Thread so be patient Bronco Nation: Apologies for late response...long day. I told you I would always be transparent. Made decision last night to return to predetermined parameters established last season in order to safely and successfully compete...
Goal is to create a bubble environment as much as possible. Not knowing what guidelines would be established by NCAA, and based on number of cases in our area as a result of variant, we determined it was best to limit exposure at on-campus facilities as a precautionary step.
Today, NCAA provided additional guidance. In addition to closing practices to guests, athletics staff will follow testing and masking guidelines outlined by NCAA, and will suspend, as appropriate, non-team activities held in athletics facilities until further notice.
For additional information regarding these protocols, please see this link: ncaaorg.s3.amazonaws.com/ssi/COVID/SSI_…
We understand the uncomfortableness around this as this impacts our department more than anyone could ever imagine. Like you, we were looking forward to returning to normal, and I offer my sincerest apologies to our local media that cover us for that not yet being the case.
The world is not over this pandemic, and we are not immune to it here, especially as new variants present themselves. We will continue to follow the guidance of our health professionals. We will control what we can control, including continued education on vaccinations...
Including providing doctors, health care experts, etc to educate our student-athletes and staff. We have and will continue to communicate with student-athletes and their parents to the best of our ability around the health of their son or daughter to relieve fears or concerns.
This is important...We continue to test every symptom which puts us in a different category than most. Some symptoms could come across as allergies, and we test them. The more you test, the more you find. Our situation will continue to remain fluid due to what we are navigating.
Focus is on providing best student-athlete experience we can. This includes getting SAs to competition healthy. When you have vaccinated and unvaccinated getting positives, situation is uncomfortable so we do the best we can. Bubbling teams gives us best chance to do so.
There are a lot of assumptions so want to be clear. For programs returning to campus, outlined by previous NCAA guidance, we resumed surveillance testing for unvaccinated individuals, and testing for individuals - both vaccinated and unvaccinated - showing symptoms of the virus.
For positive tests, we followed previous guidance from local health officials and NCAA in regards to contact tracing.
We have also continued with social distancing measures when indoors, and, as mentioned, have continued to educate our programs on vaccines.
We have also continued with social distancing measures when indoors, and, as mentioned, have continued to educate our programs on vaccines.
We aren’t going to get into specific numbers at this point, but we’ve seen cases of COVID-19 within our athletics programs, both in vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals as previously stated. We will continue to prioritize the health & wellness of our student-athletes.
Additional positives played into timing of this. We had already identified a few cases through testing, and additional testing produced more results. Due to variant and additional testing protocol, we determined best course of action was to limit exposure while on campus.
I’ve seen many mention football, Andy, Dr. Tromp, department, me & many others on what each should do, our perceived failures, successes, etc. The goalposts change daily it seems. I can assure you we’re collectively doing everything we can to navigate to the best of our ability.
Appreciate your patience today, this past year and with this thread tonight. Will continue to keep you posted as appropriate. Grateful for you Broncos. #BleedBlue
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