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Thursday, July 23, 2020

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com SPORTS

As Michigan regroups for the fall, a new reality sets in

The Michigan volleyball team

barely had barely begun its spring
season when an ill-fated email
landed in Mark Rosen’s inbox on the
morning of March 12.

Mark wasn’t sure what to make of

the note, which merely specified the
date and time of a required call for
all University head coaches. When
he first read the email, it appeared
the biggest problem would be the
fact that the call conflicted with his
team’s practice.

And so, while players began

trickling into Cliff Keen Arena for
what they thought would be a run-
of-the-mill
Thursday
afternoon

practice, Mark retreated to his office
to join the mandatory call while
associate head coach Leisa Rosen
— who handles the majority of the
team’s training anyway — began
practice.

Little did he know, it was the last

time he’d leave the gym with any

sense of normalcy.

As the call began, Michigan athletic

director Warde Manuel didn’t mince
words. The Big Ten was suspending
all athletic activities, prompting an
immediate intervention from Mark.

“My team is practicing right now,”

Mark told The Daily. “What should
we do?”

Manuel’s response left no room for

interpretation:

“As soon as we get off the call, shut

it down.”

Moments later, Mark re-entered

the gym, taking in his final glimpse of
volleyball before the world would be
turned on its head. The Wolverines
were in the middle of a drill when
Leisa made eye contact with Mark,
whose facial expression and body
language told her everything she
needed to know.

The players finished the drill and

made their way to the team room,
where Mark delivered the news.

“I think (the players) kind of

knew,” Mark recalled. “Since I wasn’t
in practice, they knew that probably

wasn’t a good sign. I just said, ‘Hey,
this is what’s going on. This is the
situation. We don’t really know a
whole lot, but we’re not going to
practice until further notice.’ ”

As players filed out, a warranted

sentiment of uncertainty hung in the
air. Since that moment, the Rosens
and Wolverines have yet to reconvene
as a team. In his 21 years at the helm of
the Wolverines’ volleyball program,
Mark has never lived through
anything like the last four months.

But now, 130 days later, there’s a

light at the end of the tunnel. And
as Michigan inches closer to its
conference-only season, the athletic
department’s return-to-sport plan is
at the forefront of it all.

“It’s a pretty specific protocol,”

Mark said Thursday. “I’m super
proud of our department. We have a
few specific people in our department
who are in charge of a few certain
areas like facilities or medical. I
thought they were pretty good before
(the pandemic), but they’re rockstars.
They are really good at what they do.

You see that in whatever profession —
when the pressure’s on and it’s a dire
situation, that’s when you see who’s
really good.”

Mark singled out senior associate

athletic director Darryl Conway as the
mastermind behind Michigan’s plan
to monitor athletes’ exposure, testing
and resocialization process. And even
though nothing is mandatory until
the Wolverines’ formal report day on
August 10, many volleyball players
have voluntarily returned to Ann
Arbor and committed to the athletic
department’s guidelines.

But even with a plan in place, the

seemingly endless list of wildcards
remains daunting.

“That whole process is going about

as smooth as it could, but there’ll be
a lot of hiccups,” Mark said. “One
of the things I’ve learned through
this process is that you have to be
flexible and you have to understand
that things are going to change.
They literally change by the minute
almost.”

A few weeks ago, Mark lived

through an example of just that.

“We were on a call one time with

all our coaches and administrators,”
Mark recalled. “They mentioned a
date and a time at the beginning of
the meeting, and by the middle of
the meeting that date had changed.
I was like, ‘Wait, what happened?’
They said, ‘Oh, yeah, while we’re on
this call, things changed.’ That’s what
we’ve got to expect. It’ll change really
rapidly.”

For now, it’s full steam ahead. As

of July 17, just eight of the 635 total
student-athletes and staffers in Ann
Arbor have tested positive for COVID-
19. Yet, even as the Wolverines move
forward under strict guidelines and
cautious optimism, Mark knows
that anything is possible in this new
reality.

