Fullerton College athletics has made the decision to opt out of the first spring session of sports according to a statement released by FC President Greg Schulz.

The teams that will be affected by this decision include men’s and women’s basketball, men’s and women’s cross country, football, women’s golf, men’s and women’s soccer, women’s volleyball as well as men’s and women’s water polo.

According to the statement, this decision was made due in part to the rising number of COVID-19 cases in Orange County as well as California as a whole.

Even though Fullerton College will be opting out of the session they will still offer intercollegiate classes online.

“Just look at the current state that we’re in right now and to think that we would be able to prepare adequately for our early spring sports is foolish thinking,” FC Athletic Director Scott Giles said about the decision.

After a board meeting in November, Giles said the CCCAA left the decision up to each school in the state to decide whether they were going to play or not.

Giles said Fullerton College looked at different methods to handle the testing required for their student-athletes to participate but things took a turn for the worse.

“Honestly as we worked our way into the Thanksgiving holiday break and we saw what was going on in the state of California with restrictions, higher number of cases, deaths, hospital rates and we made that decision,” Giles stated.

Although things didn’t go as planned for the first session, Giles said he is more optimistic about the second spring session because of the news of a vaccine that is scheduled to be released shortly but this pandemic has shown him that nothing is guaranteed.

According to the statement released by President Schulz Fullerton College is not required to determine whether or not they will participate in the second Spring session until February.

Giles also mentioned that the student-athletes who lost their season will not lose a year of eligibility if and when they transfer to a four-year institution.

“I’m disappointed for our athletes obviously they want to compete and they want to play but in the end I think it’s all going to work out and we’ll be okay,” Giles added. Giles also said he wanted to be transparent with the student-athletes and coaches instead of dragging this decision on.

Giles said there was no need to rush back into sports since they aren’t like universities that rely on television and other advertising deals for revenue.

Overall, Giles said he feels good about this decision, he applauded President Schulz for being “courageous” and he thinks the school will be safer because of it.