‘FRUSTRATING SITUATION’
Excalibur were fortunate to train on-campus when they could, captain says
Trent Excalibur athletes pivot to online to finish season at Peterborough university as lockdown restricts their use of campus facilities
Trent Excalibur student-athletes are headed back online after the recent provincewide lockdown restricted their use of campus facilities again.
“(We were) certainly frustrated … we felt like we had done a good job of being extremely safe and cautious throughout the year, but at the same time we understand public health, the university and the athletic department are making these decisions for the best interest of everybody,” said Daniel Austin, captain of the Trent Excalibur men’s volleyball team.
“There’s no ill will, just a frustrating situation for everyone.”
The Excalibur returned to the Trent Athletics Centre in late February after spending two months online after the lockdown on Dec. 26, but were sent home shortly after the COVID-19 outbreaks at the Severn Court and Trent University student residences for safety with the expectation that they would return once it cleared up.
“We were kind of in a holding pattern there for two to three weeks just waiting to improve to a point where we could get back into the gym, but they never did,” Austin said. “That was it for us for the year, but we didn’t know it at the time.”
This marks the third time Trent student athletes have been sent home during the pandemic but Austin says the Excalibur were fortunate to be able to train on-campus when they could.
“We were able to do a lot of productive stuff for our team, a lot of skill development that will help us going forward,” Austin said.
Deborah Bright-Bundle, director of athletics and recreation at Trent University, says the student-athletes have been incredibly understanding during this time and have stepped up as leaders in the community.
With the move to online, the Excalibur have pivoted back to the use of Zoom for weekly team meetings and Microsoft Teams to communicate with Nic Koo, Trent’s strength and conditioning coach who posts Excel sheets of their workouts to the virtual platform, along with videos explaining the movements. Bright-Bundle credits Koo with their ability to keep student-athletes engaged in workouts.
Trent University is maintaining plans to return to in-person classes in September, and Ontario University Athletics is working on a return-to-play plan that will see athletics resume after a lost year, but for Austin, he’s just ready to return to some sort of normal.
“You’d think we missed the games the most when all of this happens, but what you end up realizing missing is how much you see your teammates,” Austin said. “This year it’s like we never see them, even though we see them three or four times a week, it just feels like so little.”