With experience in athletics 
and medicine, Alex Sobczak 

understands both sides

Former Michigan softball 

player 
Alex 
Sobczak 
used 

to devote hours upon hours 
every 
week 
to 
practice, 

games, 
conditioning 
and 

team activities. The rest of 
her waking hours were spent 
working on her Biopsychology, 
Cognition and Neuroscience 
degree to prepare her for 
medical school.

Since graduating in 2019, 

Sobczak has spent the past year 
researching topics in medicine 
at the University of Michigan’s 
hospital system and applying 
to medical schools. While she 
hasn’t finalized her decision, 
Sobczak’s research has already 
been valuable. She studies 
opioids and transplants, but 
more recently 
has conducted 
research 
on 

COVID-19. 

In 
doing 

so, 
Sobczak 

has 
garnered 

a 
wealth 
of 

knowledge 
about 
the 

virus. Despite 
what 
she 

now 
knows, 

for 
Sobczak, 

what she still 
doesn’t know 
is her primary 
reason 
for 

concern. 
Especially 
as 

it 
surrounds 

athletics.

“I think there’s just a lot of 

misconceptions about COVID-
19 right now,” Sobczak said. 
“As a healthy 23-year old, I 
get that somebody my age isn’t 
going to be super concerned 
about getting a severe case of 
COVID-19, but in all honesty, 
nobody really knows the long-
term effects of it.”

The mystery of the possible 

long-term effects, put simply, 
is quite worrying. And for 
anyone on the outside of a 
sport looking in, that’s why 
universities and conferences 
are so apprehensive to begin 
play — they don’t know what 
could happen to these players 
in the future after contracting 
the virus. 

Not only are they young, 

as Sobczak mentioned, but 
college athletes are in fantastic 
shape. The likelihood of an 
athlete having a severe case 
that lands them hospitalized 
is minimal, but the possible 
underlying after-effects, such 
as 
myocarditis 
and 
other 

unknowns, 
are 
concerning. 

In order to play, these risks 
must be minimized as much 
as possible. The decision to 
be made is how strict these 
restrictions and precautions 
need to be.

“I think you’re going to 

have to sacrifice on both 
ends,” Sobczak said. “ … You 

don’t want to put players’ 
health 
at 
risk. 
Especially 

not knowing the long term 
effects of COVID-19 and how 
it affects the organs. I would 
be concerned playing right 
now personally. I think it’s 
so hard to keep a bubble right 
now, especially on a college 
campus, and I guess it’s really 
up to weighing the sacrifices 
on both ends and what that 
looks like.”

With the near-impossible 

implementation of a bubble 
on a college campus, the 
preventative 
measures 
fall 

squarely 
on 
three 
things: 

masks, testing and staying 
within the team’s rudimentary 
bubble. And with cases on the 
rise as football, fall and winter 
sports start dates approach, 
those two elements become 
even more important.

Still, 

Sobczak 
understands 
the 
desire 

for 
athletes 

to play. She 
herself was a 
player, and she 
knows plenty 
of athletes on 
the 
softball 

team 
and 

elsewhere. 
Athletics 
is 

their 
escape. 

It is their way 
to cope with 
the stress, fear 
and 
anxiety 

surrounding 
the pandemic. 
For many, it 

is a huge part of their life and 
of who they are. For some, it 
might even be their profession, 
such as Sobczak’s fiancé, Nick 
Plummer, an outfielder in the 
St. Louis Cardinals’ minor 
league system.

“Being engaged to somebody 

who’s in baseball right now, I 
think it’s really hard to see 
that he can’t play his sport,” 
Sobczak said. “It’s devastating 
when you work your whole life 
for something and you don’t 
know when you’re going to get 
back to it and it’s an outlet for 
you. I think that’s been hard. 
It’s weighed on a lot of us. It 
weighed on me.”

Despite 
the 
difficulty, 

Sobczak is glad her fiancé is 
not playing. The health risks, to 
her, justify personal decisions 
not to play when protocol isn’t 
air tight, such as in the MLB 
and affiliate leagues as well 
as college campuses where 
a bubble is unlikely and the 
virus can spread rapidly.

In her eyes, to proceed, not 

only do you need multiple 
levels 
of 
precaution, 
but 

you need to be aware of the 
consequences.

“As 
much 
as 
you 
love 

sports,” Sobczak said, “you 
have to watch out for people’s 
health and be concerned about 
the aftermath for something 
like this.”

NICHOLAS STOLL

Daily Sports Writer

ALEC COHEN/Daily

Former softball player Alex Sobczak has studied COVID-19 through her research.

