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MSUM's Sandelin provides an athlete's perspective on cancellations

By Peter Odney , 03/13/20, 6:45PM CDT

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The freshman's tweet about the Coronavirus is reaching 5,000 likes, but the ramifications are more severe for his upperclassmen teammates.

"You can't take anything for granted"

On March 11th, Minnesota State freshman forward Ryan Sandelin published a tongue-in-cheek tweet about hockey players playing through the Coronavirus while watching an NBA game.

“I saw the NBA players walking off the court, and I was like ‘Hockey players would just keep the game going,’” Sandelin said of his tweet, nearing 5,000 likes. 

“I put my phone down, and when I flipped it over, it had like 500 likes,” Sandelin said. “It just kind of blew up. I didn’t think much of it, and then the next thing you know, people were posting it all over.”  

Two days after Sandelin’s tweet, the NCAA canceled all postseason tournaments for winter sports, meaning hockey players couldn’t play through COVID-19 even if they wanted to. 

In a time of social media interaction and overreaction, Sandelin not only provides a bit of levity with his tweet, but he also offers a great deal of perspective from someone barely old enough to drink. 

“This whole thing shows that you can’t take anything for granted,” Sandelin said. “Every time you go to the rink and get to form relationships with the guys, just like that (it) can be taken away from you.”


Ryan Sandelin's viral tweet is nearing 500 retweets and 5,000 likes as of this article's publishing time.

The NCAA’s cancellation includes college basketball's March Madness, which brought in nearly $1 billion in revenue for the governing body, which should dispel the notion that the league made its decision lightly. There are talks of eligibility relief for the spring sport athletes who have had their seasons canceled, and the NCAA will discuss options for winter-sport athletes as well. 

As of the publish date and time of this article, there have been no concrete decisions made on eligibility. 

“I know there’re a lot of guys on our team that are looking to move on after this year,” Sandelin said of the Mavericks’ upperclassmen, some of whom needed the postseason to boost their resumes in the hopes a professional team would take notice. 

“They’ve been the backbone of this program, and they kind of get it ripped out of their hands after the end of their career is heartbreaking,” Sandelin continued. “It’s tough to watch.”

The Mavericks (31-5-2) were ranked No. 2 in the country behind Cornell according to the March 9th USCHO poll.

For now, Sandelin said he and his teammates will take the days as they come, doing their best not to let broken hearts and broken dreams cloud their judgment. 

“Hopefully, they’ll get this thing figured out for all of us, and we can get back to what we love doing.” 

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