Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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www.BLUEANDGOLD.com MAY 2020 15 Kelly explained that his daily checklist typically includes: • Gathering status updates from director of football operations Olivia Mitchell on the standing of upcom- ing summer football camps — a vi- tal recruiting tool — that are mainly held on campus in June and attract prospects from all over the country. • Reviewing reports from head football equipment manager Chris Bacsik on specific player needs for their home workouts — be it foot- balls, cleats or other necessary gear. • Assessing details from head foot- ball athletic trainer Rob Hunt on how rehabs for the Irish players working back from offseason injuries and/or surgeries are being performed and progressing. • Checking in with the Notre Dame sports nutrition staff to ensure that players are getting what they need from a distance. • Electronically engaging with re- cruits and their parents to keep tar- gets and families updated and inter- ested as campus decisions unfold. "It takes quite some time to go through all of that in a daily fashion," Kelly said. Kelly and Notre Dame men's bas- ketball coach Mike Brey are sharing this new norm, but under different circumstances. Brey's season was brought to an abrupt end March 12, the day es- sentially all college and professional sports were wiped out, while Kelly doesn't know exactly when or if his season will even begin. Brey received the cancellation news via text message while bussing to a shoot-around at a high school gym in Greensboro, N.C., about seven hours before his ACC Tournament quarter- final game against Virginia. The ACC had canceled all remaining winter and spring sports seasons for the remainder of the school year. The NCAA followed suit, canceling all of its championship events, including the men's and women's NCAA basketball tournaments and the NIT, the likely postseason destination for Brey's Irish. Receiving the news was one thing for Brey, delivering it was another, espe- cially to his three senior captains — Rex Pflueger, T.J. Gibbs and John Mooney. "I told the guys that this is it and there's not going to be an NCAA Tour- nament and there's not going to be an NIT for you seniors," Brey said. "I didn't get emotional, but to look at the seniors' body language, their shoulders just shrugged, it was like, 'Damn.'" Irish winter and spring athletes were scattered all over the country, but feeling the same pain, as the can- cellation storm rolled through. "The mood from the minute we heard we weren't playing that weekend, it was a little fear, a lot of anxiety and a lot of sadness. There were a lot of tears. It was pretty brutal." IRISH SOFTBALL COACH DEANNA GUMPF On March 11, the University of Notre Dame advised students not to return to campus after spring break and suspended all in-person classes through April 13. A week later, Notre Dame President Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C., shut down the campus for the remainder of the semester. PHOTO BY JEANETTE BLANKENSHIP