The University of Michigan has announced its preliminary plan for the return of student-athletes to campus, with swimmers & divers not being included in the first 2 stages of the school’s 4-phase reopening plan.
Football, men’s basketball, and women’s basketball teams will be the first teams allowed to return to campus to participate in voluntary strength & conditioning workouts on June 15. While the University of Michigan press release on the topic says that these are the only 3 sports being allowed by the NCAA to participate in voluntary summer workouts at this time, the NCAA has actually announced that all Division I athletics can participate as of June 1.
The 2nd phase of the plan will bring fall sports back to campus:men’s and women’s cross country, field hockey, men’s and women’s golf, men’s and women’s soccer, men’s and women’s tennis, and women’s volleyball.
No date has been set for the return for those teams, but the school says that they will return to campus “following the successful reintroduction to the campus community of phase one of student-athletes.
Update: While the Michigan Athletics Department was not ready to release the plan for other sports, likely to allow themselves flexibility as they react to the situations presented when athletes return, swim team members say that they have been given some info. Specifically, athletes say that they’ve been told that the earliest they’ll be allowed back to campus is July 7th where they will undergo testing for the coronavirus followed by 2 days of isolation.
The school says that it has developed a health protocol and plan with medical experts from across the campus and local, state, and national offices.
From the Michigan press release:
The detailed process for reopening the athletic campus for student-athletes includes a 14-day pre-report risk assessment, a six-day resocialization period to campus, and daily risk assessments, including temperature checks.
Included in the resocialization period are comprehensive health and welfare assessments consisting of COVID-19 and antibody testing, team physicals, concussion baseline testing and assessment, sleep surveys, sport-appropriate fitness testing, mobility screening, body composition, nutrition evaluations and regular medical testing.
Student-athletes and staff will have daily screening before admittance to facilities. They will also be provided items and guidelines necessary to participate in team functions (social distancing, wearing masks, hand hygiene, etc.). All facilities on the Stephen M. Ross Athletic Campus will go through rigorous cleaning and sanitization, with high-risk areas, including locker rooms, strength and conditioning spaces and athletic training rooms, cleaned daily via electrostatic sanitation. Individuals who test positive for COVID-19 will enter a defined quarantine protocol per medical guidelines.
Michigan is following the pattern of most D1 institutions, which are leading with the return of their primary revenue-driving sports football and basketball, followed by the return of teams that are considered ‘fall sports.’
The school hasn’t said whether swimming & diving would be in phase 3 or 4 of the return. Swimming & diving is considered a “winter sport” by the NCAA, which is the 2nd of the 3 official NCAA seasons.
Amid this, at least 3 schools have confirmed the return of swimmers and/or divers to campus: Texas A&M, Louisville, and Delaware. Under NCAA rules, teams are not allowed to have in-person sport specific practices, but instead are allowed voluntary strength and conditioning workouts.
For swimming programs, the line between “sport-specific” training and “conditioning” is a little blurred, given that the majority of sport-specific training in swimming is conditioning based, but the general guidance is that coaches may only be on deck or in the weight room to ensure the safety of participants and are not supposed to be actively coaching.
According to Houston Chronicle reported Joseph Duarte, the following schools have reported COVID-19 positive tests since reopening their campuses to student-athletes:
- Auburn
- Alabama
- Arkansas State
- Boise State
- Florida State
- Houston
- Iowa
- Marshall
- Mississippi
- Oklahoma State
- Texas
- Texas Tech
- UCF
The University of Michigan has not announced any changes to their fall of 2021 academic calendar, though university leadership has said that decision will be announced in June. University president Mark Schlissel has said that if there are no students on campus in the fall semester, the school would also not sponsor intercollegiate athletics for the entire academic year.
Outdoor pools in Michigan were allowed to reopen beginning June 8 with up to 50% of their bather capacity limits. No update has been given as to when indoor pools can reopen. The university’s swimming facilities are all indoors.
The Michigan men won their 41st Big Ten title in 2020, snapping Indiana’s 3-year winning streak. The Michigan women finished 2nd at the 2020 Big Ten Championships.
That’s ridiculous. Swimming is safer than those other sports. It seems that money must be driving this decision.
As a member of the UM team, so you all have the correct info, we can return to campus on July 7th at the earliest for COVID testing, followed by 2 days of self isolation, then a physical, then can return to the pool after a negative COVID test and good physical.
Wish you guys could have started two days ago but glad it’s coming soon. Thanks for the update.
Michigan does have a 50 meter pool outside on opposite side of campus that the college swimmers usually train in durring the summer. Wonder if that is open for use this year, since outdoor pools were allowed…
It is actually a city owned pool (Fuller) and UM only uses it occasionally, usually when a championship meet is held outdoors. As of today the city still is not planning on opening any pools, indoors or out. Many of the summer clubs are closed (not all) and all indoor pools are still closed per the Governor’s executive orders. Frustrating situation for the age group teams.
More info. In Florida about a month ago, average age of infection was 67 years old, now it’s 37 years old. Hence we continue to see deaths and hospitalizations going down.
DeSantis said they are getting lots of clustered and asymptomatic positives at migrant camps, jails, factories, and among construction and day laborers who live together.
Infections by themselves aren’t bad. Facts, not fear.
Florida is an example of what the country should do. Open the economy, strongly suggest the elderly and high-risk groups avoid going out. Get herd immunity in the younger population who are very unlikely to get severely ill or hospitalized.
I emailed Desantis video talking about youth sports to my whole club. Data driven, common sense approach with excellent results from a public health standpoint.
Showed courage in not backing down when the media mob came after him.
A viable treatment has arrived:
https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2020/06/16/coronavirus-treatment-dexamethasone-is-a-first-step-lead-researcher-says.html?__twitter_impression=true
Tuesday coronavirus news that the mainstream “agenda driven” media won’t report: It was the fewest deaths on a Tuesday, which is always the worst day of the week because of weekend lags, since March. There continues to be no sign of major case increases from protests, a good sign for crowds at sports and, more importantly, SWIMMERS IN THE WATER ON CAMPUS!
Your report is accurate. I believe you were looking for the word “lame stream” rather than mainstream.
Yep… LAMESTREAM MEDIA
More insanity supported by “science”. I’m still old enough to remember when the key stats were hospitalizations so we could “flatten the curve”.
I live in North Carolina. Consistent linear increase day over day. The acceleration curve flattened so that’s great, but we keep hitting records in hospitalization. 10% positive tests so you could say that was flat, but it needs to be declining, not increasing in rate with steady or increasing testing numbers.
https://t.co/udR43akdhy?amp=1
698/1154 deaths in North Carolina are in nursing homes. This is very tragic but that’s where legislation should be aimed. Quarantine the sick, protect the nursing homes, make decisions based on good data.
If NY was being truthful with their nursing home deaths, the number would be 55% of national deaths in nursing homes.
If there is no swimming at mich this winter, wouldn’t the athletes commitments be null and void?
I would think several would be candidates for immediate transfer to other programs not locking them out
I’m wondering if there is school in the fall/winter (online or otherwise) with no swimming, would students be able to keep their scholarship this year (as a redshirt?) and finish their remaining eligibility within 5 years? My swimmer is on a 5-year plan and one of my other kids took 4.5 years and still had their scholarship for the last semester after exhausting eligibility. We were under the impression that my current swimmer would still receive scholarship for 5th year, but not sure how that would work if there is no swimming this year.