Mississippi Valley State University



Department of AthleticsThe Department of Athletics (Department) announced on March 18, 2020 that all Spring Sports seasons has come to an end due the outbreak of the corona virus pandemic. Since the extension of Spring Break, the Department’s senior level staff has continued to monitor the effects of Covid-19 and its devastation throughout the world. We have followed each step of the University’s protocol from the Shelter-In-Place, to limited office hours, to virtual/remote office hours to our actual Return to Office Plan which began June 1, 2020. Since the beginning of April, we have held weekly meetings to keep staff informed of NCAA Emergency Legislation, Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) updates and institutional updates. The Office of Compliance, Athletic Academic Counselors, Athletic Training staff and Athletic Administrative staff continued their duties as it relates assuring our student-athletes were adapting to remote learning, their mental well-being, discussing, future of collegiate athletics and the “new normal” of life caused by this pandemic.We created the COVID-19 link on our athletic webpage to share critical information with one click which can be found at . The Covid-19 link provides various topics such as Messages from the Director of Athletics, University, NCAA, and academic support updates that will provide important information to our student-athletes, staff and fans.The Department meets weekly to discuss the challenges of Covid-19 and what it would take for us to return to play. We established two committees: (1) Food Services and (2) Facilities & Housing. The committees provided concerns, recommendations and solutions to how we will navigate differently due to the pandemic. We have adjusted our competition schedules as it relates to non-conference play, location of contest, number of contest, squad size and travel party size. We also, discussed playing and practice schedules as it relates to accommodating all sport teams as it relates to sanitizing facilities during and between practices.Each staff member was required to complete the John Hopkins Free Covid-19 Contact Tracing Course. This course provides the history of SARS-CoV-2 to include the infectious period, the presentation of Covid-19 and the evidence of how it is transmitted. It provides explanation of important contact tracing is in helping to curve the virus. The course can be done in phases and takes approximately 6 hours to complete. You are given a quiz after each section and complete a 40 question test to receive your COVID-19 Contact Tracing Certificate.We have implemented a new athletic training software to help us track not only athletic injuries, medical appointments, and medical documents but to track the health and wellness of our athletes daily. They will enter all medical data in the portal to meet all required aspects of participating in a collegiate sport. They will also, enter daily temperature test prior to participating in athletic related activities. This portal will be used to track the wellness of the Department staff as well. We have updated all our sports medicine manuals and protocols to educate our staff and student-athletes of the changes that will take place when they return to sports. The Department completed CPR/AED training to assure that everyone is capable of being a first responder.Throughout out the month of Mays, staff was informed of the Return to Office Plan (RTOP). We shared the returned to work plan and a PowerPoint of the Department of Athletics Guide to Covid-19. The guide provided specific details of what our goals are to curve the spread of the corona virus by our staff. We created a pledge for the student-athletes and staff. We have been submitting morning temperature screening forms for the staff since June 1, 2020. We have ordered athletic training supplies to begin on-boarding of student-athletes. Student-athletes were scheduled to begin to arrive on July 20, 2020. The date has been delayed until July 25th. A decision on the direction of Fall athletic seasons will be determined by June 24th. ................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download