Voluntary workouts have begun for Syracuse football, with roughly 65 players back in Central New York.
Approximately 65 Syracuse football players have returned to the SU campus for voluntary workouts and underwent testing for COVID-19 on Tuesday morning, according to an announcement from the Orange athletics department.
Per the Syracuse Athletics press release, the tests were conducted at the Ensley Athletic Center, one day after the ‘Cuse student-athletes came back to Central New York to work with the team’s strength and conditioning coaches, as well as access the squad’s athletic facilities for voluntary workouts.
In total, about 130 players, coaches, football staff members and Department of Athletics personnel have gotten tested, the statement says.
The testing on Tuesday marks the first step in the university’s operational plan for Syracuse Athletics to safely reopen the weight room at the Iocolano-Petty Football Complex and other training facilities to enable football players to commence working out.
SU’s plan, developed in guidance with public-health and government officials, includes a phased approach to reintegrating football team members with each other.
Athletics department officials are enforcing social distancing and the use of protective equipment, including face masks, in all facilities. Shared equipment is getting cleaned and sanitized prior to, and after, each use by student-athletes.
Syracuse football offensive lineman Airon Servais discusses the team’s return to the Hill.
Among the players to return to campus this week is redshirt senior offensive lineman Airon Servais, a 2019 captain who has started in 37 contests.
“It’s great to be back and get this thing rolling again,” Servais said in the university’s announcement. “It’s not the same when you’re off on your own training versus when you’re able to be around the guys and feel that energy and feed off each other.”
Servais says that he is appreciative of the plan put in place to keep everyone associated with the football squad protected amid the novel coronavirus pandemic.
“You can see it here today. There’s a protocol we have to follow,” he said. “We’ll start out in small groups and then branch out past that . But I feel like the University has taken a lot of good measures to help keep us as safe as possible.”