Averett Athletics Resocialization Plan (Fall 2020)

(Last updated July 28, 2020)

Core Principles and Expectations

The athletics department and teams will follow and abide by national, state, local and Averett directives with the exception being adapting directives to physical activities, practices and team interactions.
Athletics will perform screening checks on all student-athletes and staff prior to all team activities (Health questionnaire and temperature checks).
Enhanced application of disinfectants will occur in all areas and include equipment to mitigate the chance of exposure.
This plan will be implemented for fall sports and will be modified as appropriate during the fall season, evaluated and can be adjusted once winter and spring teams are prepared to begin practice and interactions.
The following phases are adaptive and sport specific due to the nature of the sport and typical interactions and exposure within the sport.
Rationales and adaptations are explained and justified in the appendix document following the phase descriptions.

PHASE I

All student-athletes will be asked to limit exposure opportunities and interactions for two weeks prior to move-in/check-in to allow for best possible scenario for healthy status during return. If any high-risk situations arise from health screenings then we can adapt and adjust the resocialization of those individuals. All student-athletes will also be asked to limit interactions once back on campus when away from team activities when we do not have control over situations and interactions.
VB/MS/WS will move-in/check-in Saturday, Aug. 8, within the guidelines established by Student Life and Residence Life to allow for safe interactions.
FB will move in/check in Tuesday and Wednesday, Aug. 11-12, within the guidelines established by Student Life and Residence Life to allow for safe interactions.
All other sports will begin the resocialization plan on Wednesday, Aug. 19, once everyone is back on campus and interacting on campus.
Duration of Phase I will last seven days once teams are on campus. The determination of this length is explained in the appendix.
All identified higher risk individuals will be more closely monitored and may require a longer resocialization process as deemed necessary to make the safest possible transition.
Physical distancing will continue within all activities and PPE will be used where necessary and appropriate. Any physical activities will be conducted without any face-to-face contact and maintaining spacing guidelines.
Team practices will limited to groups of approximately 15 or half of the team and within their ability maintain those groups. This will decrease the exposure of groups and allow for more isolated contact tracing during an expanded phase of contact.
Team meetings and non-practice activities will be limited to approximately 30 people. Practicing social distancing, PPE usage and limited common surface contact will mitigate transmission possibilities and allow teams to become connected and develop team culture. Any meetings will use virtual options or be held with appropriate numbers and spacing indoors or outdoors.
Teams within their ability at team activities will maintain their groups/pods to help with exposure tracking if needed.
All North Campus gyms, fields, athletic areas and common areas will be closed to non-fall student-athletes This will limit the outside influence on contamination. Athletic Training facilities will be spaced out and only open as needed. Spaces will be limited to appropriate numbers based on social distancing standards as well as using outdoor taping tables and implementing a secondary training room in the Cougar Den at the stadium to give more space and limit contact.
Nonessential travel will be minimized.

PHASE II

Phase II will begin if Phase I has been determined to have been implemented successfully by the
Duration of Phase II will last 10 days after successful implementation of Phase I. Phase II is increased to 10 days with the addition of all students returning to campus and beginning of more campus activities. This allows for a longer period of resocialization and interaction.
All identified higher risk individuals will continue to be more closely monitored.
Team practices will be limited to groups of approximately 15 or half of the team and within their ability to maintain those groups. This will decrease the exposure groups and allow for more isolated contact tracing during an expanded phase of contact. As long as social distancing and appropriate safety standards are met, team meetings can continue with groups of approximately 30 people practicing appropriate precautions.
If successful with Phase I VB/MS/WS would transition to Phase II on Saturday, August 15.
If successful with Phase I FB would transition to Phase II on Wednesday, August 19.
If successful with Phase I all other sports will transition to Phase II on Wednesday, August 26.
Physical distancing will be adjusted. There will be no Face to Face contact but close positioning will be allowed and interactions such as handoffs in football and shoulder-to-shoulder interactions in soccer. All interactions should be done with same directional facing play. (For example an offensive unit can set up to run a plan with players close to each other but they are all going in the same direction without face to face contact.) Practice should be conducted within your smaller groups/pods to limit contact tracing.
All North campus gyms, fields, athletic areas and common areas will remain closed to non-fall athletes. This will limit the outside influence on contamination. Athletic Training facilities will be spaced out and only open as needed. Spaces will be limited to appropriate numbers based on social distancing standards as well as using outdoor taping tables and implementing a secondary training room in the Cougar Den at the stadium to give more space and limit contact.Once the University class schedule begins on Wednesday, August 19, some classrooms will be used by faculty and students.
Nonessential travel may increase during this time.

