Notebook: Louisville student-athletes returning to campus in phases

Student-athletes on football, men's and women's basketball will gradually return to campus starting May 27

The University of Louisville is set to begin a multi-phased approach to returning student athletes to campus. After nearly 11 weeks since athletic competitions were suspended March 17 due to health concerns amid the COVID-19 pandemic, some student athletes will return to campus starting May 27.

Louisville athletic director Vince Tyra said the athletic department has been working on a plan with the target date of June 1 for student athletes to return to campus. The plan is unique to the University as other schools have sets of varying guidelines depending on states.

“We are trying to mitigate every risk we can,” Tyra said. “It will be a safe environment.”

Support Staff Required

Tyra said 25 to 30 members of the support staff including strength and conditioning, sports medicine, nutrition and mental health are necessary in the first phase of student athletes returning to campus.

“The trainers will have a big focus there,” Tyra said.

The football team will have around six trainers while Andy Kettler will handle strength and conditioning for both men’s and women’s basketball.

Coaches can’t participate in any activities with student-athletes.

Tyra said workouts will be more focused on conditioning and strength training while contact drills won’t be a part of exercises yet.

Testing Access

The athletic department planned for the number of COVID-19 tests necessary and the frequency of use for the phases. Tyra said the tests will be administered to everyone.

“We are fortunate at the University of Louisville that there are tests produced here,” Tyra said. “We do have a pretty good policy, but if we need to tweak it, we will tweak it.”

Collaborative Effort

Based on meetings with athletic directors in the ACC, Tyra senses that there will be a football season this fall. The league’s athletic directors have worked together in planning for the potential season.

“This is really collaborative in the conference, I have shared everything that we have done at Louisville,” Tyra said. “We are all in the same scenario.”

Tyra has compared Louisville’s plan with other athletic departments, saying he spoke with Clemson’s athletic director Dan Radakovich earlier today.

Tyra said there are several schools in the league that aren’t ready to allow student-athletes to return to campus. There have been informal discussions about what would take place if some schools aren’t ready for the season to start on time.

“Could I for see the season starting with not every conference member ready to start when they say go? It could happen,” Tyra said. “We want to have as much uniformity as possible, but if it’s not possible or unanimous, I don’t see the tail wagging the dog, I think the dog will play on.”

Cost associated with Phases

Tyra said the cost to get started with the phases is not significant.

The University will allocate the cost for masks, Tyra said.

“I know the University ordered 10s of thousands of masks, not hundreds that we are talking about related to the staff,” Tyra said. “There are times they’re going to be in surgical masks, and times they will be in a traditional cotton mask that would work for all of our staff.”

11 days, not 14

Louisville is not waiting 14 days for student-athletes to quarantine when returning to campus, instead, settling on 11 days. The phases initially planned for 14 days, but Tyra said 11 days was determined by the University’s medical professionals.

“That guide is from the medical professionals we deal with,” Tyra said.

Louisville will wait eight days to test student athletes that returned to campus.