Eleven varsity teams were allowed to return to campus in full on Monday, Jan. 4, Stanford Athletics spokesperson Brian Risso confirmed in an email to The Daily. The teams are men’s fencing, women’s fencing, women’s gymnastics, men’s soccer, women’s soccer, men’s swimming, women’s swimming, synchronized swimming, women’s volleyball, men’s water polo and wrestling.
Beyond maintaining social distance and continuing to wear face masks, student-athletes are required to undergo a “10-day travel quarantine period with regular testing,” Risso wrote.
Per county guidelines, indoor athletic facilities are currently restricting capacities, and contact drills and practices are not permitted. In addition, each piece of equipment is limited to use by a maximum of two households. Season schedules for the 11 varsity sports teams are undetermined at this time, but athletes will have the ability to train while following campus guidelines and restrictions.
The remaining teams and athletes — primarily teams with spring championship seasons — are set to return on Jan. 23 and 24, pending updated conditions and University guidance. All teams and athletes will be housed in Mirrielees apartments, the Suites cluster and nearby hotels.
As of Jan. 4, 37 student-athletes have tested positive for COVID-19 since June 17, when athletes first began being tested. Six of those positive cases have occurred since Nov. 8. It is not known which teams have had players test positive, since, besides football, it is Stanford Athletics policy “to not disclose specific teams as part of the testing process,” per an email from Oct. 23.
Just five varsity teams have had inter-school competition thus far this academic year. Football wrapped up its season on Dec. 19, men’s and women’s swimming and diving participated in non-scoring meets as recently as Nov. 21 and both men’s and women’s basketball seasons are currently underway.
Since Nov. 28, football, men’s basketball and women’s basketball have competed outside of Santa Clara County and away from Stanford due to a county emergency health directive.
The county currently remains under a stay at home order due to a statewide mandatory directive to combat rising COVID-19 case numbers within the state and country. Just over two weeks ago, Stanford Hospital’s intensive care unit was operating at “above 100%” capacity.
This article has been updated to reflect that men’s gymnastics was not one of the 11 teams that returned to campus on Jan. 4. The Daily regrets this error.
Contact Jeremy Rubin at jjmrubin ‘at’ stanford.edu.