Workouts are nothing like they used to be due to COVID-19, but UK glad to be back
When he rolls out of bed these days, usually at about 8:45 a.m., Josh Paschal immediately checks his phone.
That’s not out of the ordinary for most young people — heck, most people, period — but for Paschal, a junior defensive end on the University of Kentucky football team, checking his phone as soon as he wakes up is essential to whether he works out on campus any given day. He and his teammates have to fill out a six-question survey regarding their health in order to receive clearance to leave their home and report to campus ahead of their pre-scheduled workout times.
Then, when players arrive at the facility, their temperatures are taken and they’re assessed for any changes that have occurred with their health between the time they left their house and arriving at the facility. If they check out, they’re good to get a sweat on.
“Everything’s different and we’re still getting used to it,” Paschal told reporters during a Zoom conference call Tuesday.
All told, 40 UK players began voluntary workouts Monday, and more are set to return as soon as next week to begin their initial screenings for COVID-19, which must be passed before starting a one-week wait period between it and the start of workouts.
As of Tuesday, no return plans had been announced for non-football athletes. A spokesperson for the athletics department could not confirm whether or not any football players or staff have tested positive since returning to campus.
If a person does test positive, he or she must be quarantined for 14 days and will be entered into the UK HealthCare system for treatment and evaluation. Players who live in off-campus housing have been permitted to remain in that housing.
All players and staff must wear masks inside buildings and whenever within 6 feet or less of another person. Players during exercises are allowed to remove their masks but must put them back on whenever they’ve completed a rep.
Cardiovascular exercises are mostly taking place outdoors, Paschal said. Inside, weight stations and other equipment have been set up at least 6 feet apart from each other, and each player has his own workout equipment for the duration of his time on campus. Each machine is being cleaned immediately after each use by an individual.
Paschal noted the end of his Tuesday workout, when he completed some abdominal work and had to remove a 25-pound weight from a machine. UK strength coach Mark Hill told him to leave it on the ground and came over to sanitize the weight and the machine.
“We feel like the facility is the safest place that we can be at right now, just because of how sanitized it is after we’re working out, before we’re done working out and things like that,” Paschal said. “Each of my teammates, we have full faith in our training staff and our strength staff to make sure we’re in a clean environment and they keep our safety first.”
The alterations have been a big adjustment for Paschal, particularly the strict social-distancing measures in place to discourage contact between he and his teammates.
“You’re so used to dapping somebody else up once they finish a rep, but you can’t do that now,” Paschal said. “You can’t help your teammates up off the ground and stuff like that. It’s very different. Me and (offensive lineman) Luke Fortner, we’re so used to dapping each other up after working out throughout our groups in the past, and we kept trying to do it when we start the workouts now and quickly realized it and pulled back.”
Being back and in the midst of teammates, though, is a win. Perhaps even more for Paschal, who has more experience than most at being taken away from the game; he missed the 2018 season while recovering from the removal of a melanoma from his right foot (his oncologist has given him the all-clear to work out on campus).
“Being sore is such a good feeling now,” Paschal said with a grin.
Black Lives Matter
Paschal on Tuesday also spoke about the team’s march in support of Black Lives Matter that occurred Friday in downtown Lexington, and his feelings about whether progress is being made.
“I feel like things are starting to change now, just by everybody realizing there is a problem,” Paschal said. “There’s still people trying to fight it, saying it’s not a problem and bringing up certain statistics and things like that. They’re really choosing statistics over actual feelings, but I feel like this time there’s a lot of people owning up to it and it’s a time where the whole country, and you see clips even of people around the whole world, fighting for justice.”
