As this school year has progressed, several fall sports teams, including football and waterpolo, have been permitted to come back onto campus to practice. In addition to sports teams, a select group of clubs have also been permitted to come back onto campus, including the Sports Medicine Club.
Loyola is taking the health and safety of everyone who comes onto campus very seriously. Strict regulations and protocols have been implemented to ensure the health and safety of everyone who enters. Everyone must complete a health questionnaire before coming onto campus and an athletic trainer or member of the Sports Medicine Club has to confirm that they have answered the online survey to allow them onto campus. There are temperature scanners at the entrance, and everyone must wear a mask at all times.
Junior varsity football player Aidan Alcala said, “Lately we have interacted with [the Athletic Trainers]before and after practice as we enter and exit the campus. They check our temperatures and make sure we fill out our survey which allows us on campus. It also helps us feel safer as we know they are trained professionals and they know what they are doing and have everything set so that us athletes are safe during this tough time.”
The small team of athletic trainers has been assigned the essential and very time-consuming responsibility of making sure that all of these procedures are executed smoothly and that all of the athletes are wearing masks at all times. The Sports Medicine Club has aided the athletic trainers in ensuring everyone adheres to the protocol.
Head Athletic Trainer and Director of Student Health Tim Moscicki said, “With the help from members of the Sports Medicine Club, we are not on campus 8-10 hours, six days a week. Instead of two Athletic Trainers performing the check in, we can now do it with only one person when we have the help.”
Currently the number of students allowed on campus is heavily limited, and more people permitted to enter campus will only increase the work put on the athletic trainers.
Tim Moscicki adds that it would be helpful to have more students from the Sports Medicine Club come and help because “as more students return and more athletic practices start up, we need the check in to be smooth and quick.”
The Sports Medicine Club being allowed to come onto campus has not only helped make the athletic trainers’ lives easier, but it has also impacted the students allowed to come back onto campus.
Junior and leader of the Sports Medicine Club Sean Habash stated, “The club has meant a lot to me because I am able to see classmates and interact with my friends who are part of the club and on our Loyola Athletic teams. Since I live far away from campus and from classmates in general, just being on campus after several months away means a lot and keeps me sane.”
Alcala added, “It for sure provides some sort of normality seeing classmates and friends from football and through the sports med club since it has been so long since we have seen each other on campus. Not everybody lives near each other and Loyola has such a widespread community and has people coming from everywhere so it is great to see friends and classmates that I have not seen in a while.”
Being able to come onto campus and see some familiar faces, in a safe and controlled way, for the first time in many months can also be very stabilizing and comforting.
Habash stated, “Coming onto campus and participating in this club does provide some sort of normality because I am able to help the Athletic Trainers and the athletes through the club in similar ways to my freshman and sophomore years. However, there are still many restrictions—which I know are necessary for the safety and health of the Loyola community—that make it hard to return to normalcy. There is a part of me that would like to at least give a fist bump or talk to friends face-to-face without a mask and six feet away, but at the same time, I know these desperate times call for desperate measures.”