Toreros practice during pandemic
University of San Diego athletics ramps up as training increases to 20 hours per week
Maria Watters / Asst. Sports Editor
While most activity at the University of San Diego has been put on hold to prevent the spread of COVID-19, the athletic department has been hard at work creating a safe environment for Torero athletes to practice and train.
As of the week of Oct. 12, the National Collegiate Athletic Association allowed teams to increase their athletic related activity to 20 hours per week. Both men’s and women’s basketball teams will begin preseason practices with all players on the court together. Similarly, the new limits will allow baseball to practice with the full team on the field together. For fall sports such as volleyball, baseball, softball, cross country, swimming and diving, tennis, rowing, and soccer, the additional training time will continue through Nov. 8. Football will be allowed up to 15 practice sessions from Oct. 20 to Nov. 8. Both men’s and women’s basketball teams and the men’s golf team will be allotted 20-hour training weeks through the end of their seasons. However, strict testing regulations and social distancing standards have been set in place to keep the safety of the athletes, coaches, and support staff the top priority.
Low contact risk sports, including tennis, track, swimming and diving, and golf, have been able to practice and train with minimal restriction, and both golf and tennis players have been able to participate in competitions. However, even the sports with the least amount of contact are required to maintain social distancing and monitor potential coronavirus symptoms.
Medium contact risk sports, including baseball, softball, and cross country, have had to take more intense precautions while running their practices. The cross country teams have utilized training pods to prevent crowding during runs by breaking up the athletes into smaller groups, and spreading out the runners.
Despite the apparent training advantages of an outdoor sport, the cross country team has taken particular measures to create as much distance between athletes themselves and other runners as possible.
“We have aimed at doing workouts in isolated areas where we have limited exposure to the public,” head coach Will Guarino said. “We have also adopted a pod environment where we break up people into training pods. These training pods also incorporate different start points to avoid crowding… Since we are outdoors, this also permits athletes to have different leave times to maintain pod separation.”
The Torero baseball team was also using this method of breaking the team up into 6-player pods for practices and training. However, as of Monday, Oct. 19, the full baseball team has been able to practice together on the same field. Though more players are sharing the field, the baseball team continues to maintain social distancing and wear masks when off the field, in an effort to return to a sense of normalcy.
“We currently have every single player out on the field at once with our entire coaching staff,” assistant coach Matt Bergandi said. “We are in our twenty hour weeks, we are starting to scrimmage and we’re just starting to get ready for our last couple of weeks of fall practice … It’s a sense of normalcy during all this chaotic time, it’s perfect to have all the guys back out there and remind them this is what they are playing for.”
The sports with the highest contact risk are those that require significant physical contact as well as those held indoors. These include volleyball, basketball, football, rowing, and soccer. Each sport has put specific measures in place to maintain the safety of the players, coaches, and support staff, but each is required to undergo surveillance testing every two weeks.
Beginning Oct. 15, both men’s and women’s soccer teams have been permitted to increase their weekly athletic related activity to 20 hours per week and are required to undergo surveillance testing every two weeks. Coaches and administration must wear masks at all times, and players may only remove their face coverings when engaging in physical activity.
With their season just weeks away, Torero basketball is getting ready to compete. Since Sept. 21, both the men and women’s teams have only been able to participate in conditioning, team meetings, and skills training for a maximum of 12 hours per week. But Oct. 14 initiated the beginning of official preseason practices. Both teams will now be able to train for up to 20 hours a week, with a maximum of 30 official practices between the opening of preseason and Nov. 25. The Torero basketball teams, coaches, and support staff will also be subject to specific testing for COVID-19. This will include testing three times a week on non-consecutive days beginning Nov. 16.
Ultimately, the University of San Diego’s success in facilitating practices and training for Torero sports teams while keeping the safety of all those involved as the top priority has been no easy task. It is thanks to the participation and cooperation of the players, coaches, support staff, and administration that Torero athletics continue to thrive.