Century College Among Teams Facing Unusual Ban From World Series
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- It's now reached the college baseball scene. You've heard about the various boycotts.
Events won't be held in North Carolina because of policies and politics. Now, area college baseball teams that are under Minnesota's MNSCU umbrella are being told if they advance to World Series play that happens to be held in North Carolina, they can't go.
Mike Max paid a visit to one program that could be affected.
It is a program that has reason to believe. An entrant in last year's National Junior College World Series, and maybe a better team this season.
"Yeah it's been a good year. We had a good chunk of starters back from last year and a lot of key players, including a couple of our better pitchers," Century College baseball coach Dwight Kotila said. "You know we've played well this year."
But with a ruling, this team has to put its hopes on hold, at least for now. They're getting a real close, real dose look at the real world.
It's a tough concept for players to grasp, that they could be punished for something that seems so far removed.
"It's kind of disappointment, kind of frustration. Especially for the sophomores who really wanted to go back-to-back years to the World Series. That would have been a lot of fun and for the freshmen to experience it too," sophomore pitcher Ryan Schlosser said.
That's what has been difficult to explain: That this is not about them, it's about politics. They hope a change of policy is still in play.
"But also through the state university system with a lot of people that didn't even know about this until the ruling came out," Kotila said. "I think once the shock and the surprise came and went, eveyone's had a chance now to really kind of sit down and think and hopefully the Governor's office will come back and rethink the decision as far as banning sports teams from going."
So they keep playing and hoping, and it turns out, learning. They're learning that life isn't always what you think.
"It's tough but you've gotta keep your morale up. You've got to keep playing, keep working hard. It's easier to give up than it is to keep playing," Schlosser said.