Chabot Athletics Ahead Of Curve During Pandemic

Chabot College football coach Eric Fanene can’t say enough about how Gladiators’ coaches, administrators and student-athletes have persevered — and stayed well ahead of the curve — during a complicated time.
The COVID-19 pandemic has forced college athletic programs to take extraordinary steps just to be able to workout as teams prepare for an anticipated modified spring season.
“We have all had to adapt to this ‘new norm,’ and we have been absolutely killing it here at Chabot,” Fanene says proudly. “If there will be competition this year in athletics, the Gladiators will be ready … in all sports! It is such a pleasure to work for an administration that understands the importance of having its student-athletes meet on campus while so many other institutions (for various reasons) have chosen to not have their students return.
“The work that our coaches have done with our on-campus workouts to ensure the safety of our student-athletes during this pandemic and also providing athletes with instruction, has been phenomenal,” he continued.
The CCCAA Board of Directors overwhelmingly approved implementation of its Contingency Plan in July, shifting athletics to spring seasons. On Nov. 6, the board voted to reaffirm the Contingency Plan, expressing that the plan is only a framework and final decisions to participate in competition will be left to institutions in consultation with local health authorities.
The Board also requested the “COVID-19 Work Group” determine opt-in/opt-out dates for schools which might not be able to compete.
Each day when he arrives on campus at noon, Fanene marvels at the standard being set by other Gladiators teams doing modified workouts. The basketball team, for one, has been limited to outdoor training.
“You can tell that those athletes have a plan that they’re following,” Fanene says proudly. “… Coaches are taking the initiative; they’re caring for their athletes. It’s across the board. Wrestling is looking great out there. Everyone has a nice plan for their own sport.”
Football, basketball and wrestling are in a different category as high-contact, or high-risk, sports, in terms of testing requirements. Every sport does it a little differently, but in football, if one of Fanene’s players goes out of town he must be quarantined for 10-11 days, regardless if they have a temperature or not.
Chabot softball coach Megan Kravets is keeping the whole student-athlete in mind through check-ins to see how players are doing in class and personally. Players can also do workouts on their own at home.
In a major reshuffle, football had to reorganize its entire conference, employing a regional format so Chabot won’t have to travel all the way to places like Siskiyous. Six hours with a bunch of guys in a bus is not a good idea during a pandemic. So Chabot could be facing lower-division teams such as Monterey Peninsula, Cabrillo and San Jose in a reduced seven-game season. Full practice would start in January for a February-March season.
The biggest thing, Fanene points out, is the season won’t count against anyone’s eligibility, so players will be moving forward academically while keeping their eligibility, no matter how short the season turns out to be.
“That’s huge for all the guys,” Fanene says.
With spring schedules still being sorted out, it’s not about games but safety across the board on campus.
Leadership is key at Chabot.
“The coaches are the driving force here,” Fanene says. “I want to give a shout out to my AD (Jeff Drouin), to our dean (Kevin Kramer), the college, of course. They’re very important and they do a great job supporting athletics, but what our coaches have done has been just above and beyond what we’ve had to do. Just our workload. We’re still teaching classes online. We had to make that adjustment during the spring … We were one of the first schools to get online when covid started because we’re built for that; we’re built for online stuff.”
Fanene says he put out his first plan for the football program on June 10 after working on it for months. He quickly realized that he was ahead of the curve after observing that “there was almost nothing going on” proactively among other coaches in the conference due to a lack of knowledge, not a lack of effort.
Fanene has become an authority on all things pandemic and the education process. It requires constant monitoring of online outlets and information.
“You have to go to the national website and figure out where we are as a country,” Fanene shares. “You’ve got to figure out where we are as a state of California — you have to go to that website. You have to worry about what’s going on in the county, and it’s ever changing.”
Fanene is controlling everything he can control.
“If we play, we play,” Fanene says, “but we’re preparing to play. Chabot’s preparing to play.”
Football training at Chabot will be offering a Rubik’s Cube of complications with 100 guys on the squad. If a receiver makes a catch, the ball must be put immediately in a bag. Not everyone gets to touch the ball in practice.
Practice will include 40 players a day, masks are mandated, and coaches must follow a precise plan with no cross-contamination: “When we’re doing our water breaks they can’t even cross each other’s paths. We’re on it, man,” Fanene says.
So many things are in play and out of play.
“We’re not even in the weight room yet,” Fanene says. “We’re on the field, but there’s a couple schools that have opened up their weight rooms, so they have an advantage there. We have an advantage that we’re on the field. … It would be so much easier if we just coached football.”
Without a team classroom on campus and not enough time currently to do Zooms, coaches are installing everything on the field — no small task. Even still, Chabot is making the most of a difficult situation as is the Chabot way.
“The guys are doing good, man,” Fanene says. “We’re staying safe.”