The Big Ten may have canceled out of their bankruptcy sport in 2020. But at Penn State, the athletics department is still conducting extensive COVID-19 testing for its athletes. PSU had released its test results on a weekly basis, but on Wednesday it released new numbers just seven days after its previous report.
For the period from 10-14 August – Monday to Friday of last week, which culminated in final exams for the summer semester – 230 COVID-19 tests were performed. One came back as positive.
Apparently it was not a football player. In a virtual press conference Wednesday football coach James Franklin reported that in the short period the program was allowed to conduct training camp, no players, coaches or support staff were tested positive.
“Our student-athletes have matched the diligence of our institution by following the recommended protections for health and safety with the intention of playing this fall,” he said. “Our latest COVID-19 tests of our entire program – student-athletes, coaches, athletic trainers, strength and conditioning, and equipment staff – yielded zero positive tests after our first week of practice. This is attributed to the solid efforts of our medical professionals, student-athletes and staff.
“We are heartbroken for our student-athletes because of how much they have sacrificed to put themselves in a position to compete at the highest level,” he said. “But now, they are frustrated and uncertain about what the future holds.”
While some athletic departments across the country have struggled to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 virus, Penn State has so far had remarkable success in that area.
From the moment athletes returned to campus June 8 to August 7, Penn State conducted 560 tests. Eight returned positive, at a rate of 1.4 percent. There were no positives in the two-week period leading up to August 7th. This means that there has been one positive test result across all athletes of the fall sport over the last three weeks of the summer semester. Overall, 790 tests were given, which returned nine positive results (11.3 percent).
Penn State notes that progress will report the aggregated COVID-19 test results on a weekly basis. It will be interesting to see what the next results reveal, as after the cancellation of the 2020 season was announced, Franklin allowed his players to return to their respective homes to see their families before the fall semester Monday begins.
Not everyone took him on offer.
“It was just an emotional rollercoaster for our staff and for our players,” Franklin said. ‘I have given everyone the time to hug their mothers, to hug their dads as well as their brothers and sisters. And then, once we figure out what the new plan is, we get back to work. But that means we come back, retest, quarantine again.
“(He received) feedback from the majority of parents that they felt our players were safer at Penn State,” he added. ‘And we had a number of players … that stayed in State College. We had a number of staff members who decided to do that and stay in State College. ”
