A new age of travel planning
COVID-19 precautions keep Navy’s Blick busy these days
Brian Blick’s administrative role with theNavy football team includes overseeing travel arrangements.
That aspect of Blick’s job as director of football operations has becomemuchmore difficult during the age of coronavirus.
Blick now bears the responsibility of ensuring theMidshipmenremain as safe as possible during road trips. Navy will try to pass its first test this weekend when it travels to and from New Orleans for the American Athletic Conference opener at Tulane.
After extensive consultation with coach Ken Niumatalolo and with the approval of Naval Academy medical professionals, Blick has created a template aimed at preventing a coronavirus outbreak among the team while traveling.
“You start with looking at every evolution of the itinerary,” he said. “We then identified the risks for each segment and tried to come up with controls that would mitigate those risks.
“From there, we came up with a plan for how to attack the away games. Nothing we’re doing is revolutionary, but
everything is deliberate.”
Jim Berry, Navy’s associate athletic director for sports medicine and head certified athletic trainer for football, was involved at every step of the process.
“Jim Berry has done an incredible job with developing safety protocols,” Blick said. “We run everything by Jim because no one wants to make a decision without his approval.”
It all started Friday morning whenNavy football administered 144 rapid antigen tests in the span of two hours. All came back negative and the Midshipmen proceeded with their travel plans.
“Our travel bubble has officially started,” Berry said Fridaymorning.
Navy football players and coaches previously underwent two molecular tests, which are done using a nasal swab. Niumatalolo said this week the Midshipmen emerged from the season opener without a single positive test. Athletic director Chet Gladchuk said the program has produced only three positive tests (one player, one coach and one support staffer) since early July.
“I’ve been really impressed,” Niumatalolo said. “We’re the cleanest team in the country.”
Blick aims to keep it thatway, which is a challenge when riding buses, flying on a charter plane and staying in a hotel. Making matters more problematic is an AAC policy prohibiting advance travel.
Normally, certain members of the Navy football traveling party — such as Blick, equipment manager Greg Morgenthaler and other members of the support staff — would fly to the destination a day before the team.
“We can’t do that anymore, sowe had to trim the travel party from160 to 125,” Blick said.
Stage1of the road trip involved boarding buses at the Naval Academy for the trip to Thurgood Marshall BWI Airport. Navy is limiting each bus to 25, which allows for one person per row.
“We’re fortunate theNavalAcademy bus company has very stringent policies and a very professional staff,” Blick said. “We’ve
had a lot of communication with them to make sure the buses are clean and safe.”
Those buses were driven directly onto the airport tarmac and off-loaded one at a time. BWI officials conducted security screenings on the tarmac, and the 125 boarded the Southwest airplane single file and socially distanced.
Navy chartered a jet with 150 seats so all aboard could spread out. Players sat in the same rowas their road roommate, with the middle seats unoccupied.
For Blick and Berry, the big challenge involved the hotel in New Orleans. Blick declined to name the hotel to prevent unwanted visitors. In a normal season, the Navy team hotelwould be a gathering spot for family and friends of players, fans and other supporters.
“My biggest concern is: What breaks the bubble? Obviously, contact with outside people does,” Berry said. “We have made it crystal-clear to everyone that no family, no friends — absolutely no one, period — can come to the hotel.”
When Blick learned the Navy Football Brotherhood had sent an email containing information aboutNavy’s Friday afternoon walk-through, he quickly shut that down.
“No one can come to ourwalk-through,” he said. We are completely locked down.”
Blick has developed a strategy to reduce the chance that members of the traveling party will make contact with outsiders at the team hotel. The Midshipmen will be using side entrances to make it more exclusive to the team, while most of the rooms have been booked on lower floors so the players and coaches can use the stairs instead of the elevators.
The team will have Friday night dinner and Saturday morning breakfast at the hotel. Blick and team nutritionist Scott Maher have formulated a new model they call “grab and sit” in place of the traditional large buffet. Players will pick up prepackaged containers of food outside the dining room, then file in one at a time to be seated.
Blick asked hotel management to
replace the typical circular tables with skinny, rectangular tables. Players will eat in shifts while seated 6 feet apart and facing the same direction. Hotel staff will cordon off the banquet rooms being utilized by Navy to prevent other guests fromwandering in.
It helps that Navy checks into the hotel late Friday afternoon, then checks out early Saturday morning when departing for Yul man Stadium. Saturday’ s game kicks off at 11 a.m. Central time.
Navy stayed at the DoubleTreeHotel on Riva Road the night before the season opener againstBYUand all the precautions went off without a hitch.
“I’ve become cautiously optimistic about traveling and playing road games,” Berry said. “There is absolutely no interaction with hotel staff or guests.”
Niumatalolo said Blick, Berry, Morgenthaler and other members of the support staff have done an “absolutely amazing job from a logistical standpoint” to protect the Navy traveling party.