The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Tech AD details plans for restart
Three-phase plan starts with workouts June 15, emphasis on safety.
erhaps nobody in the whole world of sports is hotter right now than Dawsonville’s Chase Elliott. Of course, nobody in that world is doing much of anything presently that involves actual winning and losing. So, attach a coronavirus-shaped asterisk to the claim.
Still, go ahead and ride with it, kid.
In normal times we might now be celebrating some hitting streak emanating from Elliott’s favorite team, the Braves. But abnormal is in charge, and it has decreed that auto racing will be the biggest thing going here at spring’s end.
(Coming soon to a deserted track near you — June 7 to be precise — the Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway that was postponed as all this madness was descending. It would be swell to turn out in ▲ Chase Elliott does a burnout after winning a NASCAR Cup Series race at Charlotte Motor Speedway on Thursday in Concord, N.C.
◄ Elliott celebrates his win at Charlotte with a checkered flag in front of a crowd of
... basically, nobody. force to greet Atlanta’s hometown driver at his hometown track in the midst of a potentially great season. But don’t try. You’ll be stopped at the edge of the property and told to skedaddle.)
Answering that philosophical question of if a driver wins a race and no one is there to see it, did it happen: Yes.
Thursday night in Charlotte, before a delirious crowd of zero, Elliott won his first race of the season. And just two nights earlier on the same track, he saddled up a truck and won for charity a $100,000 bounty by beating Kyle Busch in a series he has dominated. Busch owned a seven-race truck win streak entering Tuesday.
Georgia Tech athletic director Todd Stansbury says safety of student-athletes is the top priority.
Georgia Tech athletic director Todd Stansbury doesn’t take lightly the health risks that Yellow Jacket athletes and staff will accept when voluntary on-campus workouts begin, scheduled for June 15. He sees it also as a chance to demonstrate leadership.
“I actually look at it — and I talked to our student-athletes about it — that we have a great, not only opportunity, but a responsibility in showing how students can come back to campus,” Stansbury said in a video conference with media Friday. “I see our phases as also a road map on how the rest of campus can eventually get back to full strength as well.”
Stansbury spoke in greater detail about policies for Tech athletes when training will be permitted to resume, first unveiled Thursday evening. They will be the first varsity workouts to take place at Tech since the coronavirus pandemic closed the campus in mid-March.
Among details that he shared Friday that were not in Thursday’s news release:
All athletes will be tested for COVID-19 upon their arrival, though the first phase of the return will be restricted to those in the Atlanta area, as on-campus housing has yet to open. There will also be surveillance testing once training begins, as well as testing for athletes or staff who demonstrate symptoms. A contact tracing plan will be put in place, also.
“So there will be certain flags that would require additional testing,” Stansbury said.
Stansbury said that plans for the response to a positive test are evolving. That was part of the reason why the June 15 date was chosen, he said, “to be able