“I know it will be a faster game and a jump athletically, but I feel I can compete with guys like that.”

Stephen Gacioch was looking forward to his senior season as the quarterback for the UMass-Dartmouth football team. The Tiverton High School graduate was the Massachusetts State College Athletic Conference Offensive Player of the Year in 2019, when he ranked in the top 10 in eight different NCAA Division III categories.

But then came the news that most Division III college football teams have heard this fall.

“We were on a team meeting on Zoom when the conference announced the season wasn’t going to happen,” Gacioch said. “I just got up from my chair and left the room. That was pretty rough.”

The news started Gacioch down a different path that led to the University of Rhode Island. Gacioch’s first day of practice for the Division I Football Championship Subdivision Rams is Sept. 21.