Local athletes, fans impacted by Pac-12, Big Ten postponing fall sports season

It sent shock-waves through the sports world on Tuesday. The Pac-12 and Big Ten postponed their fall sports season, which includes football.

"It's annoying because I sacrificed the rest of high school to come in, in January and I really did feel myself getting better and I knew that I could work my way up to a role sometime soon, but you know, God's got a plan for everything, so I'm just ready to go back home, it's just more time to work and more time to get ready for when my time comes," said Jake Shipley, Oregon football player, formerly Shadow Hills High School.

As of Wednesday, the other three conferences in the Power 5 - the SEC, ACC and Big 12 - plan to go about their athletic season as scheduled. That raises a lot of questions as to how a full season will look.

Both Jake Shipley and Akemi Von Scherr from La Quinta, who is entering her freshman year at Ohio State University to run cross country and track and field, said they first heard about the season's postponement in the news.

"Life goes on with or without you, so you can either make the most of it or kind of just settle in and bear over all the sad moments that we're going through right now. But I'm just going to keep on having a positive mindset and just to have fun and still train and, I mean, it's better to be ready than not to be ready," said Von Scherr.

Shipley has been on campus at Oregon since January, but now since the postponement, he will be returning to the Coachella Valley to train from home. Von Scherr is headed to Ohio State on Saturday. Both athletes said they've been meeting with their teams virtually and that their coaches have given them training plans to follow.

"Right now the main priority and goal is for student-athletes to stay safe and healthy. I think if we can do that, we'll definitely have a season later on, in the future," Von Scherr said.

This news does not just impact the athletes, but also the fans. Here in the desert, many are loyal to USC or UCLA. There is strong support for the Trojans and Bruins throughout all of Southern California. But this fall, there will be no tailgating, traveling or tuning into football games on Saturday. For many who love their team, this is a sad reality.

"I've been going to the games with my family for like the past five years but at the same time I think it's kind of a good thing and safe to put it off for a little while but as a fan, like a lover of sports it's kind of tragic," said Steven Ignacio, USC season ticket holder and Coachella resident.

Stay with KESQ News Channel 3 for any new information on this story as it develops.