After months of planning and patient progress, the CSU Bakersfield Athletics Department has received approval to take the next step toward repopulation. Starting on Oct. 1, CSUB Athletics was cleared to begin gradually bringing more student-athletes back to campus for individual strength and conditioning training.
Since the CSU Chancellor’s Office announced an approval process for limited exceptions to its closed-campus policy in May, CSUB Athletics has meticulously developed an extensive repopulation strategy. These exceptions extend to student activities that cannot be delivered remotely including in-person classes, on-campus housing and dining access, and intercollegiate athletics activities, each of which CSUB has been approved for and is currently utilizing.
“The past seven months have been extremely trying for our community, our campus, and our Athletics Department,” said Dr. Kenneth “Ziggy” Siegfried, CSUB’s Director of Athletics. “The new ‘normal’ brought upon by the COVID-19 pandemic has produced drastic changes for everyone and our student-athletes have endured through all of it. I am very pleased Dr. Zelezny and Chancellor White have approved for more student-athletes to return to training.”
“We have been listening to our `Runners and we know this will be a positive change for them. Just as many people are struggling with the stress that this situation induces, our student-athletes are also suffering. We believe that the ability to return to training and some limited team activities will greatly help the mental health of our `Runners, which is just as important as their physical well-being.”
CSUB President Dr. Lynnette Zelezny, who is also heavily involved with Athletics as a member of the Big West Conference Board of Directors, sent the Athletics’ plan to the CSU Chancellor’s Office.
”We are so happy for our scholar-athletes to be allowed to do what they love,” President Zelezny said. “We will be here, monitoring the safety of our competitors every step of the way.”
Siegfried and his department previously received approval to return a small group of student-athletes – approximately 7%. The `Runners have successfully navigated the return to individual workouts by holding one another accountable and strictly following social distancing best practices. The updated approval opened the door for a total of 25% of CSUB’s student-athletes to resume activities on Oct. 1, but Athletics will gradually increase the total number of allowed participants only as the health climate allows.
“We are excited to get going,” Siegfried said, “but this will not be an overnight process. Our forward momentum is contingent on continued improvement of our local health climate and we will not put our `Runners or our community in jeopardy.”
“I view our return as less of an on-off switch and more of a dimmer switch. We will continue closely following health and safety guidelines and we will only allow as many student-athletes on campus as we can keep safe.”
Besides abiding by social distancing protocols as established by local and state regulations, the `Runners will also undergo regular testing to help Athletics determine if there is a need for scaling back or pausing the repopulation process.
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