Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1276571
league baseball recently launched ab- breviated seasons, while the NFL opened its training camps in hope of playing a full campaign this fall. The NBA, NHL and WNBA all opted to play in centralized locations to minimize the risk of exposure to the coronavirus. As of Aug. 5, those sports had not suf- fered any outbreaks requiring the can- cellation of games. Baseball, which opted to play in its own ballparks, was a different story. Twenty members of the Miami Marlins' traveling party tested positive for COVID-19 in late July, forc- ing the cancellation of games against Baltimore and Washington. And because the Marlins had played Philadelphia without disclosing that there were posi- tive cases on their team, the Phillies had to call off games against the New York Yankees and Toronto. A few days later, 13 positive tests forced St. Louis to post- pone series against Milwaukee and De- troit. Baseball's problems would seem to bode poorly for college football. There's no bubble in baseball, and in that re- spect it's similar to how football will have to be conducted this fall. There's simply no way to isolate players, coaches and staff to the degree that some of the pro leagues have done. Even if student- athletes take the majority or entirety of their fall classes online, they are in- evitably going to mingle with the larger student population, raising the risk of coronavirus transmission. Even before preseason practice was set to begin, a number of Big Ten teams had run into major problems. Ohio State shut down voluntary workouts for seven of its varsity teams in early July after an undisclosed number of athletes tested positive. A few weeks later, Michigan State's entire football team went into quarantine after 16 athletes and four staff members tested positive. The Spar- tans' football shutdown was set to ex- tend until at least Aug. 4. And Rutgers, too, was forced to isolate its entire foot- ball team in late July due to 28 positive tests among players. Penn State has not been spared from the outbreak. On July 23, the student radio station WPSU reported that a stu- dent-athlete living on campus had tested positive. In a statement to the station, Penn State Intercollegiate Ath- letics cited the university's return-to- campus plan, which requires students who test positive to isolate for 14 days, after which they are tested again. In ad- dition, if the subsequent contact-trac- ing process determines that others were potentially exposed to the virus, those people must also isolate for 14 days and be tested, even if they're asymptomatic. "The health and safety of our student- athletes, coaches, staff and the broader community are of the utmost impor- tance," Penn State said in its statement. The Big Ten has adopted a testing pro- tocol that calls for all athletes, coaches and support staff in high-contact sports to be tested at least twice per week during the season, with one of those tests taking place no more than 72 hours prior to a competition. The conference has arranged to have tests for all of its schools analyzed by a third-party laboratory. Nittany Lions coach James Franklin said that there were "a lot of things in place to try to keep everybody as safe as possible." One of the measures that Penn State instituted prior to the athletes' re- turn to campus was to move the weight training equipment into Holuba Hall, where there's more room to spread out. In a Zoom call with reporters in late July, linebacker Ellis Brooks said he was confident that university officials were prioritizing player safety as they worked to get their fall sports teams in position to begin preseason workouts. "I trust the medical staff here," Brooks said. "I trust the coaching staff. I think that we're all doing the things that we can do the help minimize exposure, wearing a mask in workouts, mask in meetings, doing online meetings. So all I can do is focus on myself, really, and just continue to be safe and practice social distancing whenever I'm out." The disclosure of Penn State's positive test raised concerns that the university's next scheduled COVID announcement – PSU has said it will make its testing numbers public every two weeks – might indicate signs of community spread. When the university revealed its numbers on July 29, they were indeed worse, though not as bad as the results that had caused shutdowns elsewhere. Penn State announced that of the 466 tests it had conducted since student- athletes began returning to campus, eight had come back positive, with 66 tests still pending. Those results were for multiple teams, not just the football team. In its two previous announce- ments, the university hadn't reported any positive test results. Even if the Power Five conferences are able to go forward with their seasons, the pandemic is going to impact players and coaches in profound ways. Franklin, for instance, said that his wife and daughters will be spending the coming months at the family's vacation home in Destin, Fla., while he coaches the Nit- tany Lions. Franklin's younger daughter, Addison, has sickle cell disease, which puts her in a higher risk group, so she and sister Shola will be home schooled in the fall. Franklin told HBO's "Real Sports" recently that he might not see his family again until January. "There were a lot of tears," he said, "a lot of emotion having this conversation." A big change that seems all but in- evitable is that stadiums will be mostly or entirely empty this fall. As of Aug. 1, Penn State hadn't announced its plans for seating fans in Beaver Stadium, but its biggest conference rival, Ohio State, said it was planning to allow only about 20,000 fans into Ohio Stadium for its home games. In addition, the Buckeyes PENN STATE'S 2020 FOOTBALL SCHEDULE SEPTEMBER 5 NORTHWESTERN....................................................TBA 12 at Indiana..............................................................TBA 19 at Michigan........................................................... TBA 26 MICHIGAN STATE....................................................TBA OCTOBER 3 at Rutgers............................................................. TBA 17 MARYLAND............................................................ TBA 24 IOWA.....................................................................TBA 31 at Nebraska...........................................................TBA NOVEMBER 7 OHIO STATE........................................................... TBA 21 at Illinois............................................................... TBA