Penn State has no positive tests as athletes continue to return to campus

Penn State athletic director Sandy Barbour said Wednesday that as of Tuesday, the athletic department had tested 102 athletes for COVID19, and all of those results have been negative.

“We have been testing our student-athletes and staff upon their return,” Barbour told reporters via Zoom. “As a university and an athletic department, we’ve decided that we’ll report those results every two weeks.”

Several universities and professional sports teams have reported positive tests as athletes return to facilities. The Nittany Lions having none so far makes them a bit of an outlier. Barbour said Wednesday that officials are awaiting the results of about 70 tests from members of the men’s and women’s soccer teams and the women’s volleyball team.

The school is in Phase 3 of its return to campus for the athletes and coaches. Football was one of the first groups to return to Holuba Hall on June 8.

“We determined we would test upon return for all student-athletes and staff, and then test as symptomatic,” Barbour said. “That’s our protocol for the summer. We’re continuing to look at the science, the conditions around us, and as the university settles on what they’re going to be doing for the fall, certainly, kind of fold up under that as well.”

“We’re also going to need to take some different approaches as it relates to competition and travel for studentathletes as we arrive at that point.”

Barbour started her chat with reporters Wednesday wearing a face mask to emphasize the importance of safety while COVID-19 continues to ravage the state and the world. If her words and actions weren’t enough, athletes like running back Noah Cain have illustrated the point from the heart. He revealed two weeks ago that his mother and three other relatives battled COVID-19.

“I’ve seen what it can do to you,” Cain told reporters. “It’s scary because some days you don’t know if the person is going to make it. Watching my family go through it taught me how to take it more seriously.

“I am not going to lie to you all, at first, I was like, ‘It’s a virus, I’m not going to get it.’ But as time went on, where people, the loved ones close to me, start getting it, I started taking it more seriously and taking the precautions that are needed.”

Limits expected

Barbour said Penn State remains uncertain about the number of fans — if any — that will be allowed in Beaver

Stadium if there is a 2020 football season. She made it clear, though, that if fans don’t have a season ticket, they won’t be likely to get in the stadium this fall.

“One of the things I can say with certainty ... without a season ticket, no matter what our capacity is, you’re probably not coming to a Penn State game this year,” Barbour said. “The different scenarios we’re looking at would be to accommodate as many of our season ticket holders as possible.”

Barbour does want the college football season to remain in the fall as normal. She was asked about the Ivy League potentially playing spring football.

“One of the biggest challenges of a spring season — it’s probably the biggest one in my mind — is the proximity to next season and frankly a second lost spring ball,” Barbour said.

“There’s no doubt there’s been a little bit of pessimism here in the last couple of weeks that we hadn’t had for probably about four to six weeks. I think that’s part of the ebb and flow of the virus here. I hope that, maybe, as people start looking at the masking and social distancing again and all of the precautions and recommitting to the seriousness of this, we’ll see it flatten out.”