College move-in is a big milestone. New Gamecocks face added wrinkles during pandemic
Dee Amos settled on a phrasing for her feelings.
“Concerned? Yes,” Amos said. “Worried? No.”
Being retired military, Amos is good as long as there’s a plan. She’s about to send her son, Rashad, off to college. In normal circumstances, that’s enough to raise the emotions of a parent. But as a soon-to-be University of South Carolina football player, he’s part of an early wave of students returning to college campuses after the coronavirus shut down colleges, sports and numerous other elements of American life.
The State spoke to parents of three incoming Gamecocks signees. Asked if there was an extra level of worry because of the pandemic, each parent indicated a sense of faith the school will do what is necessary to keep their sons safe.
“I would have said, probably four weeks ago, we probably would’ve been a little bit worried or more worried than we are now,” said Kenneth Hemingway, father of incoming defensive lineman Tonka Hemingway. “Because we pretty much just just figured out that everyone is going to have to live through this, push through it and just pray that everything will be OK. Try to be as safe as you can. Keep your hands washed. ... Just try to stay as far away from people as possible.”
Move-in day draws near
The NCAA and SEC only last week scheduled the resumption of offseason workouts, meaning parents had just a little warning for exactly when their sons would get the chance to come to Columbia. The school announced Friday that football players — including the ones who were sent home in March — can arrive on campus starting June 1 to get antibody and coronavirus tests before moving in. (Workouts start June 8.)
The end of May and start of June are historically busy times of year for student-athletes to move in. That’ll be true this year, just under some different circumstances.
“They sent emails quite frequently about different stuff that they’re going to implement to try to keep the kids safe and tell us not to worry,” said Dolores Bell, whose son Jaheim will play tight end for the Gamecocks. “We’re still going to worry and whatever, but as long as I know that they’re taking precautions to keep them safe, I’m fine with it.”
Players will get “daily symptoms and temperature check(s),” according to plans shared by South Carolina’s athletics department. They will also be kept in small workout clusters of four to six people to prevent spread if someone contracts the virus.
The school also said facilities “have undergone a strict cleaning process to ensure they have been fully disinfected and will include additional hand sanitizing stations.” Masks and hand-washing are also being required. Access at the football operations building will largely be limited to the weight room.
South Carolina athletic director Ray Tanner said on radio the football program didn’t expect any players to hang back because of virus concerns. Will Muschamp said one recruit is expected to arrive in August, but there are 11 projected spring enrollees.
Dolores Bell has already been reminding her son about taking precautions well before the timing of enrollment was set. He has access to a gym in the Valdosta, Georgia, area, one where the owner only let in a few people at a time. She still reminded him daily about wearing a face covering and carrying disinfecting wipes in his bag.
The timing of everything meant different reactions from different families.
The Bells got a little extra warning during the weekend, and they had to organize their son’s move around work schedules. (Jaheim Bell will arrive at USC on June 3 because that’s what works best.)
The Hemingways are old hands at the college move-in process, with three older children. They moved their son Junior into Michigan as a football player in 2007, and two years ago moved in a daughter, Janecia, at Francis Marion. Kenneth said this week the family has been getting everything washed up, acquiring a couple of bins for various things and getting in position to not rush at the last minute.
And the Amoses — from the Atlanta area — found an opportunity to spend some time together.
“We went to the beach,” Dee Amos said with a laugh.
Rashad had planned to enroll for the school’s “May-mester” to get a jump on things. Instead, the family spent Memorial Day weekend in Destin, Florida. His mom admitted that this week arrived with a sort of surreal kind of moment, when a long-prepared-for event suddenly arrived.
Although Kenneth Hemingway said his son has done most of the talking with South Carolina’s staff, both Dee Amos and Dolores Bell were happy with the communication they’d had. Bell said tight ends coach Bobby Bentley reached out Sunday to let them know information about move-in was coming the next day.
Amos said the coaches — and especially director of on-campus recruiting Jessica Jackson — had been helpful in keeping them abreast of developments and mentally ready for this to arrive.
The Gamecocks will have upwards of 100 football players on campus this summer, with at least 11 at their new home for the first time. South Carolina’s plan to keep student-athletes safe extends to a somewhat intricate moving arrangement, according to Dolores Bell.
“They said that every 45 minutes, they’re going to let in kids move in,” Bell said. “I guess they’re gonna have sanitized everything, stuff like that, so the next set of families can go through.”
Her son can’t come to campus before going to a local doctor for his virus and antibody test, she said. After that, it’s moving in, going in waves, one family at a time on each floor at the 650 Lincoln apartment complex.
“They’ve got it set up where they’re taking precautions,” Bell said.
Some final family time
The parents also admitted that there’s been something nice about having their sons around the house more right before they move out.
The Amoses got to take their last trip, be all together. In the midst of a busy senior year with recruiting, training and everything else, Dee Amos said they got some family time back.
For Dolores Bell, these are the last few days before the nest is empty, as her son is an only child. If he’d been home a little longer, she said he might have been able to get up to the 230 pounds he’d been aiming for with the meal plan the school sent out. (He’s at 225 now.)
Kenneth Hemingway joked about the meal plan, spending part of these more open days prepping food for an aspiring defensive lineman.
“It’s been good,” Hemingway said. “It’s been good having, I hate to say it, having the extra time of with him, where he’s around the house all day, every day.”
Asked if they had any worries or apprehension about going to college and being around other student-athletes, both Jaheim Bell and Rashad Amos sounded ready to get into the thick of things.
“We don’t have any problems,” Jaheim Bell said, noting he’s been mentally preparing for the move for a while now. “No worries.”
Rashad Amos added: “I think they have a good protocol. They will make sure that we stay healthy. ... I’m not really worried about that.”
In-person fall classes at USC will begin in mid-August. The campus will open in phases, starting in June.
The USC football newcomers will be part of the first waves returning. Their big steps in life, steps college freshmen take annually, are big steps for a university starting the move toward normalcy and a sport trying to figure out what its next year will look like.
In the end, they’re riding through extra uncertainty in a time of life that can always put a family off-kilter. Dolores Bell said her family has been stockpiling and preparing for the move for a while, but there was still a little extra to pull together at the end.
“It’s kind of like, this is real,” Dee Amos said. “All this time we’ve been planning and preparing for this day to come. And now it’s really here. Even Rashad is like, ‘June 1, mom, that’s like next week.’
“Now that it’s here, it’s real.”
This story was originally published May 27, 2020 at 6:15 PM.
