Leading the Field in Crisis

It may have been God’s timing, but in many ways it didn’t feel perfect when Crystal Rosenthal ’02, MCAA ’07, 就在世界进入Covid封锁的那个月(2020年3月)，他被任命为CUI临时体育主任. But with Rosenthal, a self-described “diehard Concordia loyalist,” at the helm, 体育部门的反应和策略帮助CUI制定了在限制季节安全运营体育项目的标准.

“It was an all-hands-on-deck situation,” Rosenthal says of the circumstance she encountered on her first day in a new role. “We all knew it would be challenging.” 

当时，没有人想到有些学校会在这一年剩下的时间里继续关闭. Losing spring sports was hard enough on athletes and coaches. 

“For me as a softball coach, it was devastating to stop being together and competing,” Rosenthal says. “I felt so strongly that people need to be around something normal, doing something physical like an athlete is used to doing.” 

Other athletics directors and coaches around the country felt the same way, but it was CUI that led the way in returning to play in the fall of 2020, safely and effectively, and as a result, 罗森塔尔接到了其他州许多体育领袖和教练的电话，寻求她的建议. 

“我们康考迪亚大学的运动队为这次回应所做的工作感到自豪, and the unity of our campus, 大家是如何团结起来完成一件在加州很少有人做过的事情的,” she says. “Little old Concordia Irvine did it. I think it catapults us into a new era and onto a new stage. 我们会有所不同，走在最前面，不怕成为最好的协和女神. 我告诉我的团队，不要担心其他人在做什么——担心我们在做什么."

The Waiting Game

但在最初阶段，没有任何项目进行竞争，这让学生运动员感到非常沮丧. 

罗森塔尔说:“他们失去了体育赛季和社交生活，而这正是他们一生中最重要的社交时间。. “When you lose something you love and the ability to do it — it’s real. It’s relentless and trying, 但我们的学生运动员适应得很好，并且信任教练组和学校.”

罗森塔尔每周与太平洋西部会议代表会面两次，并与CUI的卫生服务主任保持密切联系, Michelle Laabs, who worked closely with the Orange County Health Care Agency. But each time things seemed to be starting up again, new restrictions slammed the door shut, sidelining student-athletes. After a while, large colleges and universities, including the entire CSU system, announced they would remain online throughout 2020. 

That’s when CUI, under new president, Dr. Michael Thomas, decided on a different course. Listening to students and other CUI constituencies, he and the cabinet made plans to open the residence halls, offer limited in-person classes, and bring athletes back to compete, no matter what their season might look like.

“领导层没有环顾四周看看其他人在做什么，这很酷,” Rosenthal says. “Dr. Thomas said, ‘Do you think we can pull this off?’ We said, ‘We think we can. We think we have a pretty good plan.’ It was great to see Concordia become the leader in trying something.” 

学生们尤其渴望回国并以任何可能的方式参加比赛. 

“学生们愿意回到校园，即使他们在宿舍里上在线课程,” Rosenthal says. “They wanted to be with teammates, get their bodies and minds what they needed, mentally, physically and emotionally, which is what athletics creates. … That’s what kept us hunkered down together: We all want the same thing, so we sat tight, kept pulling together and moved forward as best we could. 我们说过，我们要尽可能安全、机智、有竞争力地做到这一点." 

Rosenthal and her team of Glory Fung, Brittany Pereda, Andrea Riche, 本·罗斯哈特很早就做好了战备准备，并开始计划秋天会是什么样子. 

“You just have to figure it out,” Rosenthal says. “We got in a room with a white board and said, ‘Okay, here’s what we’ll do.’”

Weight Space

其中一个挑战是为所有团队创造足够的空间，让他们在不拥挤的情况下举重. 

罗森塔尔说:“在正常年份，我们没有足够的空间来提升，所以这是一个挑战。. “If we were going to come back in the fall and try to get this to happen, we had to spread out and have more equipment. It gets touched too many times to effectively clean. That’s where we started.” 

I felt so strongly that people need to be around something normal, doing something physical like an athlete is used to doing.

Tim Odle, Vice President, Athletics, Enrollment and Facility Services, agreed to purchase additional weights, platforms and other equipment to expand the number of weight rooms from one to four. His team also added outdoor areas for lifting and exercise, and provided cleaning carts for every facility. 

