UW's volleyball coach awaits new schedule
MADISON – Kelly Sheffield, like other Big Ten women's volleyball coaches, is waiting to see the league's revised 2020 schedule.
Preparing for his eighth season at Wisconsin, Sheffield isn't certain if Big Ten teams will start play sometime after the first of the year or whether it is feasible to open the season in late November/early December, if students no longer are on campus.
“Is it possible to get this thing started after Thanksgiving?” Sheffield asked this week. “I mean, if all these students at all these schools are leaving after Thanksgiving, don't you have a bubble then?
“Think about the schools then that are coming back in the middle or the end of January. If you got started at Thanksgiving, you could get in pretty close to two months of (matches).
“I wouldn't be surprised to see us in the winter. I wouldn't be surprised to see us in the spring. (But) if we don't get our act together it may not be until the fall of '21.”
Those questions linger because the Big Ten announced Aug. 11 the league's 2020 fall sports season had been shut down due to lingering concerns related to the coronavirus pandemic.
“Nobody was surprised,” Sheffield said, referring to his players learning of the league's decision. “They pay attention. They read everything. But even if you're expecting something there still is a little (painful).”
UW won the Big Ten championship and reached the national title match last season before falling to Stanford. The Badgers were expected to be one of the top teams in the nation again this season.
According to Sheffield, the team got in at least a half-dozen practices before the Big Ten's decision to shut down fall sports. Sheffield then let the players return home if they chose. The expectation is that teams will get to work 20 hours per week in the first semester.
“They have been here since June (training) and things have been wound pretty tight,” Sheffield said. “They've been watching everything they've been doing, living part of it in quarantine.
“Once school starts we'll get them in there as a team and try to put the pieces together.”
The pandemic has revealed nothing is guaranteed. The Big Ten's announcement that it was shutting down fall sports came just six days after the league unveiled its revised 2020 football schedule, along with detailed testing protocols.
Pacific 12 officials joined the Big Ten and went a step further by shutting down all sports until at least Jan. 1.
The Big Ten has yet to address winter sports, including men's and women's basketball, men's and women's hockey and wrestling.
Dan Gavitt, the NCAA's senior vice president of basketball, announced Monday the Division I Men's and Women's Basketball Oversight Committees planned to reveal in mid-September whether basketball will start on time or endure a delay.
Sheffield was encouraged to see the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approve use of SalivaDirect, an inexpensive and rapid COVID-19 test.
“That is a really big piece of the puzzle,” Sheffield said. “Then another piece is finding out more about myocarditis.”
Myocarditis is an inflammation of the heart muscle that can be fatal. Several college athletes who have tested positive for COVID-19 have also been diagnosed with myocarditis.
Is Sheffield optimistic his team will play at some point in 2020-21?
“I have to be optimistic,” he said. “Our team and staff need me to be optimistic. That is what we do. That is part of our jobs, to find a way.
“That is what we preach every single day on the court, on the fields. It is finding a way, finding a solution. Responding.
“My goodness, if I wasn't optimistic about this I would lose my players. And rightfully so.”