As the semester comes to a close, Piedmont University is preparing to wrap up its’ unconventional spring sports semester. The unprecedented semester that saw the university have all 21 sports compete in the fall now draws to an end. While it is sad for many seniors that the shortened and different season is coming to a close, the season was certainly a successful one. On the field, many of Piedmont’s teams found success, with the Women’s Soccer team leaving the USA South Tournament as champions. Off the field in the sports information office, only a few major weeks stand between the staff and their time for semester reflection.

“I think we’ve navigated a really challenging semester about as successfully as we could have,” said Danielle Percival, Assistant Athletic Director of Communication at Piedmont University. “The main challenge was the student works and scheduling them with overlapping events, everyone on the road and how we were going to properly staff everything simultaneously.”

The challenge of properly running every home event was a tall order. It is likely that the total number of home events hosted by Piedmont this semester will fall just short of 100 when the semester is all said and done. While the staff is thankful they have almost finished the semester, it was not without challenge.

“There were instances where you go through and get all your game prep ready and 24 hours out from a contest you find out that it is not happening, that it is getting postponed,” stated Percival. “Weather is something we also have to account for, especially with April showers. This year

even more on top of that we had COVID-19 cancelations and postponements along with those weather changes.”

Taking some time to reflect on the year, it was one for the books. Something like this had never happened before and no one really knew what to expect. However, Percival believes that her and her staff were able to get through it thanks to everyone in the athletic department.

“I think we were able to successfully navigate a really challenging semester where everything was changing constantly. It seemed at times that you were looking at a schedule and going ‘Alright, this is it for this hour, and it may change again in one hour, three hours, 24 hours, who knows how many changes we are going to see,’” stated Percival. “Overall, we were able to roll with the punches and having the coaches work with us on scheduling as well was a big key component. Having them be flexible working with us so that we could adequately staff and cover their events was a key part of that as well.

Piedmont University will have one final week of action from Friday, May 7th to Sunday May 9th before sending off its graduating class on Friday, May 14th. For information about attendance policies for the big final weekend, please visit www.piedmontlions.com.