Scott Stricklin is the Athletic Director of the Florida Gators who have the No. 1 Baseball program in America, a Top 10 Softball program, a No. 2 Gymnastics program, a Men’s Basketball squad that was likely headed to the NCAA Tournament, a Women’s Team that was likely going to compete in post season for the first time in a bit, and Track teams that were competing on the national stage this week to try and bring home titles. There is a lot at stake in the spring for Florida and a group of teams that fans, coaches, and administration are really proud of. It’s not easy taking the hearts of their seasons away from them. But in the big picture, it had to be done.
There aren’t many Athletic Directors that have as much at stake to stop all the sports that were supposed to be played in the next month, so it is understandable how the first thought when everything was starting to go crazy on Wednesday that he and his staff were looking for any kind of answers they could find to get on the playing field or court or arena as fast as possible, but also when the coast was clear.
“It’s interesting; in the last 24-48 hours, this whole process has gone from 'how can we play some games' to ‘what do we need to do to take immediate steps to buffet ourselves for what is about to happen with the spread of COVID-19' and when you change that mindset, when you flip that from figuring out how you play games, whether it’s with no fans in the stands or whatever, to ‘how can we help our society and our communities get through this as quickly as possible,’ you start taking totally different approaches,” Stricklin said Friday in a press conference for the situation. “And a credit (goes to) the SEC and the other 13 school for their decision making and thought process and leadership through all of this.”
“We have a great staff here who has managed it really well… Track and Field was actually at the NCAA Indoor Championships out in New Mexico getting ready to compete this weekend, we told to come back. They’re flying back right now. Obviously our men’s basketball team about to compete in the SEC Tournament. Our women’s basketball team had potential for some kind of postseason tournament and then all of our spring sports. They immediately get their postseason opportunities pulled out from under them.”
There is some hope to get back to work in all the sports and in football who also postponed spring practice until further notice. But right now playing the games is just not the important thing that should be on everyone’s mind.
“We have put April 15th out as a date to work toward. My sense is that’s probably optimistic,” he said. “I’m not an expert, but what we’ve been told here on campus we probably need to expect that potentially to go longer, and we’ll just have to be prepared for that. The most important thing is we, as a society and community and a university, take the steps necessary to protect our young people, protect our staff and our coaches, and protect our fans who love watching our young people compete. That’s why we’re trying to take these steps.”
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Again the first thought was to play and practice and just stay as a tight knit group through the process of fighting this. But things changed for Stricklin on Thursday.
“There were some moments this past week when the common-sense meter kicked in – and it probably doesn’t kick in as often as it should,” he said. “We were talking about sending out something to our staff about all the things the CVC is encouraging everyone to do: wash your hands, social distancing – and you guys are doing a pretty good job with that right here (with media sitting spread out at the interview).
“Yesterday morning, when we were still planning on playing a basketball game, I said, ‘Wait a minute, we’re going to send out something to our staff and we’re going to put five men on a court and have them body up against a bunch of young men from the University of Georgia for the next two hours. What are we doing? That doesn’t seem to make a lot of sense.’”
And one of his coaches really hit home with a question about the team and travel.
“I had a text about that same time - this is before the SEC ADs got back together yesterday morning - from Roland Thornquist our national championship women’s tennis coach,” Stricklin said. “They’re about to get on a bus to go to Athens for a match today. He said, ‘Hey, what happens if we get up there and one of our kids test positive and we have to leave them up there for two weeks?”
“You start peeling back those kinds of thought processes. That was kind of an eye-opening comment that he made. So you start to step back and go, what’s really important, what do we need to be about?”
Telling coaches and athletes was not easy for Stricklin who wants these teams to win as much as they do.
“I met with our coaches this morning and told them this was the direction that was coming down as far as ceasing all practice, all activity, shutting up our facilities. They’re disappointed,” he said. “We have a baseball team that’s No. 1 in the country, a gymnastics team’s No. 2 in the country. We have a lot of teams ranked in the top-10 that had a shot to go have a great year and there (are) some coaches that were really hurting. I know we have some athletes that are really hurting, but they get it. They understand. In that conversation this morning, we all talked about it, we’re all competitive beings or we wouldn’t be in college athletics.”
There is just so much more at stake here than championships. And their understanding says a lot for these coaches and players that absolutely live for winning in their sport.
“This can’t be about competitive advantages, this can’t be about beating another school, this is about one thing and one thing only,” Stricklin said. “This is about how do we as a community protect one another and ourselves during this time and try to get back to normal as quick as possible.”
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March 14, 2020 at 06:34PM
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Quick perspective change for Gators’ Stricklin made choices easy - 247Sports
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