MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Our world is sick right now and the best thing for us to do is hunker down and help our health professionals get a handle on this sickness by practicing social distancing.
That's the message West Virginia University football coach
Neal Brown is preaching to his team regarding the COVID-19 virus.
"Who would have thought you could do your best work by staying at home?" Brown said Thursday morning via video conference.
West Virginia's second-year coach admitted the magnitude of the situation really hit him shortly after his most recent news conference following spring football practice when developments were happening at lightning speed.
"When I walked into that press conference, I really probably thought we were going to be practicing the next morning and by the end of it, I realized that was probably the last time we were going to be together for a while," he said.
Brown oversees a football operation that involves many people, including more than 100 players from different parts of the country. He's had to lean on his assistant coaches, support staff and technology to keep everyone informed on the most current developments regarding the virus.
"I think face-to-face time is very important – eyeballs to eyeballs – with everybody in our organization on a daily basis," he said.
That's happening through the video conferencing software Zoom, as well as the Facetime app on player-issued iPads. Brown prefers Zoom because it's easy to use, and he wants to keep things as condensed as possible for his staff with developments changing so rapidly.
"Our guys, over the course of the last few days, have learned how to use it," Brown said.
Regarding his support staff, strength and conditioning coach
Mike Joseph is in charge of the players' physical fitness, and
Dr. A.J. Monseau, athletic trainer Vince Blankenship, his training staff and team nutritionist
Farrell Frankel are responsible for their health and well-being.
Assistant athletics director Britteny O'Dell and her student-athlete development staff are overseeing players' academic work remotely now that the University has adopted online coursework for the rest of the semester.
All of them are taking advantage of this technology, at Brown's urging.
"Not too long after the NCAA canceled their tournament, myself, (director of athletics) Shane (Lyons), (deputy director of athletics) Keli (Zinn) and our staff here, we've talked through what potentially this could look like," Brown said. "The first thing we worked through was how do we work from home? I think we've come up with a pretty good plan of how we're doing this.
"Then, what are our communications methods with our players? How can we hold them accountable academically? How can we hold them accountable strength and conditioning-wise? How can we hold them accountable health-wise? We have a plan for all of those," he continued. "Once we got through that and felt good that everyone was safe, fed and those types of things, we will get to the point where once we're allowed to resume football activity, what does that look like?"
Another immediate concern of Brown's was making sure his players understood the seriousness of the COVID-19 virus and their responsibility as good citizens not to spread the disease by congregating in public places.
He said that has been an "evolving" process.
"The age group that we deal with – the 17- to 22-, 23-year olds – have probably been the slowest of the group," he admitted. "I'm just grouping people together and not singling anyone out individually, but it's been the slowest to come to terms.
"We have been trying to communicate with our guys probably since the beginning of March or even the end of February about this," Brown said. "I think this week is when the severity of the situation has really hit home for them. I think this pandemic is something that is affecting everyone. You know somebody who has been diagnosed. You know somebody that's on the front line that's fighting this. People are suffering through the financial ramifications of this."
He continued.
"It's probably going to get worse before it gets better. I think our staff did a really good job of trying to stay in front of this as best they could," he stated. "I thought they did a really good job during spring break when everybody was gone to monitor where everybody was and educate the guys on what is social distancing? We even sent some videos out educating them on the importance of social distancing and really emphasizing staying home.
"At the beginning, did they understand? Probably not. Have we been perfect? Probably not. But are they beginning to understand the severity of this? I do believe that's happening," he said.
Eventually, this is going to pass, just as other pandemics through history have passed, and everyday life will resume in some manner and form, whether that's in May, June, July, August or beyond.
Brown, as the caretaker of West Virginia football, has to keep that in the back of his mind and have a plan in place when everyday life does resume.
"The one thing we have right now is time," he said. "There are a lot of different thought processes on this. I knew this was going to be a big deal for a while.
"More and more guys are going to be coming back to Morgantown, and we can't control that. What does that look like? How do we handle that when we get the majority of our team back?" he said. "What does it look like if we have OTAs? How would we manage that if it happens? What does that look like from our perspective?
"What if we don't get them until fall camp, what do we have to change as far as that goes? You want to have a plan, but you don't want to get too carried away with it as far as a time investment because you just don't know."
Football coaches are driving in the fog through this just like the rest of us. The best thing to do, of course, is to proceed cautiously and intelligently and not get too far out ahead of this.
In the meantime, Brown's No. 1 concern is the health and well-being of his players and Mountaineer Nation.
"This is obviously a very serious situation, and we can do our best work by staying at home. I encourage people to support their local businesses and also support their local news. I appreciate everybody being on here, and we're going to try to keep you as informed as we possibly can during this very difficult time," he concluded.
