ROLLOUT IN HIGH GEAR
UConn coach Geno Auriemma tests positive for COVID-19
While his team departs for the NCAA Tournament in Texas on Tuesday, UConn Hall of Fame basketball coach Geno Auriemma will be isolating at his Connecticut home.
Auriemma, 66, tested positive for COVID-19 on Sunday — just four days after receiving his second dose of the coronavirus vaccine. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, people are fully vaccinated 14 days after a second dose of twodose vaccines.
UConn said contact tracing protocols showed Auriemma had no close contact with team members since Friday. Per NCAA Tournament protocol, all Tier I personnel (student-athletes, coaches, trainers and physical therapists, medical staff, equipment staff, officials) have been tested daily since March 9.
According to UConn, all Tier I personnel have tested negative.
Auriemma is asymptomatic and said he feel “great.” On Monday morning, he spoke at the Middlesex Chamber of
Commerce’s virtual breakfast.
“It came as a complete shock to me obviously and to our medical staff,” Auriemma said on a Zoom press conference Monday nig. We've been testing every single day ... So who’s to say? I don't know, but I feel good. And I'm really, really happy that that our players are going to get a chance to go down there tomorrow and start preparing to play in the NCAA Tournament.”
Auriemma said he has followed the same routing for a year, adhere to COVID guidelines while testing negative day after day.
Suddenly, there was a positive
test. It was bewildering.
“That just got to show you .... You have no idea with this thing,” Auriemma said. “You have no idea where, when, how … I haven't done anything out of the ordinary, that I've done at any other time this year.
“I didn't all of a sudden go on spring break. I didn't go to Florida. I didn’t all of a sudden going on, you know, a motorcycle retreat in Montana or something. I didn't do anything . ... So I have no idea. If I had to trace it back to Friday and Saturday. I have no idea. Zero.”
The announcement of Auriemma’s positive test came just hours before the NCAA unveiled the tournament bracket. UConn (24-), ranked No. 1 in the country, begins its drive for a 12th NCAA
title Sunday against High Point. The entire NCAA Tournament will be played in the San Antonio region.
Auriemma will remain isolated for 10 days and can join the team March 24. UConn’s second round game will be played March 23, so Auriemma will miss two games.
“After we received notification of the positive test result yesterday, we initiated contact tracing protocols, which included interviewing individual members of the basketball program and indepth video analysis of practice,” director of sports medicine and head team physician Deena Casiero said in a statement. “Only household close contacts were identified. Given the fact that we have been doing daily testing for the past seven days, we feel confident
that we were able to catch this very early on in the disease process. The remainder of Tier I tested negative yesterday and today.”
Auriemma has missed 10 games since arriving at UConn in 1985. He missed the Big East tournament in 1989, when he was serving a suspension for a scheduling mistake. Eight years later, he missed the conference tournament because he returned to Pennsylvania following the death of his father Donato.
He most recently missed a game against Oklahoma last season when he had a surgical procedure to treat diverticulitis.
Associate coach Chris Dailey has coach UConn in Auriemma’s access. Dailey is 10-0 as head coach
“I have complete confidence and complete trust and faith in (Dailey) and (the coaching staff),” Auriemma said. “I’m an innocent bystander right now so I’m just going to sit back and watch them do their thing. CD is undefeated in tournament play, so I don’t think we can get a coach that has a better record in the tournament than she does.”
Auriemma is 1,115-143 in 36 seasons at UConn. He has won 11 national titles, the most recent in 2016.
The 2006 Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame inductee has also won three Olympic gold medals as head coach the U.S. National team.
Exactly one year ago, Ted Yang answered a call to help coordinate Connecticut’s philanthropic response to the coronavirus pandemic.
Now, after helping launch a nonprofit that has overseen the delivery of about $20 million in aid across the state, the New Canaan-based entrepreneur is handing off the baton to a new leader.
4-CT announced Monday that Yang had stepped down as chief executive officer and joined its board. At the same time, it appointed an interim CEO, Catalina Samper-Horak, who was the founding executive director of Building One Community, a Stamford-based nonprofit that serves the immigrant community. The changes are part of a long-planned transition.
