What were the initial plans for the basketball team last season?
Throughout the spring and summer I worked in conjunction with the university administration and the Collegiate Athletic Association to develop policies and protocols for a safe season, to keep the student athletes, coaches, trainers, any officials and everyone who's involved with the games as safe as possible. The initial plans were to start tryouts as normal. We began tryouts on September 14 and they were well attended. We actually probably had more students try out this year than any normal year. And I think part of that had to do with the fact that there was really no other gym use available, other than if you wanted to try out for the team.
We went forward with the regular plans like a normal year, with the exception of having all of the COVID safety and health guidelines. We took everyone's temperature and had them show their Campus Clear little green checkmark. We had them use hand sanitizer and we kept track of their daily temperatures. We only allowed 18 players in the gym at a time, and we only allowed three players at any one basket at a time. They all had their own basketball so that they didn't have to share. Once the teams were chosen and practices began on September 21, because we had a smaller group and we knew exactly who they were, we were able to relax some of those protocols.
We were able to share some basketballs and have more interaction, but even in that case, the first two weeks we didn't have any contact or scrimmaging. We had all these plans specifically to make sure that we didn't have too many challenges. Long story short, we practiced for three months, from September 21 until the day that they shut down campus, right before Thanksgiving. We had zero cases, zero positives, even though we had 30 people in the gym on a daily basis. The student athletes always wore their masks, as did the coaches, in all the scrimmages and physical exercise.
I want to start at the beginning, so that would be March 2020. How did the pandemic affect you back then?
That's a great question. In March, the women's team got their first ever invitation to the USCAA National Championships, which I am so proud of them for achieving. So we were in Uniontown, Pennsylvania. We returned to campus on Tuesday, and that Thursday was when they shut down campus. So we returned from Uniontown, Pennsylvania from the National Championships on Tuesday night, we had Wednesday on campus, and then I think it was Thursday at Chapel where they pulled us all together and told us that everything was shutting down. So technically it didn't impact our season at all. But it really impacted the closure to the season. We didn't have an opportunity to end the season together and celebrate the accomplishments of the players.
Were there any specific regulations that you had to adhere to?
We had a lot of regulations that the Cardinal Athletic Program had to abide by last semester. We just kept following the best protocols, which were updated on a regular basis by the Collegiate Athletic Associations, and the governing bodies of the state of Michigan. We just had to kind of watch all of those entities and whenever they sent out an update we just had to abide by that. The most consistent protocols that would affect the players were, for example, normally they’d get to come to the gym, go to the locker room and change their clothes. Because of COVID protocols there was no locker room use. So we simply set a chair for each player - 25 players, 13 women and 12 men - and we put a nice little laminated name tag with the Cardinal logo on it and their jersey number. We posted on the wall behind their chair so that one little area became the individual player’s locker. We had them 15 feet apart, and we surrounded the outside wall of the recreation center with those. We had the guys on one side and the ladies on the other side.
For those first three months, we would always have the men's practice end, then we would clean and sanitize the gym. We would also take their practice jerseys straight to the laundry. Our team managers and equipment managers did a great job with following all the protocols. The men would leave out of the back of the recreation center and the Lady Cardinals would enter the front of the recreation center. We intentionally separated the two teams when normally they're able to intermingle and practice at the same time. But in case we had any COVID cases, we didn't want to have to quarantine both teams at the same time. We also didn't allow anybody in the recreation center other than the players and coaches, because we screened them every day, and we wanted to make sure that we weren't jeopardizing any of them because during practices social distancing obviously wasn't followed.
