After talking to the NJCAA governing board, Iowa Central will suspend spring sports until April 3 in response to the threat of COVID-19.

According to Iowa Central Athletic Director Kevin Twait, baseball, softball and track and all other spring sports will not compete until at least April 3.

“Teams can practice, but there will be no competition against outside teams,” Twait said. “We will wait and see what the landscape is after the two weeks to see if we need to prolong it.

“We decided we had to pull the pin like the NCAA and err on the side of caution.”

The threat of COVID-19 has been monitored daily and Iowa Central has a plan in place.

“While cases have increased in Iowa, there are no positive cases in our service area,” said Iowa Central President Dr. Dan Kinney in an official statement. “However, Iowa Central is moving all classes temporarily to remote delivery beginning Wednesday, March 25 and continuing through Friday, April 3.

“On Monday, March 23 and Tuesday, March 24, faculty will have work days to prep for remote delivery for classes. Students will not have face to face classes on Monday, March 23 and Tuesday, March 24. High School concurrent/Earlybird classes will continue and Career Academies will remain open. The college will continue to monitor the situation and may extend this period of remote delivery instruction if conditions warrant.

“Utilizing remote delivery instruction for classes allows the College to facilitate social distancing by decreasing the population on our campus.”

Iowa Central was scheduled to have spring break March 16 through March 20. Classes will resume online on March 23 — all from remote locations.

“The student-athletes will take their classes online, vie computer or other devices from their remote locations,” Twait said. “Classes will be held at the same time as the students normal class scheduled time.

“It will be business as usual, just modified. There will be no one-on-one. The library and cafeteria will still be open as well as the other services on campus.”

Twait said if the suspended spring sports stay at two weeks, baseball and softball will resume on April 4.

“If things go well, we will attempt to resume on April 4,” Twait said. “They would be allowed to start practicing on March 27 for eight days of practice prior to jumping back in.”

Twait has been on the Iowa Central campus and around athletics for awhile, and he has never came across anything like this.

“Not one thing in the world of sports has had an impact like this,” Twait said. “The only thing remotely close was 9-11. After mourning over the deaths of that tragedy, sports was kind of the outlet to 9-11.

“The threat of COVID-19 has shut down the sports world.”

According to Twait future Iowa Central students will be allowed to visit campus. Twait said, “It will be just like summer on campus.”

The shutdown has also canceled the Globetrotters visit, who were scheduled to perform inside Hodges Fieldhouse. It has also had an impact on golf, cheerleading and tennis.

“The golf and tennis teams and cheerleaders were scheduled for big trips,” Twait said. “The softball team was headed for their annual trip to Cocoa Beach Florida and they won’t be able to do that.

“The kids are crushed.”