Since March of 2020, COVID-19 has led the Union athletic department to make major changes to the way they prepare for game days and practices for the spring seasons.
Starting with the cancellation of the 2020 spring seasons for softball and baseball and the postponement of matches for the 2020 fall sports, COVID-19 brought what seemed like a perpetual pause on most college sports. It was not until December, with the start of basketball games, when things started looking up for the future of college athletics in a COVID-evident world.
Head athletic trainer for Union University athletics, Erica Pitt, laid out the changes made to a typical home game, including a new bench set up and screening process for every person who steps foot in the gym.
“We had to literally map out our gym and measure and see where we would put everything,” said Pitt. “It’s just been reimagining game day.”
The gym looks a little different from game days played in the past now that the team’s benches are placed on the opposite side of the court from where the scorer’s table is. The team’s benches are spaced out as much as they can be, and as players sit on the sidelines, they are required to wear a mask and can only take them off when they go on the court. The first portion of bleachers are blocked off due to requirements set by the NCAA and the Gulf South Conference (GSC), stating that there must be 12 feet of space between the team’s bench and the first row of fan seating.
The screening process consists of a temperature check and a COVID symptom questionnaire (do you have a fever, cough, or sore throat? Do you have a loss of taste or smell? Have you been around anyone else with these symptoms in the last 14 days?). Every person who steps foot in the gym is screened, and there are different entrances and exits for everyone. For example, the ‘Tier One’ group includes players, coaches and anyone who would be within six feet of them for more than 15 minutes, and all in this tier share a specific entrance and exit.
And the saddest change of all, teams are not allowed to shake hands before or after the game.
In addition to mapping out the gym and doing her job as head athletic trainer, Pitt has been tasked with figuring out the best way for teams to get COVID tested so they can continue playing under the guidelines set by the NCAA and GSC.
“I feel like so much more of our time now is taken up with logging [COVID] tests, trying to schedule tests, and trying to research the latest publications to see if we need to change the way we’re doing things,” said Pitt. “It’s just a constant change.”
Beginning in the fall, athletic teams were subject to a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test that had to be sent to a lab in Georgia, and it took roughly four days for results to return. Now, the athletic training department has received rapid tests from the state and can get results from these in 10 to 15 minutes.
To decipher how many times a week a team must be COVID tested, a risk classification scale is used. High-risk sports, such as basketball and volleyball, are tested three times a week during their season. The medium-risk sports include baseball, softball and soccer, and the teams are surveillance tested, meaning 25% of the team gets tested every two weeks. Low-risk sports such as cross country do not have to get tested during their season, unless they are traveling as a team. The one thing that every sport has in common is when traveling for an away game, they must get tested the day before they leave; this includes all coaches and any person who travels with them.
Another aspect of the athletic world that was affected by COVID-19, the wellness center, affects the whole campus. With social distancing guidelines, the wellness center has to turn people away when the occupancy reaches 34 people. Head strength and conditioning coach and athletics director for campus recreation, Jonny Wilson, talked about how teams have had to split into groups to work out in order to stay under the gym’s maximum occupancy. The recommended number of 14 athletes causes teams with a higher player count, such as baseball and soccer, to work out in these groups at different times of the day than their fellow teammates.
The new COVID regulations in the gym have added an extra task to the coaches’ regular jobs.
“After the athletics team comes through, we ask the coach to be in charge of cleaning all of the equipment after their athletics team leaves,” said Wilson.
While COVID may have cast a dark cloud over athletics in 2020, with new regulations and staff like Pitt and Wilson, the future for Union athletics in a COVID world looks a bit brighter.
