Tristen Licon, Jordan Lester and Dom Moser are among Division III student-athletes facing a decision this year, and even more will need to do so next season. Sul Ross State athletics photo; Whitworth athletics photo by Lisa Van Hulzen, Delaware Valley athletics photo

By Ryan Scott
D3hoops.com

Jordan Lester plays beautiful basketball.

The Whitworth guard can score if he has to, but there’s a visible relish in just getting the ball where it needs to be in the right moments. He’s very good at it. If you’re a late night, west-coast D3hoops junkie, you may have seen his exploits over the years, although almost certainly it’s been in November and December.

Lester has the opportunity to do something truly unique in Division III, because of the COVID waiver, he’ll be eligible to return to Spokane, Washington, in the fall for his seventh season of college basketball. “My parents have been very supportive,” says Lester. “I’m lucky to have them supporting me emotionally, but really lucky to have them continue to support me financially.”

His first two seasons were on scholarship at Robert Morris, but even Lester admits, if he decides to return in 2021-22, it’s going to be a challenge to find an academic program at Whitworth. “I was scheduled to graduate with my master’s at the end of my fifth year,” says Lester. “I’ve already extended that degree to play this year, so it’ll mean meeting with compliance and my advisor to figure it all out.”

As lucky as he’s been with parental support and finding a strong, welcoming community at Whitworth, Lester has obviously been unlucky with injuries. He gets the chance to play so much basketball because his knee has taken an incredible pounding. He’s suffered meniscus injuries in the ninth game of his junior year, the fifth game of his fifth season, and again in November 2020.

“I’m not sure,” notes Lester, “if I’ll try to come back and play this spring or just give it a full year of recovery and hope for a full season next year.” If he does get into a game in 2020-21, he’ll be the rare athlete to score points in six seasons (with a potential seventh to follow). Although unfinished business is one of the reasons he keeps coming back. “I just love basketball,” he says, “and while we’ve had good seasons, we’ve never put one together where we fully reach our potential.”

COVID provided a lot of graduates with remaining eligibility an extra layer of complexity in making decisions about their future. Spencer Cook, a potential All-American at Stevens, had to decide whether to enroll in an MBA program this fall well before he knew whether there would be basketball. “I just assumed,” he says, “like a lot of people, that by October and November this would all be behind us.”

In the end, it was talking to others about the long term benefits of an MBA in finance, coupled with his ability to do an accelerated program now, as opposed to a longer one later, that led Cook to pull the trigger. Stevens isn’t going to play basketball this season, but Cook hurt himself this fall anyway and wouldn’t have been able to participate.

“I’ve got a job lined up in Austin for next fall,” adds Cook. “I missed a chance to become Stevens’ all-time leading scorer, which was a goal of mine, and our team, I think, would’ve been competing for a national championship this year, but I’m glad I came back. I love basketball and you don’t ever want to regret something you didn’t do.”

Dom Moser has found the COVID waiver a welcome relief from perhaps returning to play too soon and the regrets around that decision. When an ACL injury cost her senior season, she worked hard and was pushing to be back for a fifth year. But, with Delaware Valley starting play late and scheduling few games, there’s less pressure to risk her recovery this season. “[The COVID waiver] was quite refreshing,” says Moser. “The coaches have been supportive and understanding and this gives me extra time to train and work on my knee.”

For Tristen Licon, a fifth year was always in the plans, and being in Texas has helped keep those plans on track. “I redshirted my freshman year at another school, before transferring, so I always knew I would play five,” says Licon, who was named Sul Ross State’s “Man on the Year.” It's a prestigious award, recognizing academic and community excellence, given at graduation in the spring.

He is currently working on a master’s in education and is undecided whether to return for one more year. “I have a chance to be the school’s all-time leading scorer,” says Licon. “But a lot of it will come down to whether this feels like a good ending for my career.”

So far, Sul Ross has been able to play a mostly normal schedule. “We weren’t able to play the out-of-state non-conference teams on the schedule, but we’ve only had one game canceled so far and outside of no fans, it feels like a pretty normal season.” Licon has shown no signs of bother; he’s currently averaging 22 points and nine rebounds per game.

One factor in his decision, and that of many other players, will be whether conference and NCAA tournaments go off as scheduled. Conference tourneys will likely be at the whim of the virus, while we should have firm NCAA news after the Administrative Committee meets on Feb. 3.

Every athlete faces a decision about pressing on or calling it a career. Most have that decision made for them by graduation or the exhausting of eligibility. COVID has added a whole new wrinkle into that decision-making process. This summer, it won’t be just a few student athletes facing that choice, but every single one.

In Division III, it’s not just a question of whether to extend college or find a job, there are academic and financial considerations at play as well. Every student-athlete I spoke with brought up those concerns, of course – they weigh heavy – but every one of them, when asked what advice they’d give to others just now facing decisions they wrestled with last year, said the same thing, perhaps best summed up by Jordan Lester, “If you can make the finances work, if you can get an extra degree, if you love basketball, just go for it ... you’re only young once.”