Castiglione: 'I Have Seen the Best of the Best of People' Throughout Pandemic

Sooners athletic director addresses media on Thursday conference call

Joe Castiglione’s opening statement on his Thursday conference call with media stretched nearly 10 minutes, as the Oklahoma athletic director tried to sufficiently encapsulate all that has transpired over the last month.

“It feels like a lot longer than [four weeks],” said Castiglione, referring to the length of time that’s elapsed since the NCAA shut down athletic competition. “We’ve certainly experienced a wide variety of changes. … I have seen the best of the best of people acting in ways that should make us all proud.”

Castiglione had high praise for the campus community, lauding their response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“You’ve got an amazing synergy going on throughout the entire campus system,” Castiglione said. “We’re creating opportunities throughout our entire department to really harness that kind of synergy.”

Throughout the quarantine period, coaches and staffers have had to make drastic adjustments on the fly. It hasn’t been easy for anyone involved, but Castiglione expressed that he is keeping an optimistic outlook.

“Obviously, coaches are doing the best job they can - there’s no personal interaction at the moment,” he said. “We’re staying very positive. We’re still planning to have the academic year start on time. That doesn’t mean we’re in control of all that. … [I’m] very pleased with the response we’re getting from our student-athletes; we’re listening to them, and they’re engaging.”

Castiglione acknowledged on the call that he’s faced financial challenges before as an AD, including during the 2008 recession. But he wasn’t willing to liken the pandemic to anything else he’s had to deal with.

“The world has changed,” Castiglione remarked. “We’re operating in an altered world at the moment.”

At the end of the day, Castiglione is well aware that this situation is largely out of his hands, and emphasized that he’s not going to try to force anything.

“We’re still trying to listen to the experts,” he said. “We hear a lot of the same information you do. We’re not in charge of that timeline, and that timeline is rightfully being set by medical experts as well as others that have the best insight into this.”

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