Washington University, a perennial national power in numerous Division III sports, will not participate in fall sports, athletics director Anthony Azama said in a statement Wednesday night.

The decision will sideline teams in football, men’s and women’s soccer, men’s and women’s cross country, volleyball, women’s golf and men’s and women’s tennis.

“We will transition the focus of our planning initiatives to explore possible activity experience for fall student-athletes once they return to campus,” Azama said in the statement.

The football program was preparing for its first season under coach Aaron Keen after going 7-3 in Larry Kindbom’s 31^st and final year.

The women’s soccer team reached the Elite Eight and finished 18-1-3 last season. The women’s cross country team finished second in the country and the men were fourth.