Stansbury lays out his roadmap for the return of Georgia Tech sports

Georgia Tech athletics begins the long road back to normalcy or a new normal on June 15th when local student-athletes can begin voluntary workouts with the strength and conditioning program. Yellow Jackets’ athletic director Todd Stansbury spoke to the media on Friday about the plan and gave some details into the evolving strategy to reopen Tech while keeping student-athletes safe and free from COVID-19.

“I’m excited to start the transition of getting our student-athletes back on campus,” Stansbury said. “We plan to open June 15th, it will be limited to our weight room and strength facilities and will be voluntary."

In the first phase of Stansbury’s plan, only student-athletes who are local or live in nearby off-campus housing will be allowed to workout. The Tech dorms remain closed so any non-Atlantans cannot participate if they do not have their own housing near campus.

“Because housing is not available, we are starting with those who are local. Many live in apartments in midtown, we are not in a position to bring in students that will be housed on campus, so it is directed toward those who are in the vicinity,” Stansbury said.

All student-athletes coming back to campus will be tested and they will follow the set protocols that are still be established.

“Testing is part of our protocol,” Stansbury said. “There is an intake process, as far as a questionnaire and testing prior to return. All of our activities will have to be scheduled to have proper intervals, clean our facilities between sessions. We are in the process of identifying the student-athletes. There will be flags that bring testing.”

Incoming freshmen in the 2020 signing class will not be joining the initial workouts even if they are local. Also, many international student-athletes are stuck at home during this pandemic as borders are closed and there will be hurdles to get them back on campus as well.

“Freshmen will not be taking part June 15th,” Stansbury said. “International students, it is a concern for Georgia Tech athletics and higher education in general because of closed borders and we are watching that closely. A lot of embassies are not opened overseas and make visas complicated especially if you don’t have one. We are in conversations with all of our student-athletes including those internationally,” Stansbury said.

Stansbury hopes to get those freshmen and international students back on campus in the second phase of Tech athletics’ reopening

“Phase two, we don’t have a timeline yet, but phase two would be more focused on getting those fall student-athletes back as would be normal. To start with whatever team activities would be approved at that time. We are in the process in this three-phased approach, we want to crawl before we walk and walk before we run,” he said.

The final phase of the reopening is the one everyone hopes for, normal activities and live sporting events this fall. Stansbury hopes to have Georgia Tech act as a leader for other programs and the Institute as well on handling returning students and repopulating campus.

“The third phase would be able to go back to team activities and preseason and manage that and keep it safe. To be in a position to have a safe season,” he said. “I see our phases as a roadmap on how the rest of campus can eventually get back to full strength. I think the thing about student-athletes… we can get our arms around our kids and they are used to being coached and they know how important this is we get it right. This is important across the country to help institutions develop plans on how they bring student-athletes back.”

Stansbury said the program aims to take advantage of all local expertise including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) which are all located locally.

“We have a lot of advantages at Georgia Tech including the expertise on campus. Our experts are the same ones fighting COVID-19 internationally. Our relationship and partnership with Emory have helped. We have two task forces, one who we keep our student-athletes, what do events look like and how do we create a safe environment into the future. We can draw on the local expertise and the CDC being in Atlanta.”

Unfortunately, part of the plan is also dealing with the possibility of someone being infected and that is paramount on the mind of Stansbury and his staff as they prepare. Mental health is also a major focus and has been something that Stansbury promotes regularly before this COVID-19 outbreak started.

“Part of the plan, we need to have our isolation and quarantine protocols in place, in case we end up with a positive test. We are following the guidance of our public health officials and what we will need in terms of space and taken into account. That is being taken into consideration,” Stansbury said. “Another component of this we are sensitive to is there is a mental health piece to this and we are very sensitive to that. Our mental health support has been incredibly robust and they have what they need regardless of where they are. We will be diligent in making sure our student-athletes are in a good place,” Stansbury said.

As of Friday, Stansbury said he had not spoken with individual student-athletes about the unveiling of the plan, but he did talk with them this week and outlined what to expect in a phased return to campus. He said the reaction to those plans was very positive as most student-athletes were ready to return to campus as quickly and safely as possible.

“I have spoken with them since the announcement came out, not sure if coach (Collins) has. I had a meeting with team leadership last week and a town hall with student-athletes, letting them know we had a plan to bring them back safely. They cannot wait to get back to train and get back to some type of normal life they are used to. I have not heard anyone really that is concerned and they cannot get back fast enough,” he said.

The idea of an extended football fall camp has been floated and the timing of the return to campus would align with allowing that to happen. Stansbury says he thinks there are hurdles to be cleared for an extended camp to happen, but they are preparing for a normal football season schedule either way.

“The idea of getting our student-athletes back in phasing them in, knowing the runway necessary just to get back to competition type shape, we are anticipating, we can open up as scheduled. Our priority is getting student-athletes prepared for that. Our goal is to have our student-athletes ready to go regardless of the schedule,” he said.

Finances are also something to consider in all of this. Georgia Tech will finish 2019-20 in the red after coaching changes and other expenditures and there will be considerable costs to enact the safety protocols needed to keep everyone safe as the athletic facilities reopen.

“This will definitely increase costs, just because of the sanitation and personnel and the amount of cleaning we have to do and new technology. There is definitely a cost associated with what we do. I don’t think it will be any different than any other organization and we are in a different reality,” Stansbury said. “We are still evaluating (cost). There are different technologies we are evaluating we don’t have that nailed down.”

One other area of concern that cropped up at Alabama recently was ongoing construction projects. Stansbury has multiple projects ongoing as part of the AI2020 initiative and he says those projects should be able to continue due to the nature of them while starting new projects are on hold for the moment.

“We’ve been able to keep some of the facilities projects on the calendar have moved forward because the approvals and funding was approved and available. Our baseball phase two will begin next week. Being an outdoor facility and one not open to our student-athletes in phase one and maybe phase two will allow us to work around. That one is on schedule. Our women’s basketball locker room, our project started last week and we think we can get that one done before student-athletes return. Our projects have moved forward, we can work around whatever projects are going on,” Stansbury said.

Overall, it seems like Georgia Tech football, basketball and other sports are moving toward a return to normalcy soon if phase one of the reopening goes well.