“We had cleaning carts we called the Ghostbuster machines. You could clean everything quickly. It was extremely helpful,” Rosenthal says. “Our student-athletes did a good job as it became part of their routine.” 

然后，罗森塔尔的领导团队安排每支运动队在特定时间进入每间举重室, with the help of NCAA guidelines on how to navigate risks per sport. 然后，CUI田径队创建了自己的内部主文件，以规划如何将每个团队返回校园, where and with whom student-athletes would live, and how teams would start practicing. 

“It required a tremendous amount of teamwork on campus,” Rosenthal says. “Five hundred and forty-four athletes is a lot for a university of our size. 要想弄清楚如何为这些人服务，我们必须足智多谋，并作为一个团队合作得很好. We have a small but mighty group of people who pulled this off.” 

Laabs, director of health services, 对罗森塔尔的团队和他们提出的大量问题来说，这是一个至关重要的资源. Because of their planning, CUI是太平洋西部联盟的南加州地区唯一一所尽早将学生运动员带回校园的大学, starting practices a full month or two before anyone else. Not only that, 但疫情的爆发是有限的——主要是由比赛和训练之外的社会联系驱动的——而且从未迫使球队停止训练. 

For this reason, 其他全国范围内的体育主管和教练，包括太平洋西部总裁鲍勃·霍格，都向罗森塔尔的团队寻求建议，如何建立模型和程序，让球队能够重返赛场. 

罗森塔尔说:“他们只是因为我们的开放和进步而受到鼓舞。. “They asked us a lot of questions about how were we doing testing? How were we getting back to practice? What did our procedures look like?” 

她自由地与全国NCAA一级和二级体育主管分享了他们制作的内部文件. The document highlighted points of concern and how to resolve those, mapping out how to return to play. 

罗森塔尔说:“总的来说，体育主管和教练相互依靠. “Normally, you don’t want to ask a competitor for help, but it was all hands on deck. You can’t compete without other people.尽管如此，随着球队的回归，老鹰队是否有对手还不清楚. 

“Nobody knew what was coming,” Rosenthal says. “We didn’t have schedules. 加州的一个大型公立学校会议宣布他们不会参加秋季会议. Now we were scrambling because we needed enough games to get a minimal schedule.” Students, too, needed extra time to get back into game-day shape. 

“我们的许多学生运动员没有进入健身房的机会，也没有进行任何训练,” Rosenthal says. “We started with very low-risk stuff, introduced exercises little by little. We had a percentage-based model of how much you can lift.”

A Knowledge of the Field 

罗森塔尔曾在老鹰队打垒球——接球手和三垒位置——在校园里担任过各种各样的角色:助理教练, director of intramural sports, wellness center receptionist, academic advisor, head softball coach and now athletics director. But it was her strategic thinking that added value now. 

“I was a minimally-talented athlete, 但让我出色的是，我对这个领域很了解，也了解我的队友和他们的动机,” she says. “这些都是我天生的天赋——看到更大的前景，弄清楚我需要扮演什么角色来帮助球队获胜.” 

Over the summer, 政府从罗森塔尔的头衔中去掉了“临时”一词，并给了她一条明确的道路来领导这个项目走向未来. “I love this place and believe God does amazing things here,” she says. “I marvel at the opportunities I’ve had here. You have to love what you do to try to pull off what we did.”

A Revelation on the Court

当限制最终被解除，老鹰队男子篮球队可以前往佩珀代因进行他们的第一场比赛, “It was like watching a miracle on the court,” Rosenthal says. “I didn’t even care how we did. This year is not even about the competition. It’s been great to see our athletes in person, walking through gyms, on track, seeing Eagles shirts on campus. 赢球一直是次要的——虽然当垒球赛季开始时我不会这么说. I had wondered if sports would ever come back, or was this over?” 

She says her team is indebted to Dr. 托马斯和大学领导对体育工作人员的信任. “Dr. Thomas trusts people where he has them, and that’s so vital,” she says. “Dr. Krueger did, too, 政府允许田径运动员管理田径运动，并支持我们这样做.” 

As sports start to compete again, students are “fired up to get back together and do what they love,” Rosenthal says. “That’s why I’m driven to keep going every day.” Because of CUI’s help, a number of programs across the country feel the same way.