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The pandemic caused by the spread of the virus SARS-CoV-2 threatened to severely disrupt the activities of student-athletes. In order to provide a safe environment for athletic competition, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) mandated testing of student-athletes. The goal was to rapidly identify student-athletes and the athletic staff member who either tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 or were in contact with individuals who tested positive. Rapid identification of infected individuals and their contacts allowed the University to implement quarantine standards and quarantine facilities quickly as needed. The University of Texas at Arlington (UTA) developed an in-house testing program and was quickly able to meet the NCAA requirements, allowing UTA to continue its athletic participation with minimal forfeiture of scheduled games. The purpose of this paper is to report the implementation UTAs COVID prevention program for the university's athletic program. This program may provide valuable information to other universities' planning for the management of COVID prevention in their athletic programs. Challenges and solutions are identified.
INTRODUCTION
During the 2020-2021 academic year, our programs, and particularly the intercollegiate athletic programs, faced a hurdle because of the COVID-19 pandemic (1-2). The programs had to maintain a safe environment for the student-athletes and athletic department staff in which to work and to compete. Student-athletes were at higher risk of exposure to the SARs-CoV-2 virus by nature of their activities and, potentially, had more opportunities to spread the virus if infected. The health of the student-athletes and of the athletic department staff was a major concern as more and more information on the effects of COVID-19 infection emerged (3). Our experience has influenced the development of our plan to keep our athletes and athletic program staff protected from COVID while returning to a fully open campus with a full athletic schedule in the upcoming academic year. This paper shares UTAs experience in order to assist planning at other athletic departments and universities.
At the University of Texas at Arlington (UTA), our goal was to develop a rapid testing program allowing the student-athletes to be tested and results reported back within 24 to 48 hours in order to reduce COVID exposure and transmission. UTA is a member of the NCAA Sun Belt Division I. The NCAA provided guidelines (1) and...