Liberty’s football players began returning to campus June 1 for voluntary workouts, and during that time the Flames have not had any current players test positive for COVID-19.
“No sir, not that are currently on our team,” Hugh Freeze said when asked if the team has had any positive tests on a Zoom press conference Thursday morning.
All players currently working out with the team on campus are screened for COVID-19 daily.
“We screen them every single day,” said Freeze. “It’s work on our training staff because they line them up each day. They’ve got the blocks lined up, six foot spaces, they stand on them, they do the temperature (checks) and the questions. We’re more of the screening right now instead of full blown testing.”
Freeze said they discussed the advantages and disadvantages of testing or screening all the players and decided screening every day was the best solution.
“We had all those discussions,” he said. “You can spend the money and test it right now, but the reality is you test them today, or the day they get back, and then they’re at Wal-Mart and everywhere else the next week. Are you going to test them again? We thought that screening was the best practice until we get a definite testing plan in place that’s going to be the NCAA’s recommendation.”
Over the past several days and weeks as Division I football teams have begun reporting for voluntary workouts, reports have surfaced of various teams with players who have tested positive for COVID-19.
There currently is no uniformity among schools and conferences with testing protocols, something that must be addressed as we move closer to the 2020 season.
“That was another long discussion we had,” said Freeze regarding testing procedures. “Nobody really has the answer just now other than there will be some type of testing that has to occur. When does it happen? Does it happen on Friday night and you’re preparing for a game and all of a sudden you have five people that are out for Saturday and you just found out on Friday night? There’s been discussions, yes, but there has been no plan just yet as to what exactly that looks like.”
One of the biggest hurdles the NCAA faces is having schools that compete in all 50 states. Every state has different level of requirements right now as the pandemic has attacked portions of the country much differently than others.
“I think it’s very hard to get something that’s totally uniform, right now anyway,” Freeze continued. “I think everyone agrees that there will have to be some type of plan, but those are expensive. What happens with the (FCS teams) you have on your schedule, or Division II’s, or NAIA? I’ve coached at all those levels, so I know what budgets are like. Those tests, if my understanding is correct, are fairly expensive. So, you start doing that every single week, I’m not sure exactly what that looks like budgetarily for a lot of schools.”
