With the impending return of more athletes to the campus of Allen Community College, its athletic department is devising a plan for how they will deal with the large influx of students.
First step, is to test athletes for COVID-19.
ACC currently has around 20 athletes on campus from the spring semester, along with 10 new arrivals. None of the students have tested positive for the coronavirus.
More student-athletes from various areas will arrive on Aug. 3; cross country athletes arrive on Aug. 6 and the rest are expected Aug. 12.
Each athlete will be tested inside the ACC gym. If an athlete tests positive, they can go home to their family or be placed in quarantine. Athletes waiting for test results will be asked to self-isolate.
“We are going to test about 300 kids. Of those, we’ll probably have some positive cases,” ACC Athletic Director and men’s soccer coach Doug Desmarteau said. “Everybody has been doing it, and they usually find 6%-10% of the group has it. A lot of them may be asymptomatic, but they are kids and don’t know they are carrying it.”
Desmarteau believes it is the college’s responsibility to ensure that no breakout in Iola or the Allen County area arises from the influx of student athletes from across the world.
Safety is key, and ACC administration is developing different ideas on how to ensure that across the community.
“You have to control your environment, and we are trying our best to do that,” Desmarteau said. “We have talked about doing some pool testing before we go traveling somewhere. If one player is positive, then we will test the whole team.”
Desmarteau assures ACC will be strict in its policies regarding safety over COVID-19.
“This is the world we live in,” Desmarteau said. “The NBA, MLB and MLS — if they leave the bubble — they are going to get in trouble. It will be something similar like that here.”
FOR FALL, only the sport of cross country will officially compete.
The National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) is the only collegiate governing body to move each sport to the spring, other than cross country which will still take place in the fall.
Most of the student-athletes on campus will have no competitive games to play, but Demarteau says the NJCAA has approved scrimmages to take place. Scrimmages will be scheduled once the Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference approves inter-conference scrimmages to take place.
“I like it,” Desmarteau said. “For our purposes, I would like to test the waters. Instead of being in the regular season where all of a sudden five kids get COVID, and then you would have to forfeit those games if you don’t have the players.”
