Ferentz, Hawkeyes Deal With Summer Workouts During Pandemic
Like everyone else who entered Kinnick Stadium for Thursday's football press conference, head coach Kirk Ferentz had his temperature taken.
"The world is certainly different," Ferentz said. "That’s the third time I’ve had my temperature taken today. And thankful they didn’t do it like when I was a little kid. So life is a little bit better in some regards."
He was joking, but it's a sign of the reality for college sports teams as they try to prepare for an uncertain new season during the COVID-19 pandemic.
On Thursday, the NCAA released its third installment of safety recommendations for sports to return.
“Any recommendation on a pathway toward a safe return to sport will depend on the national trajectory of COVID-19 spread,” NCAA chief medical officer Brian Hainline said. "The idea of sport resocialization is predicated on a scenario of reduced or flattened infection rates.”
The new guidelines include:
• Daily self-health checks
• Use of face coverings and social distancing during training, competition, and outside of sports (maskings should be worn on all sidelines, "including when an athlete moves from the playing field to the sideline to confer with a coach")
• Testing strategies for all activities including pre-season, regular season, and postseason.
• Testing and receiving results within 72 hours of competition in high contact risk sports.
• Training should occur outdoors if possible. If not, there must be quality ventilation
• Those with high-risk exposure must complete a 14-day quarantine.
“When we made the extremely difficult decision to cancel last spring’s championships it was because there was simply no way to conduct them safely,” NCAA President Mark Emmert. “This document lays out the advice of health care professionals as to how to resume college sports if we can achieve an environment where COVID-19 rates are manageable. Today, sadly, the data point in the wrong direction. If there is to be college sports in the fall, we need to get a much better handle on the pandemic.”
The NCAA included a graph illustrating its original trajectory of confirmed cases, which was originally much lower.
The NCAA's graph on projected COVID-19 cases.
NCAA
The graph, which took data from Johns Hopkins University and the New York Times, points out that the current date has many more confirmed cases than originally anticipated — close to almost double what was predicted.
Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz talks to Djimon Colbert after Thursday's press conference. (Joseph Cress/Iowa City Press-Citizen for USA Today Sports)
"Nothing in our lives is very normal now," Ferentz said. "That's certainly true with our football program — the challenges we're facing and the conditions we're working under. Just like everybody else in the country, there's no way to compare anything else we've done. We've shared that with the players, and I think they've figured that out."
Ferentz said on Thursday that some of those positives belonged to players.
"We've experienced some (COVID-19) within our program," Ferentz said. "If there are any positives at this point, it's that the symptoms have been relatively minor. No one has been affected greatly. Certainly no hospitalizations, those types of things."
Ferentz said the voluntary workouts have been different than in past years. Workout groups have been spaced out to limit "traffic flow," Ferentz said, and players' meals have been by takeout.
Workout groups have been done by a pod system, instead of by position group.
"Right now, it's more geared by their social network," Ferentz said. "So it might be three guys who live in an apartment together, four guys who live in a house together."
Ferentz said some afternoon skill work on the fields had been shut down for some of the summer workout schedule.
"We just reintroduced it yesterday, very bare bones, for a limited time," Ferentz said.
Ferentz said there also isn't any 7-on-7 passing workouts at this time.
"Right now, they can't do that," he said.
Ferentz said the biggest challenge is not knowing where players go when they aren't in the football facility.
"It's that way every year since I've gotten into coaching and teaching," Ferentz said. "It's just a very different existence right now."
For additional content, follow Adam Hensley on Twitter @A_Hens83.
