What were the initial plans for the basketball team last season?
Throughout the spring and summer I worked in conjunction with the university administration and the Collegiate Athletic Association to develop policies and protocols for a safe season, to keep the student athletes, coaches, trainers, any officials and everyone who's involved with the games as safe as possible. The initial plans were to start tryouts as normal. We began tryouts on September 14 and they were well attended. We actually probably had more students try out this year than any normal year. And I think part of that had to do with the fact that there was really no other gym use available, other than if you wanted to try out for the team.
We went forward with the regular plans like a normal year, with the exception of having all of the COVID safety and health guidelines. We took everyone's temperature and had them show their Campus Clear little green checkmark. We had them use hand sanitizer and we kept track of their daily temperatures. We only allowed 18 players in the gym at a time, and we only allowed three players at any one basket at a time. They all had their own basketball so that they didn't have to share. Once the teams were chosen and practices began on September 21, because we had a smaller group and we knew exactly who they were, we were able to relax some of those protocols.
We were able to share some basketballs and have more interaction, but even in that case, the first two weeks we didn't have any contact or scrimmaging. We had all these plans specifically to make sure that we didn't have too many challenges. Long story short, we practiced for three months, from September 21 until the day that they shut down campus, right before Thanksgiving. We had zero cases, zero positives, even though we had 30 people in the gym on a daily basis. The student athletes always wore their masks, as did the coaches, in all the scrimmages and physical exercise.
I want to start at the beginning, so that would be March 2020. How did the pandemic affect you back then?
That's a great question. In March, the women's team got their first ever invitation to the USCAA National Championships, which I am so proud of them for achieving. So we were in Uniontown, Pennsylvania. We returned to campus on Tuesday, and that Thursday was when they shut down campus. So we returned from Uniontown, Pennsylvania from the National Championships on Tuesday night, we had Wednesday on campus, and then I think it was Thursday at Chapel where they pulled us all together and told us that everything was shutting down. So technically it didn't impact our season at all. But it really impacted the closure to the season. We didn't have an opportunity to end the season together and celebrate the accomplishments of the players.
Were there any specific regulations that you had to adhere to?
We had a lot of regulations that the Cardinal Athletic Program had to abide by last semester. We just kept following the best protocols, which were updated on a regular basis by the Collegiate Athletic Associations, and the governing bodies of the state of Michigan. We just had to kind of watch all of those entities and whenever they sent out an update we just had to abide by that. The most consistent protocols that would affect the players were, for example, normally they’d get to come to the gym, go to the locker room and change their clothes. Because of COVID protocols there was no locker room use. So we simply set a chair for each player - 25 players, 13 women and 12 men - and we put a nice little laminated name tag with the Cardinal logo on it and their jersey number. We posted on the wall behind their chair so that one little area became the individual player’s locker. We had them 15 feet apart, and we surrounded the outside wall of the recreation center with those. We had the guys on one side and the ladies on the other side.
For those first three months, we would always have the men's practice end, then we would clean and sanitize the gym. We would also take their practice jerseys straight to the laundry. Our team managers and equipment managers did a great job with following all the protocols. The men would leave out of the back of the recreation center and the Lady Cardinals would enter the front of the recreation center. We intentionally separated the two teams when normally they're able to intermingle and practice at the same time. But in case we had any COVID cases, we didn't want to have to quarantine both teams at the same time. We also didn't allow anybody in the recreation center other than the players and coaches, because we screened them every day, and we wanted to make sure that we weren't jeopardizing any of them because during practices social distancing obviously wasn't followed.
You can't play basketball with a six foot social distance, but the players on the team always wore their masks and they had the sweetest spirit. It didn't matter. I would pull them together and give them new protocols and policies. They weren't allowed to eat in the cafeteria with the rest of the students, they had to get their food and take it to go. They never blinked, they just kept a smile and said, “Okay, tell us what we need to do. We want to play this year.” They had such a good spirit and they really wanted to play the season. And so, anything that myself or the coaches asked them to do, they just did it with a smile and a great attitude. And even though, you know, it's kind of a lost season because we didn’t get to play games, we were blessed with many things. Through the practices, and through the interactions and worships with the teams, we've built relationships and friendships, and it was really a blessing. We still wanted to play but, you know, you don't always get everything you want. So we made the best of it. The relationships that we developed are very special and I think they'll last for a long, long time.
What was the attitude of the players during all of this?
Their attitude was awesome. Weekly, I would come in and address the men's team and the women's team, and tell them “All right, the policy has changed at the regional level” or “Okay, the policy has now changed again at the university l