For our winter teams (basketball and swimming and diving), the return-to-campus process will be as follows:

• Student-athletes and coaches will return to campus on January 9 and report to the Hicks Center in masks.
  • Women’s basketball will report at 2 p.m.
  • Men’s basketball at 2:30 p.m.
  • Swimming and diving at 3:15 p.m. 
• Upon report time, the student will enter into the student center where they will have their temperature checked, fill out a health screening form, and then wait to be PCR tested for COVID-19.
• If the student is living in the residence halls, they will be given their key to move in from their coach. The student will then go and unpack their belongings and quarantine for the night.
• Dinner that night will be a grab and go from the dining center for all student-athletes, and that should be the only reason students leave their rooms or houses once tested and moved in. Your coaches will provide more details on meal times for the team.
• Test results should come back to us the following day and then Phase II will begin (please refer to the previous email for that phasing process). For those living in off-campus housing, the same process will be followed. We are urging our students not to be within 6 feet of one another for more than 10 minutes if they can avoid that. It is important to stay as distant as possible, especially while awaiting test results.

We expect our student-athletes to be masked up at all times while on campus and in every in-person team setting. We understand that sometimes the mask will need to come down or be readjusted (e.g., water breaks); however, we expect all of our teams, players, coaches and support staff to mask up and protect the hive. We will provide all of our student-athletes with a game-day mask, but would urge them to come to campus with multiple masks that they will need for practices and daily life.

We also expect our student-athletes and staff to fill out a daily health screening from their phone or device BEFORE they come to campus. Students will be using the Bronson MyChart app and will report their results to their coaches. The winter student-athletes have been well informed about this, and our fall and spring teams will have meetings about this as well in the coming weeks. If you (the student) are not feeling well on any given day, then please call your athletic trainer and you and they will talk through what you should do that day.

We will follow all NCAA testing protocols while in season to keep our teams as safe as we are able in order to mitigate the spread of COVID-19. The MIAA will have minimum expectations of care that all nine conference schools will follow so that we are all doing our part across Michigan and Indiana to be safe and responsible once we start competitions. As of now, we will only be playing MIAA competitions for our winter and fall schedules. We are still weighing out our options for spring as we continue to monitor local and state numbers to fight this pandemic. 

We also will not be permitting fans in our stands for any home contest this winter. We will livestream all of our home games for fans to watch in the comfort and safety of their own surroundings. We know this is not ideal for the parents, friends, families or student-athletes, especially for our senior student-athletes; however, this is one way we believe we can limit our risk while keeping fans connected to Hornet athletics. We have not made any decisions for fall/spring yet, but we will err on the side of caution in order to keep our students, faculty and staff in the safest and most low risk environments.