It’s business as usual again in the sports world as teams all over the country attempt to return to some sense of normalcy after most of last week’s sporting events were canceled due to the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington.
University of Memphis head coach Tommy West, whose team is preparing for a Saturday night matchup with South Florida (1-1) at Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium, said although his team had the weekend off, he’s seen the effects of Tuesday’s tragedy on his squad.
“The emotions of the team were similar to my emotions in my opinion,” West said. “It was a shock and I don’t think it sunk in with the team and the coaches until after the weekend.”
Before the weekend, West said he’d kept his team preoccupied with practice. The Tigers ran practices Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.
“We stopped practice Tuesday and talked about what happened and we had a moment of silence,” West said. “When your not hearing about it or watching it on TV you don’t understand how big it is.”
The nine other football members of Conference USA are also getting back to their usual routines after all weekend games were canceled.
C-USA had left the decision to play games up to individual schools, but after the NFL canceled its entire Sunday schedule on Thursday, the conference decided to cancel all competition.
Saturday’s Southern Heritage Classic at the Liberty Bowl was also canceled and has been rescheduled for Thanksgiving Day.
Major League Baseball also got back underway Monday after a six-day layoff. The cancellation of games was the first of its kind since World War II and will most likely push the World Series into November.
