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Since he was brought back as the Rutgers football team’s head coach, Greg Schiano has said on many occasions that he has a different perspective on recruiting being that he’s a parent of sons who went through the process.
But over the course of the last five months, his perspective as a father is valuable in terms of understanding parents’ concerns of the Scarlet Knights in his football program of COVID-19 and the postponement of the fall season.
“Well, another thing that the virus has taught me is how to use all this WebEx and Zoom and all this technology that I wasn't very good at,” Schiano said last Friday. “I'm not saying I'm Mr. Technology, don't get me wrong, but I certainly understand it a lot better. So we've had several meetings with myself, the staff, and the parents, because as a parent, anybody who has children knows there's nothing more dear to your heart.”
When the campus closed and spring practice was cancelled, Schiano was in constant contact with the parents. That remained the same through May, June, July, and now August when the players returned for voluntary workouts and then had upwards to 30 positive cases of the coronavirus and were forced to quarantine recently.
“I tried to keep them fully up to speed with what was happening in the program,” the coach said. “Early on it was all policies and procedures. A little bit into it we had a couple of hiccups, but we were doing great. Then when we got hit with a haymaker, and then it was OK, this is what we're doing, and this is how we're doing it. We're going to make sure your sons are safe, and we're going to have to go through this thing. It was really hard on our players. For an 18 to 22 year old kid, it's not an easy thing, especially when you're used to being active and training.”
While parents of players for other teams in the conference are protesting the league’s decision to push football to 2021, families of Rutgers players have been more understanding and vigilant when it comes to the health and safety of everybody.
All the moms, dads, and guardians have been kept up to date on what the team is doing.
“We kept them on the loop. They were incredibly supportive,” Schiano said. “And really just great questions and questions that sometimes I'd get off the call and I'd have four things that we got to think about doing this just from them. And then later on, they'd send follow up emails. You know the old saying, it takes a village, well it's their kids and we're the village, and I think everybody worked together to help the young men learn and get through it safely. I can't express enough though, as tough as it was, and is going to be, tremendous teaching moment for guys. And like I said, I love that part of what I do.”
Follow Chris Nalwasky on Twitter @ChrisWasky.
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