When Chapman’s classroom doors opened Oct. 19 for the first time in nearly seven months for in-person instruction, its outdoor athletic facilities followed suit. Wilson Field, the Lastinger Tennis Courts and the Zee Allred Aquatics Center are now open and are providing a space for athletes to train and practice.

Many, including Pam Gibbons, Chapman’s director of athletic training, felt this return to campus was necessary for the athletes.

“It was important for our coaches to be able to interact with the student athletes,” Gibbons said. “It was also important for athletes to interact with their teammates in order to start to build a relative sense of normalcy in what has been a crazy time.”

Gibbons and her team of trainers have spent the past several months working with Chapman administration to establish mandatory safety protocols and guidelines for athletics. One of these procedures is a nightly COVID-19 symptom questionnaire. 

“Every day at midnight, people are asked questions such as: Do you have a cough? Do you have a fever? Have you traveled out of the country?” said Sports Information Director Steven Olveda. “Then after these questions, you receive an email saying you have a clear (COVID-19) screening and you must show that to enter the facilities that day.”

Other new protocols include temperature checks upon entry to facilities, mask mandates when not engaging in extreme physical activity such as sprinting, the sharing of equipment being prohibited and social distancing by limiting the amount athletes in each facility at a given time. 

Workout groups are being kept at a maximum of 10-person pods, including the coach, Gibbons said. Practices on Wilson Field are being divided into three sections to keep those pods separate, while swimmers in the Allred Aquatics Center are delegated to every other lane in order to maintain social distancing. 

Despite these added precautions, which could alter normal practice structures, coaches and players alike are excited to be practicing in-person again. Baseball head coach Scott Laverty has been taking advantage of the opportunity. 

“We were able to do some things without equipment,” Laverty said. “We could talk about positioning, do some conditioning drills and talk through (teaching plays).” 

These heavily sanctioned practices represent Chapman athletics’ first step to bring athletics back to their normal capabilities. The next phase will likely be introduced following Thanksgiving, Gibbons said.

“It is unlikely that phase two will involve anything indoors,” Gibbons said. “It will probably be more in line with increasing the size of the groups to maybe 20 and introducing some equipment, whether that be balls or bands.”

Although the road to normalcy may be long, the reopening of outdoor sports facilities represents a mark towards that goal. However, all eyes will be on Chapman, as Laverty said they are the first in the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference to phase in a return to in-person practices. 

“There are a lot of people that want us to fail, but we want to show that it can be done and it can be done safely,” Laverty said. “Hopefully then by the spring, people can be confident that we can go out and we can perform well in athletics.”