How Paul Juda continued to perfect his craft 

during COVID-19

With gyms closed and no 

end to quarantine in sight, 
Paul 
Juda 
initially 
found 

it challenging to motivate 
himself. Juda, a sophomore 
standout and reigning Big Ten 
Freshman of The Year on the 
Michigan men’s gymnastics 
team, decided to use the 
unexpected 
shut-down 
to 

take time off from his intense 
training regimen.

“Athletes are humans too, at 

least I am,” Juda said. “I let my 
body take a little bit of a break. 
You never know how stressed 
out you are until you take a 
break.” 

But the time off, his first 

in a long while, gave Juda a 
new perspective on the sport 
he loves and trains for every 
single day. 

“Staying at home for the 

first time without gymnastics 
for an extended period of time, 
and getting back in the gym 
that first day,” Juda said, “that 
makes you really remember 
why you fell in love with the 
sport to begin with.”

Juda 
conditioned 

throughout 
the 
quarantine 

through 
home 
workouts 

hosted over Zoom, but his first 
time back in the gym and being 
able to perform even basic 
gymnastics sets inspired him 
to take advantage of the break. 

“I did a lot of cardio on 

my stationary bike at home,” 
Juda said. “Every hour that 
I spent on there sweating it 
out, I thought about how much 
closer I would be than the 
next guy who’s doing nothing 
during this break. 

“That kind of pushed me the 

most, the thought that these 
hours that you don’t get back, 
I’m using them to get over the 
edge.”

That 
mentality 
is 
what 

propelled Juda even before 
coming to Michigan when 
he was competing against 
international gymnasts and 
placing in the top three against 
Olympians at the United States 
Senior Championship in 2019.

Still, 
the 
transition 
to 

Michigan and a Division I 
program wasn’t as easy as it 
would seem, even for someone 
as talented as Juda. 

“It 
wasn’t 
all 
sunshine 

and rainbows,” Juda said. 
“Adjusting to the academics 
and the amount of work it 
takes to compete at this level 

was tougher than I expected. 
I got homesick for sure, even 
though my parents were close 
by.” 

But by his second semester, 

Juda set a goal to become 
a leader for the team in all 
aspects, 
even 
on 
a 
team 

primarily 
composed 
of 

upperclassmen. 
He 
pushed 

for 
an 
environment 
that 

only 
accepts 
excellence, 

which carries into the team’s 
dynamic this year and going 
forward.

“All that really changed for 

me this year is my class rank,” 
Juda said. “I’m still trying to 
achieve the same goals I set 
since I got here. It’s demanding 
excellence and being your 
best.”

The team has also changed 

with a lot of fresh faces, giving 
Juda a new perspective on the 
upcoming season. 

“Having a younger team is 

really good for me because I 
like the idea of showing people 
the steps they should follow 
and guiding them towards 
using intelligent moves in the 
gym,” Juda said. “I can sense 
the hunger from the guys 
without having to motivate 
them too much.”

He and the team continue 

to have high expectations 
for their future and aim to 
bring Michigan the NCAA 
Championship that the team 
worked tirelessly for during 
last year before their season 
was canceled. 

Amid 
adjusting 
to 
U-M 

academics, with his mentality 
pushing him, Juda was also 
selected for the United States 
Men’s Senior National Team 
in 
February, 
becoming 
its 

youngest 
member 
at 
just 

19 years old. The day after, 
Juda was selected for the 
Pan American Games, one of 
the 
now-postponed 
Tokyo 

Olympics qualifier events for 
the U.S. But yet again, Juda 
looks at this temporary pause 
as a building block to his 
eventual goal.

“If 
anything, 
this 

postponement of the Olympics 
is 
only 
advantageous 
to 

someone in my particular 
situation,” he said. “It’s a 
whole year of development for 
me, and I focus on training 
through efficiency and not 
wasting the time I have. 
What’s most important for 
me going forward is my body, 
mind, and nutrition while 
being happy and staying close 
with my teammates.”

BECCA MAHON/Daily

Sophomore gymnast Paul Juda stayed locked in, finding creative ways to work out from home while he was unable to train at the gym.

ABBAS KAGAL

For The Daily

18 — Wednesday, October 14, 2020
Sports
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

This 
past 
August, 
the 

Michigan golf teams and Ann 
Arbor community lost a key 
member in Charlie Green, who 
passed away at age 84. 

For the typical Michigan fan, 

Charlie’s would not exactly be 
considered a household name. 
But, to many entrenched in 
the golf lore here at Michigan, 
Charlie Green was synonymous 
with the program. 

Charlie served as clubhouse 

manager for the U-M Golf 
Course for 52 years. His role in 
this position was not only crucial 
to the course’s operation, but 
also to the golf teams as a whole.

