On second thought, maybe he's not a complete dummy, but he sure is a whiny baby.

[bold] Rowley's Boyle unable to defend national title due to coronavirus cancellations [/bold]

John Boyle had already made the trip out to Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The Rowley resident and his teammates with the Western New England University wrestling team were gearing up for the weekend’s NCAA Division 3 Championships, and the next morning he was set to begin defending his national title.

The wrestlers had been following the coronavirus story, but as far as they knew everything had been worked out and they were good to go. That was until Thursday afternoon, when the wrestlers were walking through the hotel lobby on their way to a training session and realized something was up.

“I heard people start saying it’s over, it’s done,” said Boyle, a former state champion at Triton. “I was so confused, because this was after they gave us a compromise where we were allowed to let six people in. We had six tickets for immediate family so I thought since they did that, that was enough. But when this hit, I didn’t really know how to feel at first, it didn’t seem real.

[bold] “I put in all the work in the season, everybody put in all the work to put it on display at the end. This is why you do it, and you get that opportunity ripped away,” he continued. “It’s one thing to lose, but to have the opportunity taken away is just devastating.” [/bold]

In response to the coronavirus pandemic, the NCAA canceled all winter and spring tournaments for the remainder of the academic year. The Division 1 NCAA men’s and women’s basketball tournaments were the highest profile casualties, but the decision had a ripple effect on athletes across the college athletics spectrum.

For the Division 3 wrestling contenders, the decision was especially tough to swallow. Many of the teams had undergone significant fundraising efforts just to get to Cedar Rapids, and with the decision coming the day before the tournament was set to start, most of that money had already been spent by the time the news broke.

Boyle added that his family had already flown in to Minnesota and were just beginning the four-hour drive down to Iowa when he had to call and break the news. Most of the other competitors’ families were in the same boat.

Even after recognizing the severity of the outbreak, Boyle said he was still coming to grips with the call to cancel.

[bold] “I didn’t think it was this bad. I don’t think it was necessary personally, to prevent such a small group of people competing. We’re not the biggest program, it’s D3 wrestling. March Madness is on a much bigger scale of people,” he said. “I understand that it’s all the NCAA and if one thing gets canceled it wouldn’t be fair to let the others compete, but I didn’t expect it.” [/bold]