Marshall University Athletics
MCGILL: Safety the focus of first day of MU football workouts
6/1/2020 11:18:00 PM | Football, Word on the Herd, Ticketing & Promotions
Majority of team returned after months away from the program
By Chuck McGill
HerdZone.com
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. – At 7 a.m., on Monday morning inside the Chris Cline Athletic Complex, Marshall football returned.
The voluntary workouts signaled the restart of athletics on campus after nearly three months of inactivity. It was a big step for the athletic department after months of planning in preparation for the return of student-athletes. The primary goal for Monday's sessions: safety.
The spread of the coronavirus was officially declared a pandemic on March 11, the final day a sports event was held on Marshall's campus. The next day, the Conference USA men's and women's basketball tournaments were canceled in Frisco, Texas, and collegiate sports has since stood still. Last week, a majority of Marshall football players were summoned to campus, self-isolated for seven days and then spent two days receiving COVID-19 tests. The university announced Monday morning that two student-athletes in that group tested positive, in addition to a staff member.
Those student-athletes and others who could have potential exposure did not participate in Monday's workouts. Those who did were greeted by extreme safety measures upon entering the indoor facility.
"Obviously, this is unprecedented situation that we're in, but the first day went really well," said Luke Day, the head strength and conditioning coach. "We're taking a lot of precautions and measures to make sure this is a safe environment to train. We're blessed with the layout of the athletic campus that we have because we're spread out, these groups are small, fewer than 10 people. At the closest they are ever near each other is 6 feet. Every single thing that these kids touch is wiped down before the next person touches it. We're all wearing masks, which is a learning curve and a hurdle in its own right to condition and train with something over your face.
"The kids took it in stride; they followed it. They want to be here. They're right there with us, as much as we want college football to come back this fall."
Monday's workouts involved a continuous flow of small groups who started at the indoor facility, then transitioned to the weight room, then made their way to the Joan C. Edwards Stadium turf, and finally exited to the West Lot on the opposite side of the stadium as the indoor facility.
"The flow of it is for it to prevent anyone going backwards after they've gone through each station," said Jared Muth, Marshall's associate athletic trainer who oversees football. "We're trying to limit as many bodies in one facility as we need to. The state has lifted a lot of the restrictions from when we started this planning. For the first few weeks, it doesn't hurt to continue those guidelines while we navigate through this thing, then in a couple of weeks we can make our groups bigger. Right now, they're small, manageable groups and keep the flow so that we know when we've cleaned something and the next group comes in, it's ready."
Upon entering the double doors on the west side of the indoor facility, student-athletes had their hands sanitized and received a temperature reading. They're required to provide daily updates on symptoms related to COVID-19. As the players completed each station within the indoor, a team of staff members sprayed and wiped every touched surface before the next student-athlete could use the equipment. Sometimes, this meant spraying and wiping a surface every 10-15 seconds based on its continued use by different people.
It's a staggering commitment, but safety is paramount. That's why every student-athlete had to get used to working out with a mask on, which were provided by an athletic department.
"The masks were a big point of contention among the players – they didn't really like them," Muth said. "We tested them, but we're not in a bubble. They have to go to the grocery store and do other essential things. The masks are a precaution for anything they've picked up and if we do have the off chance of another (positive) case that pops up, we want to protect everyone from that as much as we can. We're going to take as many precautions as we can, and then ease up as we see fit."
Day, who returned to Marshall as the head strength coach in January, eased players through today's workouts, and the rest of this week's workouts will look similar. The weight lifted was decreased and the amount of ground covered was less than usual, but Day used the analogy of how an oven warms to a set temperature. It's a gradual process the players will take over the days and weeks ahead.
"This is the longest break that college football has had other than before they started doing summer conditioning," Day said. "You don't just jump back in like you never left. A lot of these guys didn't have access to weight rooms or equipment. Some couldn't even leave their apartment. To throw them back into this is not safe and good for them. The first few days we want to get their bodies back and acclimated to training and moving around and running and lifting and pushing and pulling and starting and stopping and jumping. That's what today was about; that's what this whole week is about. As we progress and get closer and closer to camp, we'll keep dialing it up to get more and more intense to have them ready for what this game demands from them."
Director of Athletics Mike Hamrick applauded the team approach, including the insight and support the athletic department has received across campus. Hamrick assembled a COVID-19 task force, which collaborated to craft the plan that continued to be implemented today. Muth said he has never been involved with such a large, group effort on a project, specifically citing the work of Associate Athletic Director Beatrice Crane Banford.
"We're really working with as many groups as I've worked with before," he said. "This is as inter-mingled as we have ever been. Beatrice has been a huge asset to this whole deal; really the mastermind behind it. This has been the biggest undertaking in terms of an inter-departmental cooperation.
"The campus has taken a long, close look at this too. They're going to take a lot of notes from how we are doing things, so they want to help us out and make sure we get this right. We get one chance at this. We want to put our plan into action, and when we get this right we can show people how this is done. We want to be the example."
Chuck McGill is the Assistant Athletic Director for Fan/Donor Engagement and Communications at Marshall University and an eight-time winner of the National Sports Media Association West Virginia Sportswriter of the Year award. In addition to HerdZone.com's Word on the Herd, McGill is the editor of Thundering Herd Illustrated, Marshall's official athletics publication. Follow him on Twitter (@chuckmcgill) and Instagram (wordontheherd).
