BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – Today we continue SamfordSports.com's series giving alumni, fans and friends an in-depth video interview focused on the lives of our student-athletes, coaches and staff in the wake of COVID-19. In Friday's 11th episode, Jonathan McAfoos visits with senior pitcher Connor Radcliff.
 
Radcliff was a key reliever on Samford's 2019 Southern Conference regular season championship team. He led the team with 31 appearances, posting a 2.70 earned run average in 43.1 innings of work. In 2020, Radcliff, in seven appearance, had a 1.13 ERA, before the season was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.


 
The baseball team earned a 5-1 win over Alabama A&M on March 10, but the season was halted two days later. Radcliff talked about how the team heard about the shutdown.
 
"I think it was either that Thursday night or Friday morning that we were going to be playing Jacksonville State is when we officially found out that we were postponing our season for a couple of weeks," Radcliff said. "And that was actually good news, because we thought that it was over, so having that two-week hiatus would have been good. But as you know, it kind of snowballed from there, and then a few days later, we found out that the season was canceled completely."
 
Radcliff and the rest of the seniors on the 2020 Samford baseball team were not sure what the future held when the announcement was made. He talked about the reaction of the seniors to the news.
 
"I remember walking into that meeting when the coaches had told us to come up to the locker room, and just seeing everyone getting out of their cars and walking in," Radcliff said. "Everybody had their head down and everybody thought it was over. And the seniors really didn't know what the future held, because if the season's canceled, we really didn't know how that was going to affect us, if we were going to be able to get eligibility back or what was going to happen with us. Our initial reaction was definitely just shock and disappointment. Not knowing, I think was worse than what it ended up being."
 
A few weeks ago the NCAA announced that spring sport athletes could gain a year of eligibility due to not being able to play their seasons. Radcliff is one of the seniors who will not be returning for another year. He talked a little about his decision.
 
"It was a really tough decision," Radcliff said. "And it wasn't one that I took lightly. A lot of it had to do with my academics. I graduated last May with my undergraduate degree in sports marketing. I came back for my fifth year to play and I was getting my MBA, and I'm actually going to finish my MBA with just one class to take online next fall. That will be my last class, and that was one part of it, it just really didn't benefit me to stretch out my MBA program and maybe have to add a class or two.
 
"The second part of it was that athletes have to think about life after their sport ends," Radcliff said. "I have an opportunity to go be in the sports field that I want to be in and start my career there. I just felt like it was an opportunity that I didn't want to pass up, it was going to be a great stepping stone for my career."
 
Radcliff said he will miss being at Samford, but he knows he is making the best decision for his future.
 
"I'm going to miss, like crazy, being around the guys," Radcliff said. "I'm going to miss the coaches, being around the program, being around everybody at Samford. It's definitely something I think's going to benefit me in the long run. Baseball had to come to an end, and unfortunately it came to an end a little bit sooner than I wanted it to, but I think this is going to be the best for me in the long run."
 
Radcliff, like all of Samford's students, has been taking classes online this semester. The MBA program he is in, however, already gave its students the option of online classes, even before the pandemic.
 
"Samford's MBA program is pretty good, and they offer an online class and an in-person class, pretty much every semester," Radcliff said. "So, most of my classes, I had already scheduled to be online, because I was supposed to be so busy during this baseball season. So, I actually only had one class that I had to transition from the in-person class to the online class, and that class is actually taught online in other semesters. So, it was pretty easy for that professor to transition the material and the lectures online, so it really went off without a hitch."
 
Radcliff talked about what he plans to do, professionally after leaving Samford.
 
"I want to stay in the sports world," Radcliff said. "I want to, preferably, be in a sports organization, and be on the business side. I've always loved the business side of sports. It really interests me. I think in five to 10 years, I want to be with corporate sponsorships, selling those at the organizational level, either MLB, NBA, NFL, maybe even NHL, it really doesn't matter. I just want to be in the professional ranks, dealing with some of the signs and sponsorships you see on the outfield wall at a baseball park or things like that. That would be my ideal situation."