From a pandemic’s grip, champions emerge: How La Sierra’s athletics program thrived in the face of Covid-19

Pandemic hits home

As the Covid-19 pandemic spread throughout the nation and the state during the winter of 2020, La Sierra University along with all educational institutions within Riverside County where the university is located were ordered closed effective March 16. Many believed the situation would last a few weeks. More than a year later, the campus remains closed in keeping with ongoing state restrictions for higher education. Presently only limited labs and studio classes are allowed on campus and public events have remained suspended including a suspension of spectators at campus athletics events.

The university’s nine varsity sports teams – men’s and women’s soccer, men’s and women’s basketball, men’s and women’s cross country, volleyball, softball, and baseball faced varying degrees of disruption – the cross country program was sidelined for the year and on-campus team practices for other sports were delayed and then repeatedly shut down when Covid cases surged in the region. Conference play and championships were also moved up in the season by months.

Tests for Covid-19 three times a week; Covid symptoms screening before play; training rooms and equipment sanitized after every use; face masks required outside of game play, except volleyball players must wear them while playing; drinking fountains disabled; no hugs or high-fives – these are examples from pages of detailed pandemic protocol developed for the university’s athletics department under the leadership of Athletics Director Javier Krumm and through which the department has strived to maintain the safety of its student-athletes, coaches and personnel while allowing the teams to continue operating. The protocol is part of a larger document created and released last September by the university’s Emergency Management Team outlining operational activities for the entire campus based upon public health guidelines.

The La Sierra Golden Eagles program was the first in its conference to publicize detailed pandemic operating procedures and served as a model for some of Cal Pac’s guidelines, Krumm said. While at first confusing for student-athletes, they learned to incorporate the procedures into their activities. The detailed protocol was vital to their ability to safely practice beginning in October last year and eventually to play games. Protocol was developed through the efforts of Head Athletics Trainer and Compliance Officer Brian Murphy, Associate Athletics Director Brianne Talboom, virologist and associate biology professor Arturo Diaz who serves as the Golden Eagles faculty representative, Student Wellness Services Director Dan Nyirady and Vice President for Student Life Yami Bazan.

Varsity student-athletes are also required to uphold a high academic standards which for some proved more difficult when all classes moved online. Through an online system, the department keeps track of student-athletes’ grades and works with faculty and staff advisors to help guide and support students, including with game and class conflicts.

A team spirit

Despite the campus shutdown and the significant disruption and initial uncertainty surrounding the future of game play, approximately 95% Golden Eagles student-athletes remained in the program. Krumm and Talboom credit the dedication of coaching staff who held online team building events, individually encouraged their players and kept them focused on potential for future games. “A big part of their college experience is playing … [student-athletes] stayed because of the interaction that our coaches have with them and that family atmosphere. So they chose to stay anyway,” Talboom said. “It’s just the mentality of an athlete. That’s what they want to do. They want to play.”

“It’s the love and the passion of the parents and the families of the students,” added Krumm, noting the cars of family members who travel to watch outdoor games from outside the playing fields perimeter fence, some peering through binoculars. “They’ve been following the kids since they were six years old. The support of the families is fantastic.”

“It’s just the mentality of an athlete. That’s what they want to do. They want to play.” -- Brianne Talboom, Associate Athletics Director

In April, Anaya who is from Menifee and Bravo, a Riverside resident, respectively placed among first and second team All Team Cal Pac Conference Recognitions. They recalled the difficult days when they and their teammates were trying to work out on their own at home, motivated by physical activity assignments, use of online athletics apps and daily information from Trevino who focused on pushing their activity levels toward optimal playing ability and to avoid injury. The team’s practices and season were pushed ahead by months, Trevino lost six months of recruiting time, and a few players left. The thinned-out team was able to play only one pre-season game before jumping into league competition where they met teams from Arizona who had been playing most of the season.

“We were at a huge disadvantage, but I'm a strong believer in collectively if we're all on the same game plan, if we're all committed and we're organized and our attitude is right, the collective beats the individual always,” Trevino said. “I think this is probably the closest group I've had as far as us all being on the same page, being competitive, and just moving forward, and I think the results showed.”

Bravo was nervous about returning to play following weeks of pandemic quarantine during which she realized she was not in the right state of mind to perform. “I just tried my hardest. I would do runs here and there,” she said, “[but] you just want to eat all the time so I just had to mentally check myself and just tell myself like, if I want to do good and if I want to keep up with these new freshmen that are just straight from high school, I need to get it together. So it was more mental for me more than anything, to kind of put boundaries on what I'm able to eat, and how hard I'm actually going to try once I was at practice.”

Anaya noted that she felt the most prepared she had ever been for a season after four years of being on the team, until she contracted Covid-19, she said. She spent three weeks recovering. “So catching up was really hard. Once I got out of quarantine I was running constantly, like every single day. A college sport, you have to be committed 100%, not just individually but as an entire team for you to succeed.”

In spite of the trauma inflicted by a pandemic that is ongoing, hope is on the horizon -- as numbers of vaccinations increase and Covid cases decrease, re-opening decisions for fall are underway at La Sierra University. Some areas of campus are beginning to open in limited fashion this spring and summer as the university enters Phase 2 of its tiered plan. Soccer and basketball seasons have ended with men’s basketball placing second in the CalPac tournament, losing in the finals to UC Merced. The women’s soccer team reigns as conference champs and the men’s soccer team qualified for the conference semi-finals in April against UC Merced’s soccer team with its members achieving numerous conference awards. The softball team was scheduled as of this writing to enter playoffs the second week of May and the baseball team’s season closed at the end of April.

“I think they’re like most athletes, they’re used to adversity,” Talboom said of La Sierra’s student-athletes. “So when we tell them something’s going to change, they adapt and they do it pretty quickly.”

Noted Krumm, “During crisis is when you see how your teams really are and how the leadership of those coaches are.”