AD Hunter Yurachek details Arkansas' plan for return of student-athletes

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FAYETTEVILLE — As the world continues to reopen from the coronavirus pandemic, Arkansas has unveiled a four-phase plan for the return of student-athletes to campus next month.

Last week, the SEC voted to allow the return to campuses for voluntary workouts, at the discretion of each school, beginning June 8 and the Razorbacks will start by welcoming back their first group of athletes that date.

In a Zoom videoconference with local media Wednesday, athletics director Hunter Yurachek revealed a staggered start for those voluntary activities:

~Group 1: June 8 - football, soccer, volleyball, men’s and women’s cross country, men’s and women’s basketball

~Group 2: June 22 - gymnastics, swimming and diving, men’s and women’s track and field

~Group 3: June 29 - incoming freshmen for football, soccer, volleyball, men’s and women’s cross country, men’s and women’s basketball

~Group 4: July 6 - baseball, softball, men’s and women’s golf, men’s and women’s tennis

The purpose of spacing out the return of the athletes, Yurachek said, was so they could learn from the first wave and make any necessary adjustments. June 8 is the only definitive date, while the next three are flexible, meaning they could be moved up or pushed back.

“We have a plan that is customized to the State of Arkansas and the University of Arkansas,” Yurachek said. “You will see varying plans across the country and across the Southeastern Conference.”

Yurachek said the Razorbacks’ athletic trainers have already been contacting athletes to screen them about their travels and who they’ve come into contact with. When they begin getting to Fayetteville next week, they’ll go through a “robust physical examination.”

Arkansas will also close its facilities Thursday and Friday for an “extreme disinfection and sanitation process” in anticipation of their arrival.

As the SEC announced last week, the school will not require all athletes to receive the coronavirus test before getting cleared. However, athletes returning from out of the country or coming from one of four hot spots - New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and New Orleans - must be quarantined for 14 days.

That particularly applies to several football players from New Orleans, some of whom are already going through the quarantine process. It was unclear during the call if there was a certain radius around the major Louisiana city that the requirement applies to, but director of sports medicine Dave England said they are relying on outside help for guidance.

“We had somebody that actually lived a little bit outside of New Orleans and that's a decision that the Department of Health makes,” England said. “If we think they're coming from a hotspot, we contact the Department of Health and then they make that decision whether they're actually coming from a hotspot and have to be in quarantine.”

Although the workouts are voluntary and coaches won’t be able to supervise any activities, Yurachek said he expected most of the football players to return in time for the June 8 start date.

What they’ll experience once cleared will be completely different than what they’re accustomed to.

“They are used to working out offense together and defense together in large groups,” Yurachek said. “Sometimes there's close to 50 guys. They are going to be in smaller sub-groups of about 16.”

Those limitations are in accordance to guidelines set by the Arkansas Department of Health. Luckily for them, the Razorbacks have an upper and lower weight room at the Walker Indoor Pavilion that will provide more workout space and allow them to properly social distance.

Athletes will have their temperature checked before entering the facilities every day, with a 100.4-degree temperature being the threshold, and they’ll be required to enter one way and exit another. They also won’t have access to their locker room or student-athlete lounge.

Yurachek said they are still working on developing a laundry service for players and that their meetings will continue to be held virtually, with coaches getting up to eight hours per week for instruction that way.

“Our coaches are going to really have their work cutout for them to really make these young men and women, as they return, continue to feel a part of the team,” Yurachek said. “At least early on, there's going to be very few instances of where you are together collectively as a team.”

Graduate transfers Levi Draper, Xavier Kelly and A.J. Reed, who were unable to enroll at the semester like Feleipe Franks and Jerry Jacobs, can join the team June 8, but incoming freshmen will have to wait three more weeks.

That was a decision specifically made by Yurachek, who said it helped having the perspective of being the father one former and one current student-athlete.

“It's hard enough to make an adjustment from being a high school senior to a freshman to a college campus,” Yurachek said. “I didn't want that adjustment to be while we were working through our plan on June 8 where you didn't have an opportunity to work with your coaches and develop a relationship with your coaches.”

He added that the athletic department is working with the UA office of housing to make sure those freshmen have somewhere to stay, even if it’s not the dorms they’ll be in when school starts in August. It shouldn’t be too much of an issue, though, because the dorms have remained open for international students and others who had to remain on campus the last couple of months.

The Razorbacks are still shooting for a mid-July start of fall camp, which would give them a six-week practice period to prepare for the start of the 2020 football season.

However, it is still a very fluid situation and Yurachek said the coaches will need to continue to be open-minded with how they handle things going forward.

For example, football teams have traditionally done position meetings throughout the season. That would put the team at risk of losing an entire group - such as quarterback - if one player gets infected because of the close contact of those sessions.

“It's changing the way our coaches in all of our sports think about how they meet and interact with student-athletes,” Yurachek said. “Even to a point where how they may practice moving forward."