What Arkansas athletes, coaches are doing during coronavirus shutdown

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He may be mere months away from becoming a millionaire, but that hasn’t stopped Heston Kjerstad’s parents from putting him to work.

Like many of his teammates and fellow UA student-athletes, the projected first-round pick in this summer’s MLB Draft is back home to ride out the coronavirus pandemic that forced the cancellation of all spring sports and moved all classes online.

For Kjerstad, that means staying with his parents in Amarillo, Texas, and being put to work in their store - Water Still, which specializes in premium water, ice and tea.

“I can only workout and hit for a few hours a day and I'm still doing my online classes, but I'm helping them out with some miscellaneous stuff, whether it's helping them out with our warehouse or running some errands for them,” Kjerstad said. “I do all the landscaping and mowing around the house.

“They don't have me working in the store right now, but if we get short on workers I may be up there in the drive-thru or something working a little bit here and there.”

Of course, he’s also still spending time honing the skills that helped him hit .448 with six home runs and 20 RBIs in 16 games during the shortened season and have MLB scouts salivating.

With most gyms closed, Kjerstad has dusted off the weight set in his parents’ garage that he used to use all the time in high school. When his dad has time to throw him a bucket of balls, he also takes advantage of the outdoor batting cages at Canyon Randall High, where he was an All-State performer.

“Just kind of doing things a little bit like I was when I was in high school,” Kjerstad said. “Kind of fun to be able to do that, get back to your roots a little bit.”

It’s an unusual situation for Kjerstad and other Razorbacks because they’re used to either playing or preparing for the season during this time. Instead, they’ve been left scrambling to find ways to stay in shape and fill a void they likely haven’t had since they started playing sports many years ago.

Here’s a look at how a few other athletes and a handful of coaches are handling it…

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Casey Opitz - baseball

Another possible draft pick this summer, Opitz is back home in Centennial, Colo., and benefitting from an older brother who played nine seasons in the minor leagues.

Shane Opitz was an 11th-round pick out of high school in 2010 and was most recently in the Triple-A in 2018, so he has a gym in his basement. Casey has worked out there because it features a squat rack, a bunch of weights and even batting cages with a net to hit into.

“We’ve been really lucky we don’t have to miss a beat on the workout side,” Opitz said. “We’re pretty lucky to have all that, because I know there a lot of guys out there that are doing a lot of body weight stuff right now and swinging a bat in front of a mirror.”

Other than that, Opitz said he’s also helping around the house and doing chores while going with the flow of the rollercoaster that is Colorado weather. When he spoke to the media last week, he said it snowed the day before, but he would be able to lay out and work on his sun tan the next day.

Sam Pittman - football coach

Instead of going through his first spring practice as Arkansas’ head coach, Pittman has been sorting through the logistical issues of coaching a team that is dispersed across the country.

Speaking to the media the week before spring break, he said he had been spending a lot of time at the office with his staff, but they were making plans to move everything to an at-home basis. As for his plans for spring break…

“We are going to the Bahamas at my address in Fayetteville, Arkansas,” Pittman said. “I think I’m going to heat the pool up, to be honest with you. There might be a whale sighting out there. It’s just me, nobody shoot. It’s just me.”

One big difference for Pittman has been adhering to the social distancing recommendations. Even before restaurants were closed down and limited to only takeout or pickup, he said he wasn’t going out as much as he was previously.

That’s unusual for Pittman, who is known for being friendly and fond of interacting with fans.

“I do miss that part of it because I enjoy being around people,” Pittman said. “I enjoy that they want to meet me… It’s an honor, so I enjoy that part of it as you well know, but I’m trying to be smart about it, as well.”

Grant Morgan - football

Although they have a house in Fayetteville, Morgan and his wife, Sydnie, have been staying in Fort Smith because he has a buddy down there who owns a gym and let him have a key to the facility.

It’s not quite the same as working out with his teammates, but Morgan said he’s had a workout partner in Sydnie and that he has enjoyed becoming his own personal trainer because he’s able to create his own workouts, find his own motivation and make his own meals.

