ELLENSBURG, Wash. – With all that has happened in the past month with the novel Coronavirus, COVID-19, it has been a challenge for so many people around the world. Even in the realm of college athletics, so many departments across the country have had to re-shape how they conduct business in a world that has no sporting events, no applauding fans, and simply no way to interact normally on a day-to-day basis.

Central Washington University Athletics is no different in that regard as administrators, coaches, and support staff have all tried to continue "Business as Normal" in this unprecedented time. Coaches and administrators each face unique challenges and going forward there is still so much unknown as to what will come in the future.

Fast forward one month now since sports came to a complete stop and the way business is conducted tries to feel "normal", but there are still challenges. Some of the CWU Athletics staff and coaches took this time to reflect on everything as we hit the one-month mark of no sports and basically little to no human contact. Every testimonial is unique in its own way, but one common theme is that the challenge of not being there for each other is tough.

For staff, it's been the adjustment of being home all the time and handling day-to-day tasks while balancing life with family and loved ones. For the Wildcats coaches, the adjustment rings true as well in terms of being home all the time, but it also comes with added challenges of not being able to see their student-athletes daily, handling a new, albeit, virtual recruiting process, and for some having to deal with a season lost.

Gary Hyatt, Deputy Director of Athletics
There have been three things I've learned in working at home: 1) I miss people, 2) Business on top and party below when it comes to clothing options, and 3) Family hand signals.

With the first one, our product is people, so when you do not have consistent opportunities to interact with student-athletes, coaches, and staff, I feel the loss of those interactions. I believe in the model that it takes a "village" to create a supportive environment for these to grow. Sometimes a word of encouragement or a compliment can be the fuel that they need to make the sacrifices necessary to accomplish their goals. It's tough not being able to provide that now.

In terms of point No. 2, I have yet to figure out the correct professional dress for working at home. Lately, I have settled on a morning shower and shave with collared shirt, but also wearing shorts and tennis shoes. It has given me a reasonable video conferencing look and yet I can go outside for a quick game of catch with my 10-year old.

Lastly, the hand signals. In my house, we currently have two CWU employees, one UW student, and a fourth grader all trying to accomplish very important things. Here are just some of the signals we have created to effectively communicate with one another: A) Thumb across the throat – I am going to hurt you very bad if you enter this room or say anything  during this video call, B) Hand open being thrust in the direction of the person – For goodness sake, can you just wait a minute, C) A thumbs up – Are you doing good? And I love you, D) Picking up my laptop and moving down to the basement – I cannot be around any of you because you all are driving me crazy.
 
Brianna Bischof, Office Manager
For me, it's just business as-usual without the actual in-person contact and interruptions. Instead, I have interruptions from my kiddos, so it's practically the same! Thankfully, I'm able to do most everything from home. I brought all my files, binders, and anything I knew I would likely need home with me during this time. To be honest, the most challenging part is not having a scanner and copy machine easily accessible. It's amazing how much I rely on those to finish tasks.
 
Isaac Perry, Athletic Training
The COVID-19 virus has drastically changed the way we function as a medical staff. The work we do as Athletic Trainers includes injury evaluations, rehabs, and treatments, all of which traditionally take place face to face with a lot of hands on work with our patients. Over the past few weeks our staff has been hard at work, prepping to make sure all our currently injured athletes can continue to make the progress needed to be healthy and back on the field as soon as possible. This has included creating at-home rehab plans that athletes can do with little to no equipment and making potential workout modifications as they continue to train at home. Even though they may not have access to the weights and equipment in the athletic training room they can still find plenty of things around the house to make do. When we aren't doing body weight exercises, we can use bands for resistance training, water jugs for weights and pillows to make an unsteady surface to balance on.  I've told all our athletes that we can't let the current situation cause any setback or stop us from achieving our rehab goals.

