This weekend Liberty football was in the headlines in regards to the team’s COVID-19 testing protocols during camp. The program sent out a press release to help address the questions which arose.
As part of the release, Liberty stated it has conducted testing for the entire football team and will follow NCAA requirements for testing as well as meeting the testing guidelines for competition established by each conference if those are above the NCAA standard.
Liberty is contracting with Radeas Labs which is located in Wake Forest, North Carolina for the program’s in-season testing program. Radeas’ clients include ACC members.
On Monday, Coach Freeze went further into what his team is doing and has done in regards to keeping kids safe during this pandemic as we approach a 2020 season.
“I say things sometimes and when you take them in a brief sentence, can be taken in a lot of different ways,” said Freeze. “Anyone that would think that we’re not following our team’s doctors’ recommendations; I’m a football coach, I’m not a doctor, but anyone that would think we don’t have a set of protocols to follow in this time and that we’re certainly following them, just hasn’t taken the time to research it and to know it. Certainly, I’ve got to say things more properly, but I’m very confident in what our administration and our team doctors have put in place for protocols for us.”
Freeze is also emphasizing to his team daily the importance their individual actions have on them if they want to have a season.
“There’s not a day that goes by that we don’t remind them – if you truly want to try to pull this off then there are sacrifices we have to make with our time and with things that we would want to do that are normal for a college student, you may not be able to do them this year,” Freeze said. “I know that the coaches I talk to, we’re constantly reminding our guys, some campuses they already have but on ours the population is getting ready to change. It’s going to look differently, but we’ve got a plan for academics, we’ve got a plan for tutoring, we’ve got a plan for our eating, we’ve got a plan for the way we practice, we’re living together as roommates. We’re trying our best to form that bubble around them constantly. Can we guarantee that’s a 24 hour deal with every kid? No, but we’re sure hopeful that they’re heeding our warnings and making the sacrificial decisions for the best of our team.”