“My dad and brother, they have both been pushing me and I would always hate it because they would lift more than me,” Morgan said. “I think that is what made Drew so good, is that we had to find internal ways to push ourselves and I think that anybody in the SEC has that same motor. They don’t have to be next to a team to push themselves.”

Morgan has been with Sydnie, who is working on her Masters in speech pathology at Arkansas, for about seven years. However, they got married on Jan. 4, so this period of quarantine has come just a few months into living together for the first time.

“She still likes me, even now, so I think I’m doing good,” Morgan said with a laugh. “It’s been three months… I learn something new every day - things I do wrong, things I do wrong again.”

Not a fan of watching television, the fifth-year senior linebacker said they did a puzzle the other day and he’s also gone fishing with some of his friends - while maintaining a safe distance, of course.

Jalen Catalon - football

Back home in Mansfield, Texas, Catalon said he’s staying in shape thanks to a friend who has a personal gym. He also has a trainer to work out with.

Unlike Morgan, though, the redshirt freshman safety has been killing time the same way as a lot of people his age.

“I just watch a lot of Netflix, YouTube, stuff like that,” Catalon said. “I just got done with All-American…so just trying to find new shows, things to watch to entertain myself. I know my parents have a couple of board games they want us to play, like Connect 4, things like that, so it kind of brings me back to my childhood.”

Courtney Deifel - softball coach

With sons who are 4 and 2 years old, Deifel said her days consist of watching a lot of Frozen 2 and playing peacekeeper.

“It’s a lot of just trying to keep them from killing each other and just finding different things to do every day,” Deifel said, before being interrupted by one of the boys and telling him to go potty. “But I welcome the family time and just enjoy it.”

Naturally, she is disappointed that the coronavirus forced her top-20 softball team to end the season prematurely, but she also understood the decision was made with public safety in mind.

However, that’s not as easy to comprehend for her two sons.

“It’s different trying to explain this to a 4-year-old,” Deifel said. “He doesn’t know why we can’t go to Bogle and watch softball and see the girls. He’s quite a Razorback fan across the board. We go to a lot of events, so just trying to explain it to him has been a little more challenging.”

Sydney Parr, Braxton Burnside - softball

Both of the softball players who met with the media last week stressed the importance of getting into a routine during their time away from the team.

In addition to their schoolwork, they’re also balancing workouts and drills.

“I do an at-home workout, a lot of running and speed work every single day,” Parr said. “I am fortunate enough to have the equipment that I need at home to stay on top of my physical workouts, getting stronger and faster.”

Parr said she’s hitting and playing catch with her dad every day, too, in an effort to get back to the fundamentals of the game.

That’s another aspect they’re enjoying: extra family time.

“I'm definitely enjoying time with my family because this is a time that I usually don't get to see my family a whole lot,” Burnside said. “I have younger sisters that I'm spending time with, so I'm really taking advantage of that time and just kind of relaxing and enjoying being at home here and trying to stay in a routine.”

As it is for Kjerstad and Opitz, it’s weird to Burnside and Parr that they’re not only not playing games, but they’re away from the structure that softball provides. They’ve played pretty much their whole lives, so it’s been quite different.

“As athletes, we have been wired for so long to have these extremely busy schedules from the weight room to class to practice to putting in extra work,” Parr said. “So I'm not going to lie, the first week at home was an adjustment. I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, I'm not used to this.’”

Lance Harter - women’s track and field coach

Perhaps no one in the Razorbacks’ program has a setup as perfect to ride out a global pandemic as Harter, who owns a ranch on a “picturesque” 10 acres of land in Goshen overlooking the White River and Beaver Lake.

“Talk about a place of isolation,” Harter said. “It’s my wife and I, so I don’t have to worry about coming across anybody with this new bug.”

With a pond for fishing and wild animals like deer on the property, Harter added that his kids can use it as a “sanctuary.”

He also said he’s able to stay active and get out of the house, which is important to the man who has led the women’s track and field/cross country program at Arkansas for three decades.

“In my mind, it’s almost like a premature retirement,” Harter said. “I’m not going to handle that process well, either, so my wife is trying to ground me.”