Another important aspect of what we do requires us to watch movement patterns and provide cues as an athlete relearns how to activate certain muscle groups. Many of our staff have taken to online video calls during an athlete's rehab session or watching videos of the athletes as they perform an exercise to provide feedback.  We make sure to at least have weekly contact with our athletes to track progression, or just see how they are doing mentally. We all understand that this is a tough time for everyone and when you're already removed from your normal routine due to an injury, it becomes an even harder uphill battle. I think the biggest thing we can do as an Athletic Training staff is continue to show athletes that we are there with them during this process, even though we may be miles apart.
 
Alison Mitchell, Softball
My priority has been, and always will be, to check in on the well-being of my student-athletes. Not a day has gone by that I haven't thought about each of them and, sometimes, I flood them with messages. We had our season cut short and are now stuck without the game we love so much for six months. Our sport, and sports in general, have helped prepare us for situations like this. I know how to deal with adversity, and I know how to overcome this, but it will take everyone. I have moments where I feel incredible loss, but in those moments, I think about the positives that my team created in such a short time this year. It helps bring me out of that feeling and I get excited for when I can finally see my team again. I remind myself each day that this, too, shall pass. When we get the opportunity to step on the field and compete again, I know we will be unstoppable because this moment is only forging us into a tighter, more resilient family unit.

What I do daily is somewhat boring. I work each day on ideas for when we can practice together again in six months, develop my list of 2021 recruits, and plan for camps that we will hopefully get to have in the summer. I have been working to connect with alumni and have begun building a bridge between the coaches, current players and the alumni.
 
Desi Storey, Baseball
For us in the baseball office, we feel like we are in a holding pattern since the season was cut short. Other than everyday office stuff, like answering emails, it is a matter of trying to stay in contact with recruits and updating the guys when there is any information. So much has been sent to us information wise in the last month, so we are doing our best to stay informed.  With there being no season, there is no contact. All we can do and really anyone can do is hope this all ends sooner rather than later.
 
Todd Thornley, Men's Rugby
These are challenging times for everyone in athletics and my heart goes out not only to our program whose season was cut short and in some cases collegiate careers, but everyone within our department who lives and breathes this place every day. The biggest change to my workday is the obvious- limited social interactions with all those involved in our department and specifically our men's rugby program. Our student-athletes know that our staff is available for whatever they need, and we are checking in with them at least 3 times a week. We are reshaping our daily process and structure to ensure we can continue our successful development in our remote environments, with a focus on staying active physically and performing at our best academically despite whatever constraints we find ourselves in. Being positive about the challenges that are ahead and simply admitting that change is hard is the first steps we have taken in order to ensure our student-athletes have all the tools they need to thrive in the very fluid situation we find ourselves in.

Away from the athletes- we have already begun our evaluations on the rugby performance side which is always a fun challenging process as we load up and get ready for what should be another great year of Wildcat Rugby in 2020-21. Lastly, I want to give another massive thank you to our four graduating seniors- Brian, Cole, Deven and Tresten; they changed the culture of Wildcat Rugby and led from the front throughout their careers here. I am truly sorry that you could not finish your career on your terms, however you can be proud knowing you left the program in a better place then you found it.
 
Trevor Richards, Women's Rugby
To say that our work environment has changed drastically is an understatement.  But that's the case for almost everyone in the world at the moment.  We are just grateful to have jobs and be able to still build for the future.  Instead of letting the constant hum of anxiety and uncertainty eat away at us, we're choosing to focus on staying present and adapting to our new environment; it's an opportunity to learn how to operate in a different way. 

Staying connected with staff and student-athletes is paramount in maintaining an operative framework. To answer this challenge, we are utilizing the various video conferencing tools and software to meet in individual and group settings. With a roster that includes players from Ireland to Hawaii, matching up schedules and time zones adds an additional challenging layer, but nothing that can't be solved. The emphasis for us this quarter will be helping our student-athletes develop and transition into a new structure and way of operating, while utilizing technology to knock down the walls of separation and isolation. This quarter will present a unique challenge, one that we are going to make the best of.
 
Brandon Rinta, Men's Basketball
Isaac and our training room staff are doing a great job of staying in constant communication while they are home. We have two athletes recovering from surgery still and need guidance while they are away more than ever. This is another example of the investment you get by the support staff at the Division II level. Athletics, first and foremost, is about relationships.  This is being lived out by everyone here at CWU during these changing times.
 
