Cal Soccer Player Kaleo Fernandez Intimately Familiar with COVID-19

Philosophy major wrote a blog about observations and experiences during the pandemic, and he discusses the disappointment of having fall sports canceled

* Latest in a series of periodic stories on how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted Cal athletes in different sports

.

Kaleo Fernandez, a member of Cal's men's soccer team, has personal knowledge of the illness that caused the cancellation of the Golden Bears' fall soccer season.

Fernandez said that in early July he contracted COVID-19.  It never amounted to much for him -- a few days of minor symptoms -- but it did produce "a couple of scary days," he said.

He learned he had come into contact with someone who had the virus and was experiencing mild symptoms, such as a fever.

"So I got myself tested at the university clinic," he said.

The results the next day confirmed he had the virus.

"The psychological effect of having this disease that is so infamous in the news right now," he said. "It was, uh, interesting for a couple days."

***Fernandez describes his brief interaction with the coronavirus:

Fernanez did a lot of fact-checking to determine what he needed to do and three or four days later his symptoms disappeared. He did not test positive for the virus in any of the many subsequent tests performed on Cal's athletes who came on campus for voluntary workouts.

***Fernandez discusses the testing process for al athletes:

Fernandez, now a redshirt junior, played in eight games in 2019 and 11 in 2018 in a reserve role. 

.

He documented some of the Bears' games in a blog (Kaleo's Korner) that ran on the Cal athletics website and he continued that blog during the pandemic, touching on the virus as well as the summer incidents of racial injustice.

"These whole last couple of months made me reflect a lot about my own experience of race and ethniity and stuff in my life," he said.

Fernandez is a philosophy major, and he says it helps him as a person and as an athlete.

"I actually enjoy a lot of Eastern philosophy stuff," he said. "and I'm really into meditation and mindfulness practice and stuff. One of the most influential books for me , I think, as a teenager getting into philosophy was the Tao Te Ching by a guy named Lao Tzu."

Follow Jake Curtis of Cal Sports Report on Twitter: @jakecurtis53

Find Cal Sports Report on Facebook by searching: @si.calsportsreport

Click the "follow" button in the top right corner to join the conversation on Cal Sports Report on SI. Access and comment on featured stories and start your own conversations and post external links on our community page.