Cal Rugby: Adam Roeske Endures Difficult Situations During Pandemic
* Latest in a series of periodic stories on how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted Cal athletes in different sports. The fall Cal rugby season was canceled, but there is hope the Bears can play rugby in the spring
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If you thought the pandemic has caused you some logistical problems, wait until you hear about the trials of Cal rugby player Adam Roeske when he returned home to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, then tried to come back to Berkeley.
"I left Cal on the 17th of March, and it was a bit of a close call because they were closing the borders the following day in the UAE," he said in the video above.
If he had left a day later, he could not have come home. Some friends of his who were flying back to Dubai from Montreal on March 18 had their plane returned to Montreal because the UAE would not let it land.
Roeske returned to a country that applied strict regulations about travel, forcing everyone to stay home except for a few exceptions.
"It was very bizarre," he said.
He mentioned two interesting ploys used to try to ease the impact of the COVID-19 virus.
"They would fly planes up into the sky to try to make the clouds heavier, and it would rain down on Dubai, so people would try to stay home," he said. "They also had drones. We had a curfew at 9 p.m. and after curfew they would fly out all these drones and sanitize the streets."
Coming back to Berkeley was no picnic eaither.
"I had quite a lot of trouble actually," he said.
Because of U.S. Immigration and Custom Enforcement regulations, it became a bureaucratic nightmare to get back to Cal, as Roeske explains in the two videos below.
He briefly considered staying in Dubai and taking Cal fall courses remotely, but he learned the drawbacks of that plan while taking courses remotely over the summer. Because of the 11-hour time difference, he ended up taking some exams until 1 a.m., and he decided he wanted to avoid that.
Roeske did not originally plan to come to Cal, but rugby played a role him ending up in Berkeley after going to school at Eton College in the United Kingdom.
He explains his route to Cal in this video:
Cal's fall rugby 7s season was wiped out by the pandemic, and Roeske is hoping Cal will be able to play rugby 15s in the spring. Cal has dominated the national rugby scene for years, but Roeske is not sure the Bears will have the opportunity to go after another national championship.
"With the way the pandemic is playing out, I'm not sure whether that's going to be possible at this time," he said. "I don't think anyone really knows whether there's going to be sports or not."
Adam Roeske -- Photo by Guy Warren Photography
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