“We know our plans might get

blown up any minute,” Mark said.
“We have to be ready for that.”

With fall sports on the horizon, doubt lingers for Mark Rosen

As the fall sports season inches

closer, dominoes are beginning to
fall.

All across the country last week,

conferences canceled their fall sports
seasons. The Ivy League was the
first Division I conference to cancel
fall athletics. The Patriot League,
Atlantic 10 and Mid-Eastern Athletic
Conference all followed suit, while
others, like the Big Ten, announced
the enforcement of conference-only
fall schedules.

Within Ann Arbor’s Cliff Keen

Arena, the Michigan volleyball team
is keeping tabs on those dominoes.
Though the team won’t formally
report for its preseason until Aug.
10, many players have already
voluntarily made their way back to
Ann Arbor.

And as head coach Mark Rosen

enters his 22nd year at the helm, a
telling realization has set in.

“Coaches
and
athletic

administrators,
we’re
planners,”

Rosen said Thursday in an inerview
with The Daily. “It’s what we do.
We plan all the time. We plan for
matches, we plan for practices, we

plan everything. This is such a weird
time because you plan, but you really
don’t know what you’re planning for.
So, as we’re going through this and
we’re trying to create schedules and
plans, we’ve kind of realized that
there’s a lot of different pathways
this could take.

“There’s been a lot of discussion

about
the
fall
being
canceled

potentially.
So
when
those

conferences did it, I don’t think I
was surprised, but it certainly makes
you realize this whole thing could
be tumbling down pretty quickly.
We just have to be understanding of
that, we just have to know that’s a
possibility.”

With the preseason on the

horizon, the looming uncertainty
casts an increasingly long shadow
with each passing day. During the
Wolverines’ team Zoom call on
Wednesday, that all-encompassing
sentiment lingered throughout the
call.

“You just sense, every time we

talk, (the players) are positive,
they’re
upbeat,
they’re
excited,

they’re working hard, but there’s this
little thread of doubt or negativity of
what could happen,” Rosen said. “I
think they’re handling it super well,
but it’s hard. It’s hard to have that

doubt. Everybody really, really wants
to have a season, but we don’t know
what’s going to happen.”

Since Michigan’s spring season

was abruptly cut short on March 12
as a result of the Big Ten’s decision
to suspend all athletic activities, the
program has not convened in person.
Some players left campus when the
University transitioned to virtual
learning, while others remained in
Ann Arbor — despite the closure of
team facilities.

Through it all, one of Rosen’s

program pillars has prevailed.

“I’ve been impressed with how

they’re focused on the things we can
control and not focused on the things
we can’t control,” Rosen said. “We
talk about that in our program all the
time even in a normal year because
we think that’s a really healthy way
to look at life, but I think they’ve
really been very good about that
because we know there are so many
things outside our control right now.”

But they can’t control what’s going

on in the country. As the COVID-19
pandemic rages on, each passing day
plays a role in determining the fate of
fall sports. And right now, things are
trending in the wrong direction.

According to Stadium’s Brett

McMurphy, NCAA President Mark

Emmert told the NCAA Council fall
championships would “likely” be
canceled if a decision needed to be
made on July 16. With a final decision
coming in the near future, that doubt
appears warranted.

“Three weeks ago or two weeks

ago, I would’ve been like, ‘Hey, this
is going in a really good direction,’ ”
Rosen said. “And now all of a sudden,
this last week, it hasn’t been so good,
so you just don’t know.

“… It’s interesting because it’s

changing so often. People think one
standard is good enough and as you
continue through it, you’re like, ‘Hey,
wait, we’ve got to raise that standard.’
So, I think everybody’s very open.”

But even as the optics change

quickly, the bottom line remains
intact.

“Whatever the best science tells

us,” Rosen said, “we’re going to do
that.”

FILE PHOTO/Daily

Mark Rosen is learning to live with the possibilities of the fall semester.

DANIEL DASH
Daily Sports Writer

DANIEL DASH
Daily Sports Writer