Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Owls heading back to school
What FAU’s football players’ return to campus will look like
FAU is joining several universities throughout the country in allowing its student-athletes — starting with its football players on June 8 — to return to campus.
But how the players will return to campus and the environment they’ll be coming back to is going to be significantly different than the one they left nearly three months ago when the sports world came to a halt due to the coronavirus outbreak.
“For us, this has been something that has been a long time coming in terms of planning,” said Brian White, FAU vice president and director of athletics. “We knew we wanted to get our football players back on campus and we’ve been wanting that for some time.”
FAU will phase in the student-athletes’ arrivals. Returning football players, including those who were early enrollees from the 2020 recruiting class, will be allowed back on campus starting June 8 and newcomers can join them starting June 22.
White said the university was working on phase-in plans for the other sports, too, mentioning that a call with the head coaches of
the school’s other sports would be taking place Friday to discuss potential ideas.
“Before we have everybody on campus we’ll be able to learn a little bit about our own process,” he said. “There is no perfect plan in this pandemic, but it’s a much safer plan than not bringing our studentathletes back. It’s safer for them and it also allows them the physical components of being able to work out, but also just as importantly the mental health components of being able to be around their teammates. I think that’s very important as well.”
As for the protocols that will be implemented once the student-athletes return to campus, players will be required to submit a negative COVID-19 test result before starting physical examinations. The school will help those who need assistance with setting up an appointment at the free testing site on the north end of FAU’s campus that opened last week.
Staff members who have been deemed as necessary personnel and players will have daily temperature and contact screenings, with the student-athletes being required to submit a COVID-19 screening questionnaire before any physical examination. Strict physical distancing measures will be required and face coverings will be encouraged.
If someone tests positive for COVID-19, a doctor will be contacted immediately and refer to the screening forms that will identify who needs to be contacted for testing and quarantine.
Other policies the school will implement include:
— The weight room will have no more than 15 student-athletes inside at a time with no more than three coaches per group.
— All equipment will be cleaned and sanitized between uses and the entire facility will be cleaned at the beginning and end of each day.
— Student-athletes will have specific times for entry/sports medicine treatment and training.
— All workouts will be non-contact with no shared equipment.
— Increased sanitation of common areas and hand hygiene stations.
White added that the steps the university is taking have just as much to do about protecting the players as it is the possibility of collegiate sports seasons being played starting in the fall. With gyms locally and around the country reopening, he said the university could offer the players safer environments to work out in than they’d be able to find anywhere else.
“It scares me to think of our guys going into a local gym knowing what we can do for them on our campus,” White said.
“We feel like if this was something we could do for our student-athletes and provide a much safer environment for them, that it was our responsibility to do that.”
White spoke with several student-athletes before the news was announced and said many of the players expressed excitement about being able to return, with some taking to social media to share their elation.
“For all of us,” White said, “getting back to some form of normalcy is pretty exciting.”