Quintana Ward is from Park Forest, Ill., so the shooting on the campus of Northern Illinois struck close to home for her.
Her father called her on Thursday afternoon and informed her. Ward later turned on CNN and couldn't believe what she saw.
I have a lot of friends from high school that go to Northern
Ward said. Fortunately I didn't know anyone in the shooting.
As a result of the shooting, all Huskies athletic events through Feb. 24 are canceled. The game between the Bobcats and the Huskies that was to take place on Saturday was one of those games.
Ward said that although she and her team got rest on Saturday, she would rather have taken a loss than have had those events take place.
It was such a tragedy Ward said. Thank God that we weren't there. You just never know what could happen.The events have far-reaching consequences as far as the athletic schedule goes for Northern Illinois and Ohio, which returns to the court for the first time in a week tonight at Akron.
Coach Sylvia Crawley said she called Northern Illinois coach Carol Owens, who was in practice at the time of shooting. Crawley had one big question for her team: What now?
(Owens) was just kind of devastated
the players were devastated
they hadn't even thought about what happens
Crawley said.
The Bobcats (14-9, 7-3 Mid-American Conference) are a team that work well with change, Crawley said, so no matter what happens, she can see her team holding up well. The Huskies will miss three games total, which could potentially affect tournament seeding.
If they don't make those games up
it's going to be crazy
Crawley said. Because the event happened so late in the season, Crawley said that it is going to make things very difficult for the conference.
Ohio's regular season schedule ends with Miami on March 5, and the Mid-American Conference Tournament begins four days later, leaving three days open to reschedule a contest with the Huskies.
We can't control the shooting at Northern
Crawley said. All we can do is prepare ourselves for whatever can happen. It's about our attitude toward it.
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