIA made a similar ruling for athletes competing during the fall and winter of 2020-21 (after the NAIA had originally ruled it would charge a season of competition for those who appeared in 50 percent or more of a team’s events).
The impact those rulings had on Concordia and the NAIA landscape as a whole reverberates into the present day. At the close of 2022-23, there were Bulldog athletes who already made – or were in the process of making – a decision to return in 2023-24 and use the ‘COVID year’ of eligibility. For athletes who have gone this route, the choice means not only another year of competition, but also another couple of semesters of college coursework. Napier used his additional season in 2021 to push his career tackle total to an otherworldly 535, an all-time GPAC record.
“Football’s been a part of life for a long time,” Napier said in explaining his thought process. “Knowing that we had the opportunity to come back another year and play – there wasn’t a lot of kids that gave that up. A lot of guys took advantage of it. I just think being with the guys was one of the main reasons for coming back.”
The list of COVID fifth years who made a major impact this past year included All-GPAC standouts in Gage Smith with men’s basketball and Carlos Orquiz in men’s soccer. Both Bulldogs were leaders on teams that won GPAC championships at some point in their careers. A native of Chihuahua, Mexico, Orquiz would have missed out on something incredibly special had he neglected to help anchor Coach Jason Weides’ 2022 squad that won the GPAC tournament title.
“There’s something positive out of bad things that happen,” Orquiz said. “For me it was a fifth year and having that blessing to keep playing the sport that I love and keep representing this great program. It was an opportunity that I needed to take. It also gave me the opportunity to pursue my MBA and continue to grow personally off the field.”
Now a major player for SlamBall’s MOB (as can be seed on ESPN), Gage Smith returned to the court in 2022-23, at least in part, for the chance to play one more season with his younger brother Tristan. After the thrill ride of 2021-22 for Coach Ben Limback’s Bulldogs, Gage feared missing out on another run to the national tournament. The fifth season of college hoops for Gage set the stage for him to make the leap to SlamBall in Vegas.
“The main factor is I love the organization,” Gage said prior to the 2022-23 season. “I love the coaching staff. Down the road when I’m like 80, I don’t want to be looking back thinking, I wish I would have played that fifth year. I love the game, so I came back. Also my brother, he’s going to be a sophomore this year. You never have another chance like this to play with each other and see what damage you can do.”
A six-time NAIA All-American, Mapson and her teammates were robbed of an outdoor season in 2020 and were not charged a season of eligibility during the 2021 indoor campaign. Those unfortunate circumstances allowed the Lincoln East High School alum to continue to pole vault while rearranging her academics. Fellow pole vault star Josie Puelz will be using her fifth year coming up in 2023-24.
“There were a couple factors that went into my decision,” Mapson said. “I had a very disappointing season following a shoulder injury and surgery, and being granted the extra year of eligibility gave me a re-do in a way. I also switched my major late which meant completing my course load was going to take over four years, and I couldn’t pass up the ability to compete during that time. Being able to spend one more year with my team and continuing to grow alongside them was so special and rewarding. Academically, being able to compete for a fifth year helped me feel more confident to switch my major and also explore various minors. I am very grateful for these opportunities as they gave me a much broader understanding of my academic and career pursuits.”
Inside Ryan Dupic’s baseball program, it seems that nearly every player with eligibility remaining has hung on in attempt to savor every moment. Berg felt a bit hollow after the COVID shutdown of 2020 and his injury-affected 2022 season. All the Carroll, Iowa, native did in the spring of 2023 was enjoy the best baseball season of his life while helping guide the Bulldogs back to the national tournament.
“I felt like that (2020) season kind of got taken away from us,” Berg said. “I felt like we had a really good team, and we didn’t get to see that all the way through. I just didn’t want to miss out on a whole year of college baseball. I figured if I had the chance to take a whole extra year, why not? I love everything that the program stands for. I’ve had a chance to be part of something bigger than myself and be able to lead people and have a positive impact on people around me. One more year doing that would be a huge deal.”
The list of success stories goes on for recent COVID seniors. Among the tales of glory, Korrell Koehlmoos came back in 2022 and broke virtually every Concordia Football single season receiving record and Tara Callahan took on one more year as a setter and soaked up a run to the 2021 NAIA volleyball national quarterfinals. With only an outdoor season left, national champion throwers Jacob Cornelio and Addie Shaw added to their immense haul of awards in the spring of 2021. A teammate of Berg’s, Garcia put himself atop the baseball program’s all-time hits list in another season of mashing. Before Berg and Garcia, slugging Keaton Candor made the most of a fifth year. Of course, there was also Battershell, a two-time national champion who wrote another chapter in her Concordia biography. And the list goes on.
There will be more of these stories in 2023-24. The five-time national champion Puelz knew early on she wanted to stretch out her remarkable career. Back in February, it was officially announced that volleyball All-Americans Bree Burtwistle and Camryn Opfer were opting in on the 2023 season. On the baseball diamond, it will be year No. 5 for the incredibly consistent Jay Adams (among other teammates in the same situation), another key cog in the program’s year-to-year high achievement. On the trails and the track, watch out for fifth-year athlete Kylahn Freiberg, the 2023 NAIA indoor national runner up in the 1,000 meters. In men’s soccer, Victor Meneses, Matt Schultz and Isaiaha Shaddick are following the path of Orquiz. On the golf course, Drew D’Ercole will tee it up for one more season.
Then, late this spring came the news that Grace Soenksen would make it one more year on the soccer pitch. Her return is a huge boon to Head Coach Nick Smith’s Bulldogs, who figure to lean on plenty of youth this fall. Soenksen carries oodles of street cred as a three-time First Team All-GPAC award winner. She will work toward a Master of Business Certificate in Project Management.
Explains Soenksen of her decision, “The choice for me to come back for my fifth year was not an easy one. I had never considered it a real option until the spring when Coach Nick took over the program. After coming to a few practices in the spring with coach Nick, I started to miss playing competitive soccer. I realized that this is something I won't get another chance to do, so I might as well take it while I can. I think what I'm looking forward to the most is having a more relaxed season. All my classes are online, so I'm hoping I can focus more of my time on soccer and just enjoy it, knowing this is a second chance for me.”
For so many Concordia Bulldogs, given the choice, the thought of relinquishing one more year of the student-athlete experience wore on them. There are some, such as Koehlmoos, who would almost certainly take a sixth year if it were put on the table. In many instances, Bulldog athletes have reached their highest of highs in their final seasons under the sun. They’ve stated a compelling case for opting in on the ‘COVID year.’
As Opfer had said, “It says a lot about this program’s culture and relationships that make it so hard to leave. Bree and I are very happy we decided to come back because we know it’s going to be a good year. Those relationships are going to be there, and the coaching is amazing. Shoutout to Concordia Volleyball for making it hard to leave.”