Pittsburgh Riverhounds SC was just two days away from its originally scheduled season opener when the USL Championship announced the campaign would be suspended.

With the season now halted through May 10, the Hounds will have nine games postponed – all of which the league is planning to reschedule at a later date. The unprecedented nature of these postponements in the USL Championship, and across the sports world, has created unique challenges for professional sports organizations like the Hounds.

Across two decades of experience, this is the first time head coach Bob Lilley has dealt with a situation mirroring these circumstances. The closest thing he has coached through in regard to an extended suspension came after Sept. 11, 2001.

That season, the league delayed the first round of its playoffs for about two weeks before starting up again. Lilley, who served as the head coach for the Hersey Wildcats at the time, would see his team advance to the 2001 USL A-League finals, where they fell to the Rochester Rhinos.

But as that hiatus happened at the end of the season, this one interrupted the Hounds before they played their first regular season match, which creates for a different set of hurdles.

“A challenge is to get players fit enough to start up again,” Lilley said. “Getting back into game mode is tough to do without playing any more preseason or exhibition games.”

Heading into the original start date of the 2020 season, Pittsburgh competed in eight preseason games, facing opponents from the collegiate to the professional ranks. Once the current suspension and restrictions are lifted, the team could have about two to three weeks to be back on the field together before game action resumes.

In the meantime, players have received detailed training regimens from the coaching staff, which will help them maintain their fitness levels away from the team environment.

“The big thing when we get back will be raising the fitness level of guys in game-type situations,” Lilley said. “Making everyone sharper in those situations and getting our rhythm back.”

This season, Pittsburgh returned nine players from the 2019 campaign while the remainder of the roster features players in their first season at the organization. Once matches resume, it’ll take an entire team effort to obtain results and points in the standings.

As the league intends to reschedule all postponed matches, it could create a situation in that the Hounds have a larger number of two-game weeks and busier months ahead of them. Due to this, there could be an increase in player rotation over the course of the season.

“This was a new group, so there was a lot of learning in terms of how we wanted to play,” Lilley said. “A lot of that is in place as we went through more and more preseason games. A lot of that is in place now.”