From the Quad - COVID-19 Update
3/19/2020 11:31:00 AM | General
March 19, 2020
Good Afternoon Deacon Nation:
Amidst extraordinary circumstances, I begin this special edition of From the Quad with a simple expression of hope that you, your family members, friends and loved ones are well. Bouncing back and forth between my home office and a nearly-empty Manchester Athletic Center, I have spent the last seven days working closely with our athletics staff as we are all consumed with our responsibilities to our student-athletes, coaches, teams and fans related to the COVID-19 crisis.
In this time of uncertainty, I am grateful for the steady leadership of President Hatch, Wake Forest's Incident Management Team, and our Athletics Task Force, and their commitment to do everything within our power to protect the health and wellbeing of our entire student body, faculty, staff and Wake Forest community. President Hatch sent an inspiring letter to the community on Tuesday, which I encourage you to read.
As you are likely aware, the ACC Athletics Directors met by teleconference Tuesday morning and formally moved to cancel all Atlantic Coast Conference spring championships, contests and practices. In keeping with ACC & NCAA rules, Wake Forest Athletics has suspended all athletic activities, competition, formal and organized practice and in-person recruiting activities.
While this is the right decision, our continued thoughts are with our student-athletes and coaches who had invested so much to be in position for what was sure to be an incredible spring season. Women's golf "finished" the year ranked No. 1, men's golf was ranked No. 5, men's tennis was No. 3 in the latest USTA poll, women's tennis was tied at No. 18, and baseball was just getting into ACC play. And, we salute Amy Harding-Delooze, Cydney Delley, Aleeya Hutchins and senior Johanna Schulz, who recently won the ACC Indoor Distance Medley Relay Championship, and were already in Albuquerque, N.M. to represent Wake Forest at the NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championships on Friday when the meet was cancelled.
As we focus our attention on supporting our 425 student-athletes who resume the semester "online" on Monday, here's a quick look back at the events of last week.
A Crisis Unfolds…
Monday, March 9, gave us our first lengthy discussion about COVID-19 during our 9 a.m. senior staff meeting. Associate A.D. Ellie Shannon, who serves as Wake Forest Athletics' representative to the University's Incident Management Team, gave a briefing of her information at the time. By that night, our senior staff designated Ellie and Sr. Associate A.D. Randy Casstevens to attend the University COVID-19 meeting on Tuesday morning.
On March 10 at 11:41 a.m., Athletics formed a 10-person COVID-19 Task Force. Shortly after, at 2 p.m., the ACC hosted a conference call for the league's Presidents & Athletics Directors and provided an initial briefing on the situation. For those who saw me sitting in my seat at our 4:30 p.m. ACC Men's Basketball Tournament game, you may have noticed that I was, at times, distracted on my iPhone tracking the latest COVID-19 developments and finishing up our first email briefing to our coaches and staff for that evening.
March 11 began with a 7 a.m. meeting at Graylyn and a quick drive over to the historic birthplace of the ACC, Sedgefield Country Club, for a long-scheduled traditional AD's tournament brunch with the Greensboro Sports Foundation. Attendees included Governor Roy Cooper, who remarked on the tradition and importance of the ACC Tournament in Greensboro before leaving early to return to Raleigh. On my drive back to Winston-Salem, I joined our Athletics COVID-19 Task Force meeting by phone. Back in the office I did exit interviews with three senior student-athletes. Then, during a specially-called 5 p.m. ACC teleconference, the league's Council of Presidents and ADs approved the Commissioners recommendation that Thursday's ACC games be played without fans. Later that evening came President Hatch's announcement canceling classes until March 23.
Around 6:15 a.m. on Thursday morning I spoke with Clemson Athletics Director Dan Radakovich, as both the Tigers baseball and men's tennis teams were scheduled to come to Winston-Salem later that day. Based on the information we had at the time, we planned to continue as scheduled, but agreed to keep in touch. A short time later, I spoke with our women's tennis coach, Jeff Wyshner, who was already en route to the airport for the team's trip to Boston College, and we decided to delay the team's departure to later in the afternoon, pending more information.
Our COVID-19 Task Force convened at 8 a.m., and we welcomed our head coaches into the meeting at 8:30 a.m. A few, including Coach Dave Clawson who was on a spring break trip in Utah with his family, joined by phone. There was an awareness at this time that Wake Forest would likely be going to remote classes. Coach Jen Hoover and I discussed the odds of the WNIT being played. On that note, I'm proud of how hard our women's basketball team played down the stretch, winning two games in the ACC Tournament to improve their record and be in position for the postseason. However, the odds of the WNIT being held weren't looking good and she had scheduled a 12:30 p.m. team meeting.
