The Miami Hurricanes will start to get some players on campus next week. Here’s how
As presidents and chancellors from the Southeastern Conference prepare to vote on potentially allowing athletes to return to campus in June, the Miami Hurricanes will begin reopening their football facilities to athletes in extremely limited capacity Monday. Miami’s long list of injured players — specifically those coming off surgery — will have access to athletic facilities starting next week to continue their rehabilitation processes with face-to-face treatment, coach Manny Diaz said.
“We are going to have access for our guys that are coming off of surgery to be able to enter the building to get treatment, and we’ll start ramping up that procedure next week,” the coach said in his first video conference with beat reporters since the COVID-19 pandemic shut down college sports in March, “so they will get the face to face, and that’ll be a little dry run, a test measure, of the different protocol of coming into the building and that type of deal.”
This group will be the first to return to campus for the Hurricanes since the coronavirus chased students and faculty away in March. Coaches have not been in the offices, athletes have not had access to weight rooms and students have been kicked out of on-campus housing. A small group will usher in a return Monday as Florida continues to progress in reopening the state as cases of the virus decrease.
While Gov. Ron DeSantis on Friday gave gyms and fitness facilities the OK to reopen Monday, a Miami spokesperson was unsure whether the Hurricanes’ weight room and other facilities would be allowed to open for nonmedical purposes. The expectation is facilities will remain shuttered as long as campus remains closed, save for these specific medical cases.
Miami’s injury list includes several South Florida natives who could be among those back in Coral Gables on Monday. Running back Donald Chaney Jr., offensive lineman Navaughn Donaldson and linebackers Sam Brooks Jr. and Waynmon Steed are among the rehabbing Hurricanes from Miami.
As for when campus might reopen to the team more broadly, Diaz continued to defer to government and university leadership when the SEC’s planned vote was mentioned.
“Who decides who gets back on campus, again, is a government decision and that’s not something that leagues decide,” Diaz said. “It’s a decision of what’s going on in your city versus what’s going on in your city, what’s in your state versus your state, so I think we all have to follow our elected leadership and when they give us the green light on what we’re able to do, then we go from there.”
Florida has been one of the most aggressive states in terms of reopening in the past week, particularly with regards to professional sports, which were deemed essential services in April. On Wednesday, the Miami Heat regained access to AmericanAirlines Arena for individual workouts and the Orlando Magic got the OK to resume using its facilities Thursday. NASCAR also announced Thursday it will hold four races at Homestead-Miami Speedway in June and the UFC will hold events for the third time in eight days Saturday in Jacksonville.
On Monday, the state will move to the “yellow flag phase” of reopening, which will let restaurants, retail spaces, offices and museums reopen with limited capacity. In a team meeting Wednesday, Diaz reemphasized the importance of being cautious as people begin leaving their homes more frequently.
“The next six weeks will be more important than the last six weeks because obviously now people will have a chance to come in more contact with one another than we were when we were all sheltering in place,” Diaz said, “and our players have to understand that even if the data says that their age group is not at risk of serious illness — which, again at this point, we’re still learning exactly what that data point is — at the minimum you’re talking about a two-week quarantine.”
The timing of a quarantine could be potentially devastating, Diaz noted, if players are required to quarantine once practices or games have resumed. The second-year coach said he feels his team would need at least six weeks to prepare for the season, although it would depend on what his players are “coming out of.”
“Are we coming out of shelter in place? Are we coming out of some eight-week phase where things are less restrictive? It’s so hard to say,” Diaz said. “Whatever it is, we’re going to make it work, and I think as long as everybody’s somewhat on the same page of what we get practice-wise, I think we’ll feel that the spirit of competition will be intact for the football season.”
Ultimately, Diaz is still confident a season will happen this fall, and he has faith in president Julio Frenk to guide Miami back to campus in a safe manner because of Frenk’s expertise as the former Secretariat of Health of Mexico.
“I do think there will be college football. I think that’s been pretty consistent, the optimism from our leaders on campus and the conference, throughout the country,” Diaz said. “There’s no school who has a university president who is an expert in public health like we do with President Frenk, so I feel as confident in terms of our ability to bring not just our student athletes, but our student body back on practice this fall in a safe manner.”
