Regardless of the sport, every student-athlete at the University of Florida will soon be working out at the Florida Gators Indoor football practice facility.
As part of the University of Florida’s return to campus plan, they had epidemiologists wall through the weight room inside Ben Hill Griffin Stadium as well as the weight room shared by the men’s and women’s basketball teams inside their practice facility. Their assessment was that the circulation and nature of the indoor structures were not as safe as Florida wanted to bring student-athletes back to campus.
The decision was made to follow state and UF Health guidelines to maintain social distancing. There was also a determination made that the possibility of spreading COVID-19 was decreased in an outdoor setting. The decision was made to move all workout equipment to the Indoor Practice Facility to meet these guidelines.
There are also new protocols for every student-athlete and their workouts. Every student-athlete is being tested and screened upon returning to campus. no student-athlete will be allowed in any of the training facilities or weight room until they are tested and return negative for COVID-19. Right now Florida is processing about 10-15 football players a day. They have done 87 tests for COVID-19 with 80 negative results for the virus — 7 results are pending.
“The student-athletes have all gone through the COVID-19 testing before they were even allowed to enter our facilities. All staff are in masks. This is a key area for us that we’re trying to enforce,” Florida Assistant Athletic Director for Sports Health Dave Werner said on a Zoom call with reporters. “You guys have all heard throughout this time, do (masks) work, do they not work? Well, they work. At this point right now, we are keeping everyone in masks. If you were to see our workout you would see everyone in the building with masks on other than our student-athletes (while working out). That’s important.”
The decision to move all weights and workouts to the IPF was one made with the student-athlete in mind. In addition, workout groups are smaller. Typically a football workout group would be between 35-40 athletes. Groups will now be cut in half to 20-25 by appointment only. If your workout time is from 8:00-9:00 am there is no make up time that day. All groups while in the weight room will be practicing physical distancing.
All the athletes, upon their negative test, will be given three new workout outfits they will arrive at the IPF for their scheduled workout and be given a personal water bottle and towel to use for that session. When the workout is done the athlete will give the towel and water bottle back so that the staff can wash and sanitize them for later use. The student-athlete will return the next day with their clothes from the previous workout to be turned in, washed and sanitized. There is no locker room or on-site shower access at this time.
“As far as I know we are the only one in our league that has taken that precaution. With dealing with our infectious control people and our infectious disease physicians the likelihood of transmission of the virus is much less outside,” Werner said. “With setting our weight room up in the indoor we’re able to open up those doors, the garage doors, and come up with an outdoor area to train. The risk really decreases with that. There’s a slow return here of athletes, we’re looking at 10-15 athletes a day going through the screening, going through the testing, and getting them ready for the actual workouts with our strength coaches.”
The measure being taken now are rick mitigation. Associate Athletic Director for Sports Health, Stacey Higgins, admitted that there will likely be a positive test on Florida’s campus. the virus is something that they are planning on having to live with and deal with but the steps they’re taking now, they believe, will make that risk smaller.