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New year and new distancing rules change routines of student-athletes, testing protocols force athletes to stay home

With SLUH’s recent full in-person return, testing protocols have been changed to adjust to the new three-foot distancing standard. The new policy, revealed in Principal Ian Gibbons’s most recent Parent Connect email on Jan. 17, stated that “any student who gets tested—through athletics or for another reason—will attend classes in a virtual environment for the 48 hours prior to the test (if possible) and until the test result has been revealed.” Of all the students at SLUH, this new policy is affecting student-athletes the most, as they are mandated to be tested every two weeks.

“It is not the rules that have changed, it is our classroom spacing that has changed. There are pretty much two options,” said Athletic Director Chris Muskopf. “You can either allow those in the testing process to attend classes knowing that if anyone tests positive, it will create the need for a 14-day close contact exposure quarantine for anyone seated within 6 feet of the individual who is positive for more than 15 minutes. Instead, we chose to require those testing to learn in a virtual environment 48 hours prior to a test and while awaiting the test result in order to prevent the potential quarantines.”

“Imagine having to call the parents of 30 students to tell them that even though their son had nothing to do with (the positive result), they will be out for 14 days because one kid in their class tested positive,” said Gibbons. 

With the new year starting, SLUH changed its distancing rules from six feet to three feet, something that had been in the works for a long time. 

“We have looked at the three feet recommendation for schools a number of times in the past seven months,” said Gibbons. “In June and early July, we spent a lot of time researching this, and we ultimately decided to stick with six feet until we had experience with reopening campus. We decided to try three feet in late November before the big spike occurred earlier that month.”

The change from six feet to three feet complicated the routine of student athletes at SLUH since they were already used to testing on a biweekly basis because of regulations the Saint Louis City Health Department set earlier in the year.

For athletes or students who are testing in general, there is a regulation that comes with the new policy that requires them to self-isolate 48 hours prior to their test (assuming it’s positive, there is a 48-hour period in which the virus can be spread if one is asymptomatic) and continue their quarantine until the results of the test reveal that they are negative. 

“All schools in the City have been given leeway by the City Department of Health to make decisions that best support their community and their facilities provided that those decisions prioritize the safety of the community members and strive to meet the recommendations, directives, and protocols issued by the Health Department,” said Muskopf. “Our option was better than allowing those in the testing process to attend classes knowing that if anyone tests positive, it will create the need for a 14-day close contact exposure quarantine for anyone seated within six feet of the individual who is positive for more than 15 minutes.”

While the regulations on student-athlete testing frequency are not going anywhere, the implementations this semester have had a range of effects on SLUH’s student athletes. For some, it has been tough to deal with the going back and forth between online and in-person attendance. 

“I am going back to school, but if it weren’t my last semester at SLUH, I would have been online,” said senior hockey captain Matt Warnecke. “With the current testing situation it is smarter to just stay at home and some kids have realized that and gone with that option.”

“When I first heard about the rule, it didn’t make too much sense to me,” said senior racquetball player Owen Cooney. “I didn’t understand why teams from the county who don’t have to get tested are allowed to compete against us because they were just as likely to catch Covid.” 

“When I first heard about the rule, it didn’t make too much sense to me. I didn’t understand why teams from the county who don’t have to get tested are allowed to compete against us because they were just as likely to catch Covid.”

Racquetball player Owen Cooney

For others, it’s more of an annoyance that has taken some getting used to.

“It’s a little frustrating how only the kids playing sports are getting tested and have to stay home from school when the kids who don’t play sports have the same exposure to others and can still continue to go to school just because they don’t have to get tested,” said Warnecke. 

“It is an annoyance, but I understand that it is what is necessary for us to continue playing while being at school as much as possible,” said senior racquetball player Sam Kleffner. 

For some athletes, the new testing rule has had an impact on academic performance.

“When they recently shared the new news that upon being tested we had to stay home until we presented proof of a negative test, that meant I would be online for nearly three weeks of school before the end of the season,” said Cooney. “That would put me at an academic disadvantage.”

“I feel as though the testing has just been a burden that has impacted my schoolwork because of having to go virtual every other week,” said senior wrestling captain Bobby Conroy. “It makes it hard to be able to continuously keep up effort and drive.”

“For me personally, it is much harder to stay engaged and perform well academically online,” said junior basketball player Luke Johnston.

“For me personally, it is much harder to stay engaged and perform well academically online."

Junior basketball player Luke Johnston

 But, overall, there is a common understanding that when it comes to testing, the more safe SLUH is as a school, the better. 

“On one hand, the testing policy is dampening our ability to have a consistent and effective practice and match schedule,” said Conroy. “I’m not a big fan of it but because of safety and health, I can live with it.”

“It does make sense to me that it limits the spread so that, in the case of a positive test, that one person would quarantine rather him and the 30 guys he was in contact with,” said Cooney. 

As of right now, the SLUH Covid protocol update stated that the mandated quarantine prior to and after testing will not be in place for the rest of the year. The new quarantine policy around testing is going to be carried out until  Jan. 31, and by the start of February will either be discontinued or continuously implemented in SLUH’s spring sports teams. 

“We are looking at several possible adjustments for February right now, but we are still a week or two from making a decision,” said Gibbons. “Right now our testing is working very well. We need to make sure we are protecting everyone in our community, so there is a need for judicious discernment.” 

“If we are able to determine an alternative plan that both minimizes the risk of spread within the community and reduces the class time missed by those in the testing process, we would hope to institute that plan in February,” said Muskopf.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


 

 

 

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