You can't play basketball with a six foot social distance, but the players on the team always wore their masks and they had the sweetest spirit. It didn't matter. I would pull them together and give them new protocols and policies. They weren't allowed to eat in the cafeteria with the rest of the students, they had to get their food and take it to go. They never blinked, they just kept a smile and said, “Okay, tell us what we need to do. We want to play this year.” They had such a good spirit and they really wanted to play the season. And so, anything that myself or the coaches asked them to do, they just did it with a smile and a great attitude. And even though, you know, it's kind of a lost season because we didn’t get to play games, we were blessed with many things. Through the practices, and through the interactions and worships with the teams, we've built relationships and friendships, and it was really a blessing. We still wanted to play but, you know, you don't always get everything you want. So we made the best of it. The relationships that we developed are very special and I think they'll last for a long, long time.
What was the attitude of the players during all of this?
Their attitude was awesome. Weekly, I would come in and address the men's team and the women's team, and tell them “All right, the policy has changed at the regional level” or “Okay, the policy has now changed again at the university level” or “Okay, the policy has now changed again.” Every week, it seemed like I would have to come in and let them know the new policies and they just never blinked. They just kept saying, “Okay, thank you.Thank you for letting us know. We'll do it, it's no problem.” And part of it I think is once the games began we had a different protocol we were going to follow. The student athletes were going to have to live in either a dorm room by themselves, or in a dorm room with only another student athlete, so that if we ever did have contact with COVID from one of our games it wouldn't be brought back to campus and spread to anyone else. So they would have had to change their living arrangements. We had two Lady Cardinals that were living at home in the community, and they moved into one of the dormitories so that they didn't put their family in jeopardy of catching COVID. The athletes also had to do all of their classes remotely. There were a lot of parameters put in place, and they had the sweetest spirit about it. The coaches and I couldn't be more impressed.
How was the attitude of the coaching staff? How did the coaching team work together to figure out how to make sure that everyone's safe and can still play?
The coaches wanted to do everything they could to make sure the players got a season. On multiple occasions we delayed the beginning of our season. Initially we were supposed to start the last weekend in October, then it got pushed back to the first weekend in November, and then it got pushed back to after Thanksgiving break. And so we were going to play in between Thanksgiving break and Christmas break but then it continuously got changed due to COVID regulations and the university's feelings about having a safe campus and not causing any challenges for other students. The coaches and players during that time just kept being flexible and the goal of the coaches was always to do whatever we needed to do to make sure there was a season for our players.
How was the attitude of the team back in March 2020? Can you tell me about the emotions during that time? How was it for the coaching staff, as well as the team members, to end so abruptly?
That's a great question. It was really challenging, because normally we have a year-end sports banquet. In March 2020, when last year's season ended, we didn't get to end our soccer or basketball season. So we didn't get to give credit to our outgoing soccer seniors or basketball seniors and we weren't able to do many of the things that we would normally do. You probably remember how quickly the year ended, like they just announced it and then all of a sudden the next day, people were packing their stuff and leaving. Since all of our coaches are part time employees or part time coaches, most of our coaches and players didn't get to share a proper goodbye, you know, a face to face goodbye. We tried to communicate with them by text and FaceTime and things like that. It made for a challenging goodbye because some of these student athletes had been part of the team for four years and that builds a lot of depth in the relationships. There were definitely some painful moments because the proper goodbye wasn't able to be shared.
What are the expectations for next year’s Fall 2021 sports season?
We have every hope and belief that we will begin our soccer season as normal, with a couple of weeks of preseason training just before school starts. Our first soccer game is scheduled for the first Friday of the school year. We are looking forward to a much more normal year of Andrews University Cardinal athletics.
What is the plan for athletic programs this semester?
Due to the recent changes in the state of Michigan guidelines for contact sports, we're very hopeful that we're going to be able to start intramurals within the next several weeks. And so the best place for students to look for those for that information will be at www.aucardinals.com under the intramural tab. This year, intramural sports are only for Andrews University students. We're not allowing staff, faculty and alumni to play as we have in years past because of safety protocols.
The Student Movement is the official student newspaper of Andrews University. Opinions expressed in the Student Movement are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editors, Andrews University or the Seventh-day Adventist church.