CHAMAPIGN - Sports as we’ve come to know them, in some fashion, is slowly about to make its return.

The University of Illinois Athletic Department announced on Friday morning that they have outlined a plan for student-athletes to begin returning to campus as early as June 3rd, but the details regarding which athletes and their frequency of arrival back on campus is still very much a fluid situation.

Illinois Athletic Director Josh Whitman met with the media via a video conference call on Friday afternoon, and described the process that would begin bringing athletes back to campus one wave at a time.

“I view this process in three stages, with the beginning of the pandemic as the retreat phase, then the middle part of this has been the regroup phase, and I think now that we are ready to move into the advanced phase, and that is to begin to bring some of our athletes back to campus”, Whitman said.

However, the phasing in of bringing the athletes back to campus is a tedious one, and in this first wave of returning to campus of the athletes, only a select few of both football and men’s basketball will be coming back to campus, and with that, strictly on a voluntary basis.

“We wanted the student-athletes to know that this process is strictly voluntary on their part, and in the end, they (the student-athletes) need to make a decision to the best of their situations on whether or not they feel it is right to return,” Whitman.

Whitman said that he met with the athletes, much as they have since the pandemic began, and outlined the procedure that would be followed.

“The plan is for some of our returning players from both sports to return between June 3rd and June 8th and then after some initial screenings and quarantining, will begin some initial workouts around June 11th. Then, after taking a little break to see the effects of how the initial process is working for the few athletes that return, the next wave of sports that will return on a similar track will occur, and those sports are women’s basketball, volleyball and soccer,” Whitman said.

The underlying reason behind bringing football and men’s basketball back first are the training regimens that both sports go through. Not to take anything away from the other sports, but with the number of football players especially, they will take the most amount of time in getting back to a full squad.

“We’ve been working on this plan for several weeks now, and after consulting with many of the experts in the field that are dealing with these issues that everyone else is experiencing as well, we think that we can pull this off,” Whiteman said. “Of course, there are many other factors playing into this, and other sports organizations, such as the NBA, NFL and the United States Olympic Committee have implemented similar plans to get their respective season restarted as well.”

Normally, during the summer months on campus, much of the student body are not on campus except for those taking summer classes and the student-athletes, who continue training for their respective seasons to begin. Given this fact, that is the main reason that the athletes will be the first students to return to campus under this plan.

“Our student-athletes are probably in the most varied shape that they have been in quite some time since they may not have had the opportunity to train adequately or use the equipment that they normally have access to,” Whitman said. “We wouldn’t be moving in this direction if we hadn’t researched the situation ahead of time and felt like we are comfortable in taking this step forward.”

Once the first wave of athletes return to campus and have cleared protocol after the necessary quarantine period, they will be housed in quarters that will be condensed, while maintaining social distancing guidelines. Then, if there are no ill effects of the first wave are back on campus for a while, then they will be allowed to move into campus housing or apartments.

With players returning on a gradual basis, the need for coaches and support staff also pose an issue. According to Whitman, there is a plan for that as well.

“We will begin bringing back some support staff that are vital to the operation on the front end, and then bring back coaches into the building as well. Since we will be scaled down, especially at the start, the need for more people will be necessitated once more of the athletes arrive back on campus,” Whitman said.

Randy Ballard, who is the assistant athletic director for Sports Medicine, weighed in on the process of testing athletes once back to ensure that there would be no flare ups of positive cases.

“The athletes would be tested regularly, including temperature checks, to make sure that everyone is staying healthy,” Ballard said. “We will test on the front end, as well as the back end of the quarantine. We will also be testing daily to identify any asymptomatic cases that might occur.”

While the plan initially is to just have athletes work out, no activity with balls will be done at the start, mainly due to having multiple players touch the same object. The same level of sanitation and cleanliness that others exhibit during the pandemic will be in place on campus for the athletes as well.

“While it’s a start, we are still determining if this will keep us on track for a return to fall sports,” Ballard said. “However, that largely depends if the remainder of the student body is allowed back on campus and fall classes begin as expected. “

But, as Whitman has said, this is the first step in the process, and he will know more once there are results to observe. At least it’s a step in the right direction toward a semblance of normalcy.