Commissioner Swofford hosted an emergency teleconference with Presidents and ADs at noon, and the decision was made to cancel the rest of the ACC Tournament. It was surreal to be discussing this on the phone while also seeing Jay Bilas on my office TV reporting live for ESPN from the tournament floor.
Immediately following that call, I hustled over to the Shah Basketball Complex to speak to our women's basketball team before our players departed for their homes. By the end of the day, the WNIT had been officially cancelled.
ACC Presidents and ADs reconvened at 2 p.m. for another phone call to discuss our spring sports and made the unanimous decision to suspend games and practices. The NCAA officially cancelled all winter and spring championships at 4:17 p.m.
Following our 5 p.m. Athletics Task Force meeting, we sent a bulletin to our student-athletes, coaches and staff at 6:08 p.m. For the next few hours we continued our discussion on the phone and through email. I believe I finally drove home around 9:30 or 10 p.m.
The days since then have been a blur of meetings and conference calls, and all but a half-dozen or so athletics staff members are working remotely. Led by Sr. Associate A.D. Jane Caldwell, our academic staff has been hard at work preparing to support our student-athletes with remote tutoring and counseling. Nearly all Demon Deacon student-athletes are back at home, but we still have a handful, primarily international, who remain on campus. Our coaching staffs are continuing communication, by phone and electronically, with our players and recruits alike.
So What's Next?
Obviously there are lots of questions to be answered as the situation continues to evolve. We'll continue to rely on the advice and expertise of public health authorities, and the University's Incident Management Team, regarding the health of our student-athletes, staff, and campus community. And, you can read NCAA related COVID-19 information here.
Academic Coursework
Throughout this week Wake Forest faculty and staff have been hard at work planning to resume the semester with online instruction for all students beginning Monday, March 23.
Provost Rogan Kersh and Executive Vice President Hof Milam wrote a message to the Wake Forest Community earlier today addressing the questions of whether students will return to campus for the remainder of this semester and commencement plans for May 18.
Staying Connected with the Deacon Club and Ticket Office
Our outstanding Deacon Club and Athletic Ticket Office staff members are still open to serve you remotely via the telephone (336-758-3322, Monday-Friday; 8:30 a.m.- 5 p.m.) and online. Refunds are currently being processed for the unplayed games of the 2020 ACC Men's Basketball Tournament, 2020 baseball, and the 2020 spring men's soccer league championship. Ticket refunds will automatically be refunded back to the credit card used to place your order in the next 3-5 business days. If you paid with cash or check, your refund check will come via mail from Wake Forest University in the coming weeks.
LJVM Coliseum
We are in the process of closing the LJVM Coliseum temporarily to save energy. For cancelled LJVM Coliseum events, including the Cinch World's Toughest Rodeo, full refunds are available at the point of purchase. Ticketmaster online and phone orders will be returned automatically to the credit card used when purchasing. Any patron who purchased from Bridger Field House with cash or credit card will need to keep their valid tickets. Once the box office reopens to the general public, in-person refunds will be available during business hours.
If an event is postponed rather than cancelled, your tickets will still be valid once the new event date is announced. Contact tix@wfu.edu to be updated on the box office schedule, or keep an eye on ljvm.com and social media accounts (@LJVMColiseum).
Communication & Planning
Our entire focus over the past week has been on the welfare of our 400-plus student-athletes, hundreds of coaches and staff and on our entire Wake Forest University community. However, as is standard practice with all of our teams at the end of their season, we are doing year-end reviews and assessments of all our winter and spring sports programs. In addition, during this distance-working arrangement, our staff is conducting interdepartmental reviews and developing projects and task sheets to ensure continued progress toward achieving our five core goals.
We're working to make sure you're getting updates from Demon Deacon student-athletes and coaches during this time away from campus. There are some unique plans in the works, so stay tuned to social media and GoDeacs.com.
Further updates regarding the impact of COVID-19 on Wake Forest University are posted on Coronavirus.WFU.edu as well as communicated through social media (@WakeForest).
As always, please send any questions or feedback to wfuad@wfu.edu. Be safe and...
Go Deacs!
Director of Athletics
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