San Antonio Express-News (Sunday)
» TSU workouts starting.
Groups of 10 players to gather for strength, conditioning training
Monday, the first group of Texas State football student-athletes will line up outside the team facility, waiting for an athletic trainer to take their temperature and screen for coronavirus symptoms.
Once inside, the Bobcats can hold voluntary strength and conditioning workouts in groups of 10. Texas State coach Jake Spavital said about 30 will be in the facility at a time, split between the field and two training areas.
Everyone who enters the weight room will be wearing a mask, including during lifts. Players must bring their own water bottles and will be assigned to a weight rack. When the workout is complete, Texas State’s strength coaches and athletic trainers will disinfect the equipment, wait 30 minutes and then cycle in the next group of 10.
After those 30 Bobcats have finished the day’s training, the process
begins again with the other group of 30.
The NCAA announced May 20 that voluntary on-campus workouts can begin June 1 — the first step toward a potential return to play after all athletic activity was shut down due to the pandemic.
In anticipation of the decision, Spavital and his staff spent the past few weeks preparing for every potential precaution and pitfall. Thursday, he held a Zoom meeting with the 50 to 60 student-athletes who are expected to return to campus this week.
“There are probably things you may disagree with or you're uncomfortable with, but this is how it's going to be,” Spavital said. “We have to be very cautious and safe with what we're doing until the medical field leads us in a different direction.”
Texas State's campus remains largely dormant, with most students and faculty operating remotely at least until the start of the school's summer II session July 6.
As a result, none of the Bobcats' incoming freshmen will arrive in San Marcos until July, Spavital said. Most of the group starting workouts this week will be returning players or incoming transfers who can begin off-campus leases.
The NCAA decision notes coaches cannot attend, direct or receive reports about voluntary workouts. Football activity is not permitted. If a quarterback and receiver want to play catch, they must do so elsewhere, Spavital said.
Still, Spavital noted the benefits of a team workout space, including the safety and inspiration that come with having strength coaches and teammates nearby. Texas State can also provide meals and laundry services for players, helping create a safer environment than they might find elsewhere.
“If I wasn't going to bring the kids back, they're all going to Gold's Gym and Anytime Fitness and those places now to work out,” Spavital said. “If they're going to be out in public doing that, you might as well bring them back here, where we can monitor.”
The NCAA also extended a blanket waiver allowing eight hours per week of virtual, nonphysical team activities through the end of June.
Since Texas State suspended athletic activity in March after five spring practices, Spavital said he's made only minimal use of that allowance. Aside from meeting with coaches to discuss academics, the Bobcats gathered just once per week to “keep them engaged with technique, fundamentals and certain things you can focus on.”
Spavital said Texas State's “big installs” start digitally Monday.
“We didn't want to be overbearing with these guys,” Spavital said. “There have been a lot of schools that were going eight hours per week with these kids for the past two months, and they're running out of stuff to talk about.”
Spavital envisions progressively larger groups gathering for strength and conditioning during the next two months, eventually leading to the return of in-person meetings.
He said conferences and the NCAA are discussing a six-week return-to-play plan that begins July 27. The first week would be mostly walkthroughs, the second week would add individual drills, and the third week would introduce pads and helmets, beginning traditional fall camp.
The prospects for starting football on time seem more and more promising each week, Spavital said, though many details need to be solidified. Among the discussions at Texas State is a plan to test all football coaches, student-athletes and staff at an off-campus site each Tuesday morning before the testing facility opens to the public.
“I feel like there are a lot of smart people in this world that are going to create vaccines or ways of more efficient testing, and just get us more answers,” Spavital said. “When this began three months ago, it was not very optimistic. … Being a part of all of these meetings on Zoom calls and conference calls, you start to see the optimism coming in and building up, and you're starting to see people getting phased back into it.”
Spavital said the pandemic has forced the program to look for ways to cut expenses. One of the first steps is reevaluating food, travel and hotels for road trips, potentially replacing flights with bus drives spanning up to eight or nine hours.
Every aspect of the operation is being evaluated, Spavital said, all the way down to cutting the cord and switching to a streaming service for office televisions.
Summer classes are limited to student-athletes who need the courses to remain eligible or graduate on time, with stipend payments still available to cover leases and other expenses. Spavital said furloughs and salary cuts for staff have been discussed but not implemented.
"We've been hit really hard, but the thing I tell my staff and players is everybody in the country is going through this,” Spavital said. “Everybody has to tighten up. We have to cut certain things, and we have to do things a little bit differently than we have in the past.”