“I instigated this change. I think it’s the right time for this change one year after we started 4-CT,” Yang said in an interview. “Catalina is fantastic at what she does, and she is an amazing leader, fundraiser and connector to the communities we serve. She’ll prepare the way for a long-term leader of 4-CT. It’s a process being started up right now, and it’ll take some number of months to find that person.”
Samper-Horak had served on the 4-CT board since its inception, but stepped down from the board to focus on her new position.
“I’m passionate about social justice and believe that we, as a community, all have a responsibility to help those affected by COVID. Given my own background and experience as a social entrepreneur, when Don (Kendall, 4-CT’s other co-founder and executive chairman) and Ted asked me if I would consider this opportunity I thought it would be a great way for me to stay involved and capitalize on the things I’ve done in the past.”
“Catalina has the full package of skills and experience we are looking for in our interim leader,” Kendall said in a statement. “She is very passionate about 4-CT and believes we have an exceptional opportunity to capitalize on the wave of innovation that is happening currently in the direct aid and universal basic income space.”
Samper-Horak expects to serve about six months as the interim chief executive. She will advise the board, which will pick the permanent CEO.
“I have the direct experience of running a nonprofit, being on the front lines and working with vulnerable populations,” Samper-Horak said. “Combining my experience on the operational side and strategic side with my frontline, direct contact with people will help the board with their decisions.”
One year in operation
4-CT was founded on March 15, 2020. Its formation was spurred by a call that day about the state’s response to the pandemic between Gov. Ned Lamont and Kendall, a Weston-based entrepreneur.
“As soon as Don got off the phone with the governor, he called me, and we said ‘Let’s go do this,’” Yang said. “The ‘this’ was being able to put together large-scale, statewide philanthropy for rapid relief for COVID. Don and I are both entrepreneurs, so we wanted to jump in and make it happen.”
Among earlier undertakings, Yang and Kendall founded the Connecticut chapter of Social Venture Partners, a venture philanthropy organization.
“Ted was an amazing changemaker as he and Don (Kendall) got 4-CT off the ground, providing support for innovative programs and for Nutmeggers who would otherwise have fallen through the safety net,” Lamont said in a statement. “Believe me, Ted will stay very involved, just in a new role.”
4-CT has since amplified its impact by teaming up with leading nonprofits across the state. Its partners include Fairfield County’s Community Foundation, The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven and the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving.
Through its partnership with HFPG, 4-CT developed a grant program that distributed a total of more than $12 million to community-based nonprofits across the state for projects in areas including housing, education, food assistance, health care, community police training and legal services.
In addition, 4-CT has overseen the delivery of $4 million to $5 million in aid from other philanthropies.
The 4-CT grants were all funded before Nov. 1, 2020. Since last November, 4-CT has directed all of its resources to its card program, which provides cash relief to low-income recipients through pre-paid debit cards. To date, the initiative has disbursed nearly $2 million, with organizations such as community health centers helping to distribute the cards.
Recipients decide how they use the cards — which are worth up to $1,000 each — but housing, food and childcare rank among the main needs addressed by those funds.
“It came to our attention that there were needs that no one was addressing because they were cash needs,” Yang said.
By distributing the cards through organizations such as community health centers, 4-CT also helps the recipients get access to COVID-19 vaccines, virus testing and personal protective equipment.
“We wanted to get the cards distributed at the health centers so this population could get tested and vaccinated — and, more importantly, build a health care relationship,” Yang said. “Between 20 percent and 25 percent of the recipients of our cards have no health relationship (with providers).”
Connecticut ranks among the states with the highest proportion of residents who have received at least one vaccine dose. But major disparities in access persist along socio-economic, racial and geographic lines. To accelerate the process, Lamont announced Monday a plan to open vaccine scheduling for those ages 45-54 on March 19 and begin scheduling for the 16-44 age group on April 5.
“Connecticut is doing a great job of distributing the vaccines, but equity is always an issue,” Yang said. “The most disadvantaged populations don’t have the uptake of the more prosperous ones. That’s something that 4-CT wants to help address.”