Rob Mullens outlines protocols for Oregon Ducks’ return to campus for voluntary workouts

EUGENE — Oregon will have a “phased, measured return” of athletes to campus before voluntary workouts begin June 15.

Ducks athletic director Rob Mullens gave an overview of the department’s protocols for what athletes will experience once they return to Eugene and then to campus during a virtual meeting of UO’s board of trustees on Thursday. Mullens said roughly 20 percent of Oregon’s roughly 450 athletes have remained in Eugene throughout the stay at home order since mid-March.

“The first thing we’re going to do is a deep education because this is going to be a cultural shift for teams and for student-athletes,” he said. "They’re used to doing things to come together and now we’re going to be telling them that they really need to be socially distant. We’ve already started the education process with our coaches, with our staff and we’ve touched on a number of student-athletes leadership groups. We have a student-athlete advisory committee that we’ve shared the plans with. I’ve been working with an ad hoc student-athlete COVID(-19) group that we’ve stayed in touch with on all matters related to their virtual experience.

“We have sent a communication to all student-athletes with a narrated PowerPoint from our team physician on exactly what they should expect once we get approval to return to voluntary activities. Where we could we’ve tried to copy that narrated PowerPoint to the parents as well so they’re fully informed.”

Mullens stressed to the board that athletes will return in phases, which has become the industry standard as the NCAA’s moratorium on on-campus activities ended Monday and teams return across the country. The Pac-12′s first day to begin on-campus workouts is June 15 and Oregon football players are expected to begin that day, with other fall sports preceding winter and then spring sports athletes.

“It’s not going to be a lift up the garage door and everybody comes back,” Mullens said. “It’s going to be a very calculated, measured approach. For those that are coming back in the first wave they will be doing some symptom tracking for the seven days before they return. It’s a form that they would turn in to their trainer when they would arrive. Upon arrival to campus, they would self-isolate for seven days here in Eugene and before they would return to our athletic facilities obviously they would have to be symptom-free, they will also go through an extensive pre-participation physical and evaluation because they have been training on their own, away and obviously we’d expect that they will show up in arrange of physical fitness. There will be an extensive evaluation.”

The Pac-12 is mandating all athletes be tested for COVID-19 as well as have antibody testing, though protocols are still be finalized, according to Mullens, who said a positive antibody test will lead to further cardiovascular screen.

Once workouts begin, players will be in smaller workout groups, have to maintain distance in the weight room and only have access to “outdoor running areas," but locker rooms will be closed and food will be to-go only. The athletic training room will be open by appointment only, except for emergencies.

“To gain access to the weight rooms on a daily basis they would have to be symptom-free and check-in prior to admittance,” Mullens said. “They would have maintain physical distance and we will increase the cleaning and sanitization in those weight rooms. Specifically, when in the weight rooms we will design functional groups so that they’re small in number, easily tracked and can maintain that physical space. It’ll minimize crowding, we’ll have all the marking to make sure that folks know the flow and we will clean equipment in between individual use and that all be able to use some outdoor areas to help with that.”

Additionally, players are expected to wear face-coverings at all times unless outdoors and at least 10 feet apart.

Mullens said all other team activities, such as team meetings and position meetings, will continue to be conducted online-only during Phase 1 of the process to returning to games.

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