Parental concerns part of Gamecock football’s silence on COVID tests, Muschamp says
South Carolina football coach Will Muschamp made clear Monday that despite his program testing all its players for coronavirus/COVID-19 as they returned to campus, none of that information, even how many tested positive, will be made public.
On an ESPN Radio appearance with Golic and Wingo, he pointed to one reason he’d settled on that.
“I’ve had several parents reach out to me from a confidentiality standpoint,” Muschamp siad. “There’s HIPPA laws in effect that you’ve got to respect as well. So that was just kind of to me, I had some parents reach out to me and they personally just said they didn’t want their sons to be named or even if there was numbers of people. So that’s why we decided that.”
Schools have gone with different approaches on this front. Oklahoma State announced several players tested positive, while Tennessee announced no players did, but a graduate assistant had. Alabama chose not to speak publicly, but it was reported that five players tested positive.
No schools have gone as far as naming players, although Gamecocks men’s basketball coach Frank Martin did test positive while being asymptomatic.
The players returned to campus in the past week, starting voluntary workouts on Monday. The expectation is around four weeks of those before teams can start phasing in some preseason walk-through work.
At the moment, not even player-run practices are allowed to reduce the risk of spread. At some point teams will have to take the plunge, but for the moment, contact is limited.
“We do have a plan in place and a protocol if we do have a positive at some point,” Muschamp said.