Randi Richardson-Thornley, Women's Basketball
This is unprecedented times in all our lives and my heart goes out to not only all of our spring sports but every athlete who had their season or careers cut short this year. Personally, the biggest change for me is the lack of social interaction with my colleagues and our athletes. I miss seeing our players and staff daily and interacting with them. I'm going to miss getting in the gym with our returners and having that special time where we get to focus on their individual development. However, just like always in sports, there are always going to be factors that are out of our control and there are many things we cannot predict or control in this current situation. But I believe it's important for our players and staff to focus on the things we can control and create a new normal. If we stay positive and find new ways to make the best out of this situation, I do believe we can come out of this thing stronger and better. Our plan moving forward is to try to stay connected as much as possible and create a routine for our players weekly. Our expectations and core values as a program do not go away just because our process must change for the time being.

Currently, our plan is to connect with our players three times a week. One meeting will be a virtual team meeting where we can all connect, catch up as a group, see one another, and share important information or answer questions. The next two meetings will be geared toward individual player development with the use of film study through virtual meetings and screen sharing capabilities. Our staff will still function as normal as possible with starting preparations for next season, doing academic update checks, providing voluntary workouts for those athletes who request them, getting on the phone with recruits, etc. Lastly, I would like to give a special shout out and thank you to our senior class (MJ, Alexis, Kaelie, JonNae, and Taylor). They have been a special group who raised the bar within our program and left it in a better place. I am sad that we will not be able to have a team banquet and celebrate this group in the way they deserve but it doesn't minimize the impact they have had on our program which will continue to see years down the road.
 
Chris Fisk, Football
This is for sure a challenging time for all of us. To help myself out in this is I've made an office out of our guest bedroom. I thought it was important to do this. It was actually a tip from Coach Erik Hoium and I've seen a bunch of people on the internet do it. I've recommended to our staff to build an office at home so it actually feels like you're going to work so that you have some sense of accountability in getting your job done. When you're at home there's a lot of other things that can be done so having this setup helps me stay focused on my work. On the day-to-day side, my staff and I are meeting at 9 a.m. every morning virtually. That's followed by a recruiting meeting where offensively, defensively we'll watch recruits until about 11 a.m., followed by another staff meeting and lunch at noon. After lunch, we're into offense and defensive meetings from 1-3:30 p.m. From there we try to jump on a phone call or a zoom meeting with our players and just check up on them and see how they are doing during all this. Afterward, we again follow up with more recruiting calls for the remainder of the afternoon. Essentially, everything we are doing and trying to handle has been ton over the phone, but also through a ton of zoom meetings right now.

It's challenging. I think right now that's the hard part for the staff. I'll admit, this is getting old and there's some frustration there with just wanting to get back in the office and get back to a normal life. With that being said, I think what's important right now is the safety of our players, our families, and our staff. I think one of the interesting things is there's no playbook for this. You start talking to colleagues and people in the profession that are going through the same thing as you right now, trying to check for commonalities and just to see what people are up to. You try to see what they're doing and how they're running the show. Everybody's a little different and we're doing it the way that we're doing it. We're trying to work normal eight-hour type of days and stay diligent in what we're doing. I think it's going well. We're making the best of it.

Having technology like zoom has made an enormous difference. Just being able to see everybody's face every day helps a ton. Having our first team meeting over zoom was great. We got to see all the guys faces which I know made the coaches excited despite it being through the virtual world. Like I said, we just have to continue handling our business. We're missing spring ball right now, which is tough, but we'll make the best of it and everybody's going through the same thing. Nobody's getting a leg up on each other right now. Hopefully we'll make the best of it and do what's best for the team and the community and continue to press on.

Moving Forward...
Regardless of what the rest of the academic year holds, CWU Athletics continues to work and build toward the future. There is no timetable for when staff, coaches, and student-athletes will get to interact in person, but the comradery that has been built in this time keeps spirits up.