With the fate of college sports this year still unknown due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Arizona state swimming and diving coach Bob Bowman will take no chances.
Bowman announced Sunday that the Sun Devils will be making a red jersey for the men’s and women’s swim and dive teams for the 2020-21 season.
The team will simply train throughout the year, either separately or together on campus, depending on how the outbreak progresses, and then continue to compete next season.
“All of our swimmers lost their NCAA [championships] last year, “Bowman said via Sports Illustrated.” I’m not willing to let them lose two. “
‘The most difficult part is not clarity’
The Big Ten and Pac-12 conferences have already announced that they will be playing conference-only schedules this fall due to the coronavirus. Big 12, ACC and SEC are expected to announce their plans in the coming days.
Several smaller conferences have also completely canceled fall sports.
The coronavirus is still wreaking havoc across the country. There were more than 4.2 million confirmed cases of coronavirus in the United States as of Sunday afternoon, according to The New York Times, with more than 146,500 deaths attributed to it. The country has averaged almost 67,000 new cases each day in the past week.
Arizona also has one of the largest outbreaks in the country. The state has more than 162,000 cases and averaged more than 2,600 new cases per day in the past week.
Bowman said the school’s aquatic facilities are closed due to the pandemic, and that he is not sure when it will reopen. While swimming and diving are not as difficult as other sports, it is a winter sport that ends with the championship in March, Bowman is not willing to sit back and wait for a response.
“It’s been really tough for four months,” said Bowman, via Sports Illustrated. “The hardest part is not being clear about anything.”
Bowman took office in the state of Arizona in 2015. He coached 28-time Olympic medalist Michael Phelps, served as a coach for the United States men’s Olympic team, and currently coaches a pair of Olympic athletes.
While the idea surprised his bosses and the Pac-12 at first, he said it eventually grew on everyone. Not only will it be beneficial to the academic work of his athletes, but he believes they will be a much better team when they return to competition because of that.
“We have the money to cover it, to make it work,” Bowman said through Sports Illustrated. “It provides an academic benefit, allowing everyone to focus on their studies and perhaps get out of here with a master’s degree. They have the flexibility to train at home while taking online classes if they wish, and then return to the semester break. And it helps us compete: we will be better as a team in 2021-22. “
With the college sports in question due to the coronavirus pandemic, swimming and diving in the state of Arizona have simply chosen to take the year off. (Photo by Kevin Abele / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
