RPI athletics remain on hold
School not allowing athletes to work out in groups because of virus
While other Capital Region colleges and universities are allowing their teams to hold supervised workouts during the coronavirus pandemic, RPI’S athletes and coaches are still waiting their turn.
Team activities have yet to start on the Troy campus, two months after the school put out its Return to Athletics Plan. Since Aug. 1, RPI has conducted 43,799 COVID -19 tests of all members of its community with six positive results, according to its dashboard.
Awaiting the go-ahead to proceed, RPI football coach Ralph Isernia said it’s “just natural” his players are eager to have even limited workouts since their fall season was canceled.
“They see things on social media, see what other teams are doing and what other schools are doing,” Isernia said. “Certainly, we’re not going to do things here just because another team or another school, they do something their way. We’re going to do what’s best for us and (RPI president) Dr. (Shirley Ann) Jackson reiterated that on Tuesday that we’re going to act in the best interest of our school and our students.”
At Siena, athletes are permitted to lift weights or take part in skills instruction in groups no larger than 10. Ualbany is back doing strength and conditioning after workouts were put on pause for three weeks because of a COVID -19 outbreak partly attributed to athletes.
All 19 of Saint Rose’s teams are holding workouts in limited groups and will be allowed to gather up to 24 players per team when a new phase starts next week, according to athletic director Lori Anctil. A Union College athletic spokesman said that the school’s teams began with strength and conditioning
in September and have worked up to non-contact practices in small groups.
Meanwhile, RPI athletic director Lee Mcelroy said it’s still “under review ” when his department can begin its team activities. He praised the school’s low number of positive tests — RPI’S East Campus Athletic Village is being used for testing — but said there’s not a certain threshold that must be met to start workouts.
“It’s all part of the larger university plan, so we’ve got to be in lockstep with all areas of the university,” he said. “We’re going to continue to do that and stay in lockstep and keep things moving. We’ve had tremendous success and progress over the past seven weeks and we’re going to continue to do that.”
Mcelroy, who formerly served as Ualbany’s athletic director, declined to speculate why his athletes remain sidelined while other schools’ aren’t.
“I can’t respond to that because I’m not familiar with the other universities’ protocols and how they conduct theirs,” he said. “I just know we’ve done more testing, probably two or three times as many as any other university in the area, and as a result of that, we’ve had tremendous success and moving forward we hope to continue that. Who knows, the way this thing is going.”
Mcelroy said no decision has been made yet on RPI’S winter sports season, including the Division I hockey teams.
Though the weight room and other indoor facilities are closed to RPI’S athletes, they are still allowed to exercise on their own outdoors on the playing fields, according to Mcelroy. They still must follow socialdistancing and mask-wearing protocol.
Isernia said the athletic trainers have given players weight-training exercises to do in their dorms or at home, if they are doing remote learning. Sophomores aren’t on campus this semester.
“The students and staff and faculty, everyone’s done a great job of handling everything,” Isernia said. “I know that we’re just waiting to kind of get going.”