As for his team, Harter said most of the athletes are improvising because a lot of tracks are closed down across the country. A handful of them went to Colorado Springs to train at altitude while doing their classes online.

Chris Bucknam - men’s track and field coach

He may not have a ranch like his counterpart, but Bucknam said the time off - which is usually spent coaching the outdoor season - has allowed him to spent more time with his wife.

“Cindy and I are getting used to each other,” Bucknam said. “We’ve been married 39 years and she says it’s only been nine really because of all the time we missed and that’s why we’re so happily married. I’m going to use the opportunity to rest and enjoy time with my wife and hopefully this thing blows over soon.”

Shauna Taylor - women’s golf coach

While her athletes are limited to what they can do from a physical aspect, Taylor said she is trying to help them work on the mental side of golf by sending them podcasts and webinars.

In addition to that and doing some self-improvements to continue learning how to be a better coach, she is also spending a lot of time on mom duty. During the mornings, Taylor is “teaching A-B-Cs and 1-2-3s” to her 4-year-old daughter and trying to create a routine with her husband, who is also home.

“I find the blessing in it that I’m kind of getting to be the mom I’ve not been able to be, being a coach and traveling all the time,” Taylor said. “So I’m really trying to soak up the opportunity to make breakfast in the mornings and to do those things and be present every day. Through the storm, I’ve tried to find a silver lining in it.”

Brad McMakin - men’s golf coach

On the men’s side, McMakin said he is also home with his 15-year-old son, so he’s trying to balance keeping him on top of his schooling with all of the conference calls with the SEC.

Keeping in touch with his athletes frequently is near the top of his priorities, as well, because he knows it’s a shell shock to not be doing something many have done year around since they were 10 or 12 years old.

“I think it’s very important we keep our student-athletes in a good frame of mind during this time because they really don’t know how long this is going to last and when the season’s going to start again,” McMakin said. “I’ve just been trying to keep our student-athletes in a positive frame of mind and do a little work around the house, which is unusual for me.”

Kajal Mistry - women’s golf

With 30-plus hours of travel and layovers in Europe required to get home to South Africa, Mistry and her parents made the decision for her to remain in the U.S. They felt like the risk of getting the coronavirus on such a trip was too high, plus there are better resources here than in her home country if she does get sick.

The freshman is instead staying with teammate Brooke Matthews and her family in Rogers. Although she got very close with Brooke during her first season, Mistry said she had met her parents only a couple of times at tournaments, so them taking her in meant a lot.

“I’m so grateful for Brooke’s family taking me in,” Mistry said. “They’ve been really, really nice to me and have really supported me through this time, asking me if I need anything, so I really appreciate everything the’ve done for me.”

Being away from her family is understandably difficult, but she talks to them daily. Mistry said her parents and sister are in the midst of a three-week lockdown - one of the strictest in the world - in their hometown of Johannesburg, while her brother is hunted down in his apartment in Cape Town because he didn’t want to risk flying home.

Lockdowns in other countries have impacted several of Arkansas’ foreign athletes. On the women’s golf team, Maria Hoyos, Ela Anacona and Grace St-Germain are on total lockdown in Colombia, Argentina and Canada, respectively. Ximena Gonzalez has a stay-at-home order in Mexico, as do Julia Dean (Michigan) and Julia Gregg (Dallas) in the states.

They have been limited to hitting balls in their backyard, but that’s not the case for Mistry and Matthews. Mistry said she’s been able to play tennis and basketball with Brooke’s sister, as well as get in some technical work with her swing - something she wouldn’t normally be able to do this time of year because of the season - thanks to a new the Matthews have in their garage.

Mason Overstreet - men’s golf

One of three Oklahomans on the men’s golf roster, Overstreet said - as of last week when he met with the media - the golf course in his hometown was still open. However, that could be changing soon if it hasn’t already.

“We actually just had our first positive test just the other day, so stuff is starting to close down here as well,” Overstreet said. “Luckily, the golf course is still open, so I’ve been able to get out and play a few rounds here and there by myself most of the time.”