Arizona focused on small groups as reentry begins

The first two groups of Arizona football players will begin voluntary workouts on Monday and if all goes well the rest of the university could look to how the program managed its reentry plan as a way safely bring in students this fall. UA will used a phased approach with more players coming on campus each week before moving forward to the practice phase of preparations for the upcoming seasons.

Other sports will join in next month and the hope is to have most athletes on campus in August ahead of the start of the school year.

The key to the athletic department's approach is using small groups of 10 players or less during the workout phase to prevent any potential spread of COVID-19 should any player become infected with the disease. These "pods" will consist of players who are only able to interact within their own group until the next phase of the process when more athletes are allowed to have contact with one another.

“The beauty of our system that we see is we are limiting people in these bubbles,” Dr. Stephen Paul of C.A.T.S. Medical Services said on Thursday when discussing UA's reentry plan with local media. “So we can absorb a positive test, we can isolate and protect that person and those people in the pod and all the other pods are isolated and protected while we trace and address that positive.”

Players will first begin slowly as they are acclimated to a college workout regimen once again after having three months away from the program. Slow is certainly a theme of UA's reentry plan, and that is deliberate as it will allow the athletic department to make any necessary changes should something unexpected take place during the process of getting athletes back for workouts.

Like everyone else around the country, UA athletes will have to follow plenty of advice from health officials as they begin to prepare for the season with the plan laid out by the program.

“We’re really emphasizing physical distance, that’s super important in terms of preventing this disease,” Paul said. “So six feet at a minimum. Often times when they’re working out, breathing hard, etcetera we’re expanding that distance. We’re asking everybody to wear a mask on campus because that’s another key thing in showing to reduce the infection rate.

“Then we’re really, really pumping up the hand washing and disinfection protocols. Not just for the student-athletes but for the facility and the campus as a whole. So, everything is really being ramped up big time.”

As players begin to return there is still the potential for infection. The University of Houston decided to halt its voluntary workouts after six symptomatic athletes tested positive for COVID-19. UA is hoping its approach helps the Wildcats avoid such a shutdown once the program is underway.

The difference between Arizona's approach and the approach at Houston is that UA's athletes will be tested as soon as they arrive on campus and will continue to be tested for the coronavirus weekly. UH's plan was to only test players when they became symptomatic.

Along with the testing that the school can do on the medical side, the athletics staff is using education as a tool to help prevent any type of infection spread for Arizona's athletes.

“Our approach has been, first, education and really stressing the bubble approach,” Paul said. “This first group that came in they’ve already been living together in Tucson and that’s why we think it’s really important. ... More or less it’s kind of like home isolation, so we’re respecting that they shouldn’t go out to do anything other than necessary things. They should wear a mask even if they are in close contact with their roommates, and if they stay within that bubble we’re all good.

“It’s when you go out of that bubble, you have to go the grocery store or somebody knocks on your door and they don’t have a mask on, those kind of things are out of our control and that’s the hardest part to educate them on.”

Arizona will begin its voluntary workout plan on June 15, which is the first day the Pac-12 is allowing programs to return to campus across the league.

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