This is Sideline Stories. A platform where NE10 student-athletes can share their collegiate experiences in an unfiltered environment - using their voices to promote growth and positive change in our league and in all of NCAA Division II athletics.

CJ Hart, a junior on the Saint Anselm men's lacrosse team, shares his thoughts on recent sport cancellations and the strong bond that exists between collegiate teammates. Here is his Sideline Story:

When you think of family, you think of your parents or guardians and your siblings. When I hear the word “family”, I think of my teammates and my brothers that have been through thick and thin with one another.

The entire NCAA was hit hard; no easy way around it. Seniors lost their last season. The men and women that paid their dues for at least four years came up short. Also, those up-and-coming teams and players lost their shot at a “what could have been” season.

After all the dust settles and all the tears dry, the thing that is always there on-and-off the field are your teammates, or for us athletes, your brothers and sisters.

All of the countless hours of hard work to be ready for the season, and all of the sacrifices, the highs and the lows. It all seems a little more worth it when you can look up with eye black and sweat in your eyes and look at the man or woman across from you and nod your head.

That nod represents everything you’ve been through as an individual and as a family. It also represents the fact that teammates have each other, on-and-off the field, until the end.

The season may have been cancelled, but something that can’t be taken away is our heart and our spirit. No athlete at this point in their career has ever given up and we never will.

College athletes were dealt a tough hand, but a good player knows how to play a tough hand. No easy way out; only love and commitment to our brothers and sisters, coaches, and parents and to the game you sacrificed everything for.

Next season will be the hardest-fought season in all of collegiate sports history because everyone will still be hungry and ready to go.

-CJ Hart