By, DACODA MCDOWELL-WAHPEKECHE, Sports Editor
The Northwestern volleyball team started its season with two wins and no losses despite having to wear masks during competitions.
Before the volleyball season began on Jan. 23, Northwestern athletic officials implemented a requirement that all volleyball players wear masks during practices and games.
Prior to the first volleyball game of the season, the Great American Conference released a set of safety guidelines that all member universities must follow.
Under the Great American Conference’s safety rules, players, coaches and university staff members must wear facial coverings while on the sidelines of a game. However, players do not have to wear coverings during competitions.
“All personnel and student-athletes will properly wear face coverings,” Great American Conference officials said in a Jan. 19 press release. “The lone exemptions from this requirement go to players and officials actively participating in the contest.”
Some schools have required their players to wear masks during volleyball games, but not all schools have done so.
The Oklahoma Baptist University volleyball team played without wearing masks against the Southeastern Oklahoma State University team, whose players were wearing masks, on Jan. 26.
Oklahoma Baptist then had to postpone games against Great American Conference foes Northwestern Oklahoma State University and Southwestern Oklahoma State University, officials said.
Northwestern requires all volleyball athletes, including visiting athletes, to wear masks while playing in Percefull Fieldhouse.
“We are more conscious of what masks could do for us and protect us from an opponent that we don’t know,” Northwestern Athletic Director Brad Franz said. “It is not a Great American Conference rule, but it is a rule instated on our campus. We are just trying to minimize the possible transmission at our indoor sports.”
The university’s mask rule does not apply, however, to the men’s and women’s basketball teams, which also play in the fieldhouse.
Basketball team members wear masks during practice to reduce the spread of the coronavirus between teammates.
Players are not required to wear masks during games.
Officials with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention encourage athletes to wear masks during games.
“Limit high-intensity sports when indoors,” CDC officials wrote in a December article on the organization’s website. “People who are engaged in high-intensity activities, like running, may not be able to wear a mask if it causes difficulty breathing.
“Wear a mask if feasible, especially when it is difficult to stay less than 6 feet apart from other people and especially indoors, for example in close contact sports such as basketball.”
Oklahoma State Department of Health officials also recommend that players wear masks.
“Players, coaches, officials, and all others on the court or interacting with players, should be encouraged to wear masks at all times,” state health officials said in a Dec. 7 report.
“We practice in masks every day,” Franz said in reference to the basketball team. “If I had it my way, we would play in masks. But the NCAA, with testing and all the things that are going on in all of our sports, the medium- to high-risk sports, we wear a mask whenever we are in practice.”
Franz said student athletes who are not required to wear masks may wear them during competitions if they choose to.
When asked why the university does not require masks for the basketball teams, Franz replied: “I don’t have an answer for that. In volleyball, the NCAA has said that it is less risk if you wear masks in volleyball. So, we decided to wear masks. That’s it. In basketball, it’s the same risk either way.”
Like Northwestern, universities such as East Central University and Southeastern Oklahoma State require volleyball athletes to wear facial coverings during contests.
TEAM WINS TWO GAMES
The last two games at Percefull Fieldhouse for the volleyball team have been wins for the Lady Rangers.
In the first game, Northwestern swept the Friends University Eagles out of Wichita, Kansas.
In the second game, Northwestern beat the Tigers out of East Central University with a score of 3 – 1.
Franz said he believes the university’s mask mandate is keeping student athletes safe.
“We have had very little transmission from team-to-team,” Franz said. “There has been some transmission when there is a get-together, but very little.
Part of that is because the athletes have been diligent in wearing a mask. Our campus and student body should be commended. We have been able to move on with little infections like we have had and conduct our classes in person like everybody wants.”