“Being there so much, he 

obviously knew all of the golf 
coaches 
and 
the 
teams 
in 

particular,” Charlie’s son, Sean 
Green said. “As they were going 
off on golf trips, he would be 
there, pretty often to send them 
off on the bus. He always took an 
active interest in all the players 
and the team.”

Seeing as his career lasted 

five decades, Charlie took pride 
in the seemingly more mundane 
parts of his work as clubhouse 
manager; he helped organize 
club outings, oversaw day to day 
operations, managed staff and 
worked hands on to set up for 
important course events. But 
beyond this, Charlie was as close 
as one could get to an honorary 
member of the Wolverines’ golf 
programs.

“Charlie’s office was the first 

thing that any guest or staff 
member saw when they came 
into the clubhouse,” former 
Michigan coach Chris Whitten 
said. “Charlie was really my 
introduction to the athletic 
department, to golf at Michigan 
in general, and really the history 
of the athletic department and 
the people who had been a part 
of it.”

In addition to serving the 

golf course in any way possible, 
Charlie continued to be a beacon 
of warm nature and created 
a welcoming atmosphere for 
golfers. Many have said that 
Charlie made everyone on the 
team feel more at home, and 
made the university a little bit 
smaller.

“(Charlie) 
represented 
a 

connection 
to 
(the 
players), 

and he is one of the people that 
created a new home away from 
home for these young kids 
coming to a big University for 
the first time,” Whitten said. 
“He was kind of like the father, 
or grandfather figure for a lot of 
those kids.”

Charlie was not your typical 

clubhouse manager. Often, he 
made it a part of his job to take 
interest in the lives of players. 
Unlike many coaches they may 
have 
encountered, 
Charlie 

more than anything else was 
particularly interested in what 
Whitten referred to as “non-golf 
things.” These often included 
how 
players’ 
families 
were 

doing, how school was going 
and what they were interested in 
off the course. Having a person 
like Charlie ask about these 

things every day helped make 
the clubhouse feel like a second 
home.

“The coaches see the kids 

every day … we skip some of the 
personal stuff, just ‘How are 
you doing?’ ” Whitten said. “The 
fact that they had to walk past 
Charlie’s door before they got to 
the coaches, he got to ask them 
how they were as people.”

Today, a lasting memory of 

Charlie persists in the form of 
a plaque at the tee of the sixth 
hole, commemorating his career. 
The hole serendipitously named 
for Charlie was his favorite. It 
was endowed in his name by 
university donor John Buck in 
2001, and it is often described as 
one of the most memorable and 
masterful holes at the course.

“(Buck) wanted to make a 

gift to the university,” Sean 
Green said. “But, the first thing 
he thought of was my dad. He 
wanted my dad recognized for 
all of the hours and effort he 
put in at the course, and with 
athletics in general.”

Sean recounted that the hole’s 

endowment “brought tears” to 
Charlie’s eyes. It was a profound 
commemoration 
of 
a 
truly 

profound career and man. 

The 
hole 
itself 
could 

certainly be described as the 
most memorable on the course. 
Whitten described it in detail: 
“The hole is really unique. The 
design of the green, the length of 
the hole, the strategy options, it 
definitely is the hole that people 
remember when they think of 
the course.”

Although arguably the most 

significant hole at the course was 
named after him, Charlie never 
let it affect his work. 

“While 
he 
was 
deeply 

thankful for it, he treated 
everyone the same still and was 
always willing to help and be 
hands on,” Sean Green said.

Charlie also was a major 

proponent of women’s sports at 
Michigan. He was incredibly 
passionate about the promotion 
of the women’s golf team in its 
inception.

“He really thought it was 

extremely important for women 
to have the opportunity to play. 
… It was really about equality,” 
women’s golf coach Jan Dowling 
said. 

Charlie was always incredibly 

interested in making the course 
more playable and providing 
opportunities for all people to 
play and participate.

Dowling said Charlie wanted 

to “grow the game” and make 
the course more accessible. 
Dowling recounted a story about 
the “women’s” tees at the course.

“They’re not the ‘women’s 

tees,’ he calls them the maize 
tees,” Dowling said. “Guys can 
play it, girls can play it, it was 
really all about equality.”

To commemorate his passion 

for women’s sports, the women’s 
golf league at the course has a 
tournament named in his honor.

Charlie’s presence in the 

clubhouse was an important one. 
He played a vital role for so many 
members of the golf teams, and 
his story and contributions will 
be commemorated by course-
goers for years to come.

CHRISTIAN JULIANO

For The Daily

Charlie Green changed Michigan 

golf, and his memory remains

FILE PHOTO/Daily

As much as you
love sports, you
have to watch out
for people’s health 
and be concerned 
about the aftermath 

for something

like this.