PHASE III (Different for VB/MS/WS and Football)

Phase III will begin if Phase II has been determined to have been implemented successfully by the
Duration of Phase III will last seven days for football after successful implementation of Phase II.
All identified higher risk individuals will continue to be more closely monitored.
VB/MS/WS will begin full practice and no restrictions during athletic events. All appropriate guidelines will still be followed outside of athletic activities.
If successful with Phase II VB/MS/WS would transition to Phase III on Tuesday, Aug. 25.
Football may begin full contact practice within groups of approximately 30 combining two previous groups of approximately 15 from Phase II. This will allow for practice in all facets of the game but still restrict the contact tracing during this phase
If successful with Phase II FB would transition to Phase III on Saturday, Aug. 29.
If successful with Phase II all other sports would transition to Phase III on Saturday, Sept. 5.
All North campus gyms, fields, athletic areas and common areas will remain closed to non-fall athletes This will limit the outside influence on contamination. Athletic Training facilities will be spaced out and only open as needed. Spaces will be limited to appropriate numbers based on social distancing standards as well as using outdoor taping tables and implementing a secondary training room in the Cougar Den at the stadium to give more space and limit contact. Once the University class schedule begins on Wednesday, August 19, some classrooms will be used by faculty and students.

PHASE IV (Football Only)

Phase IV will begin if Phase III has been determined to have been implemented successfully by the
All identified higher risk individuals will continue to be more closely monitored.
Football may begin full squad practices with no group size restrictions. Full contact may continue.
If successful with Phase III Football would transition to Phase IV on Thursday, Sept. 3.

Appendix
Reasons to adapt Resocialization Phases

Based on the NCAA’s Resocialization of Collegiate Sport: Action Plan Considerations document the usual occurrence is once infected days 2-5 are when the viral shedding (growth and increase) occurs and symptoms usually develop around day five. There will always be exceptions but using this premise seven days is a good basis to see if issues arise.
Based on the NCAA’s Resocialization of Collegiate Sport: Action Plan Considerations document asymptomatic infections have been common, especially in young healthy Americans. When dealing with college athletes it would be a reasonable assumption that these are healthier individuals and even with our monitoring taking more time to do things may not even show what we are protecting against.
Based on the NCAA’s Resocialization of Collegiate Sport: Action Plan Considerations document we should highly recommend two-week stricter exposure guidance prior to return to campus. We won’t be able to guarantee no one wasn’t in a high-risk area but we won’t be able to guarantee that once a SA leaves our practice they aren’t putting themselves at a higher risk considering they could be riding in cars together, eating in restaurants, going to class and interacting on campus. With this in mind trying to be more restrictive in athletics is only a small piece of their day and seems unjust to take a month to get them to full practice status. This is also the reason limiting groups to ten is not a reasonable expectation. If we could guarantee they would remain in those groups once they leave practice it would be different but worrying about contact tracing when dealing with travel, living arrangements, cafeteria, classes and general interactions on campus to try to keep one small piece of their day segregated but then having no control the rest of the day doesn’t make sense.
Based on the NCAA’s Resocialization of Collegiate Sport: Action Plan Considerations document anyone traveling back to campus in a higher risk category (limited social distancing such as air travel) it is suggest they are quarantined for seven days before returning to athletics. This is another example of the seven day standard for resocialization as opposed to a 14 day standard.
The NCAA Core Principles of Resocialization of Collegiate Sport was adapted and written in late May prior to DIV I campuses opening back up for individual and voluntary workouts. The scenarios of limited interaction and small pods is very viable for larger staffs and smaller groups during summer practice and would not limit their development. The DIV III model is completely different from these concepts. We do not have individual workouts, we are highly restricted in our amount of contact for athletic related events. There was a discussion about DIV I football needing six weeks to be prepared to compete, the entire DIV III model is mandated that Football is only allowed a maximum of 23 days of practice prior to their first competition. We are expected to come in and get three weeks of practice and play but the Phased approach of resocialization is calling for 28 days (two 14 day periods) before we can begin face to face contact which is longer than our entire practice would normally provide. Soccer and Volleyball are restricted even further to a 16 unit calculation to determine the first practice which typically equates to a two week period, again a 28 day resocialization period twice as long as typically allowed practice. The two week Phase model does not seem feasible or fiscally responsible for a small school and would only limit the student-athlete experience which will already be different this fall. Again trying to limit the numbers in practice to small groups (Pods) again doesn’t translate to a team being prepared to compete in a short period of time. The lack of isolation once they leave the athletic environment makes the small pod system unnecessary.
With the adjustment of beginning practice on Aug. 10 this is an increase of three days for what football would have had to practice and five days for soccer and volleyball. This is very appreciated and good but again when talking about a 28 days phased approach an extra three or five days is not very significant and doesn’t really help. Teams need to be able to have full practice and even better to be able to scrimmage to prepare for full contact competition which is always more intense. Safety is always a factor and yes we want to mitigate and limit possible exposure to COVID-19 we also have to look at the mental and physical health of our student-athletes in competition and reducing the 28 days of phased resocialization will greatly improve that health and safety and provide a more positive experience.
The sanitation and cleaning of equipment and areas will be intensified and will be able to mitigate the possible transmission of infections through surface contact.
The daily questionnaire and temperature checks will give us an opportunity to keep close tabs on our athletes and allow us to catch any issues as best as possible with our resources and abilities.
We would spread out our training room using outdoor tables and creating a second training room in the Cougar Den at the stadium.