Do You Want Football? Then Think About Not Spreading COVID-19
STILLWATER – Tuesday marked the second practice following fall camp for Oklahoma State. It also marked the first day of full pads for the Pokes since March. It comes just one day after the first day of classes on campus for Oklahoma State for the fall semester. One day after the entire team including staff tested again for COVID-19. Despite some antics that are detailed below, the Cowboys did their diligence and are doing very well in their battle against the coronavirus and to have a football season.
The past few days in Stillwater have been rather hectic as it was the first full weekend of having most, if not all of the students back in town and on campus. Traffic, stores and restaurants have definitely seen an influx in business and busyness.
Videos surfaced late Saturday evening and into Sunday morning of students packing the bars on the strip with almost no masks and certainly no social distancing.
There’s also an entire sorority house that’s on lockdown following 23 members testing positive for COVID-19.
There’s no doubt there was going to be a spike in positive cases in and around Stillwater with students returning for the start of the fall semester. University, Stillwater and healthcare officials have been actively planning for a spike.
Related: How long will football last, if it happens at all?
However, as John Helsley wrote a few days ago in the article just above, how big of a spike is too big of a spike?
The media met with Spencer Sanders and Dillon Stoner via Zoom following practice and each were asked about what they’d say to their fellow students about taking the proper precautions to help ensure the upcoming season actually happens.
“I know there’s going to be a lot of people out there that don’t want to listen, but at the end of the day, they want to come to the game and cheer,” said Sanders. “Don’t get me wrong, I’m not discrediting anything they do or downing anybody; if that’s what you do, that’s what you do, but say one of these kids goes to the strip and he’s got a grandpa. [The student] gets COVID and he goes home to his grandpa he lives with and [the grandpa] dies because he gets COVID. How is that person going to feel knowing that maybe he transmitted this COVID to somebody, or his grandpa or his mother or father, just anybody. I think once people put it in a certain perspective of ‘is it going to be your mother you’re passing it to, or is it going to be somebody else’s mother?’ I think that’ll give them a great view point; nobody wants to lose their mother or father.
“If you want to go out to the strip, you go out to the strip; you do what you want to do. But to the people that are staying in, wearing a mask and just kind of having fun where they can here and there, I thank those people because they’re probably the reason we have a season right now.”
“We can only control what we can control, which is following safety precautions best we can, wearing our masks and I think that’s the biggest thing for on campus guys who have class actually in class,” said Dillon Stoner. “That’s on [the students] if they want to go out to the bars and whatnot, but if you’re in class, make sure you’re wearing a mask and protecting everyone else around you.”
Fall camp officially wrapped over the weekend and Monday marked the first day of official practices. Coming out of fall camp, there were no active positive cases on the team. As stated above, the players were tested again on Monday and they’ve got the results back. While there’s no official report out, the good news is the team and entire staff is in good shape.
They’ll test again either Wednesday or Thursday, but the next two to three tests will be pivotal for the team on whether they can continue to move forward with practices and ultimately the start of the season.
The news broke on Monday of the Cowboys’ season opener opponent, Tulsa, suspending practice indefinitely as eight players had tested positive for the coronavirus. Eight additional players have had to be moved into quarantine for 14 days as they came into direct contact with the positive cases.
The university stated the players that had tested positive were asymptomatic, but the threat of spreading the virus throughout the team was too high to continue practices at this time and additionally putting their season at risk.
That’s the threat a massive spike in Stillwater and on campus poses to the OSU football team. Students and the athletes alike taking the proper precautions and doing everything they can to help limit the spread of the virus gives the Pokes, as well as the other teams moving forward with the season, the best chance to actually play this fall.
