How coach Jimmy Lake, UW Huskies moved forward after Cal cancellation
Last Thursday, Washington head coach Jimmy Lake held what was supposed to be his final Zoom press conference before the season opener against Cal.
Lake was asked questions about the possibility of cancellation — the Golden Bears announced a player’s positive COVID-19 test on Wednesday evening — and he said that as far as he knew, the game was still happening. Then the call ended, and Lake glanced at this phone. Waiting for him on the screen were several missed calls from UW athletic director Jen Cohen.
Whatever the news, Lake knew it couldn’t be good.
When he returned the call, Cohen informed him the Pac-12 had approved Cal’s request to cancel the game and it would be considered a no-contest. The Golden Bears had an athlete test positive for COVID-10 and due to the resulting isolation of additional players under contact tracing protocols, they didn’t have the minimum number of scholarship players available.
Lake held an emergency meeting with his team 45 minutes later.
“They were extremely disappointed, but I’m proud of them,” Lake said. “They did not flinch. They did not flinch one bit. We re-juggled our schedule and ended up practicing on Saturday and Sunday.
“I love the way the guys responded. They came out to practice with energy and focus. They just understand that this has been a roller coaster ride. We’re going to expect another dip at some point, too. There’s going to be highs and lows and I’m just really proud of how the team responded.”
The game that almost happened
UW and Cal weren’t the only teams to have a game canceled last week. On Friday, the Arizona and Utah game was also canceled after several Utes’ players tested positive for COVID-19. Neither Utah nor Cal had the minimum number of scholarship athletes available to play their games.
Lake said the UW and Arizona administrations discussed trying to pull together a game between their programs, but it was too difficult logistically. The Huskies equipment truck left for Berkeley on Wednesday and had to turn around. One of the teams would have also faced the challenge of organizing meals and travel for more than 100 people.
“I know both sides wanted to get it done,” Lake said. “This isn’t pick-up basketball where it’s just like, ‘Hey, let’s go play in three hours.’ There’s a lot of logistics going on with pads and equipment being shipped and obviously, they were getting things shipped to different locations.
“’I think in a different situation, if teams know earlier in the week, we could get this thing done if there is going to be cancellations along the way. But it would have been a logistical nightmare and it just couldn’t happen.”’
Because the Pac-12 started its season late, the conference doesn’t have any bye weeks worked into its seven-game schedule. When the plan was announced, the hope was that rapid testing would allow teams to quarantine positive cases and all but eliminate the need for game cancellations. Just one week into the season, that hope has been dashed.
“It’s obviously a tough situation,” Lake said. “This is what the interesting thing about what this whole situation is: we can do everything in our power to sure the virus is not in our building, our staff is healthy and our players are healthy but if our opponent is not healthy week in and week out, there’s chances of us missing games, which we’ve already missed one.
“It’s a unique situation none of us have had to deal with. I’m proud of our players. I’m proud of how they’ve responded to this. They’ve responded with great energy on Saturday and Sunday in preparation for our next opponent. All we can control is making sure the virus doesn’t come in this building and get ready for our game this Saturday.”
Looking ahead
Neither Utah nor Cal reportedly had enough players test positive for that alone to cause cancellations. Instead, contact tracing protocols forced numerous other athletes into quarantine. In the Pac-12, the decision about how many players should be quarantined and whether or not games are canceled are left up to the universities and local health authorities.
UCLA, who had a player test positive before its game at Colorado, played its game on Saturday as scheduled. Per Pac-12 protocols, a point-of-care antigen test is given to all players and on-field officials on game day.
Meanwhile, the City of Berkeley Public Health Department requires any individual who came in close contact with a positive COVID-19 case to quarantine for 14 days, which canceled the game against UW and could also keep Cal from facing Arizona State on Nov. 14.
“From the details I have heard that happened (at Cal), that would not happen at the University of Washington,” Lake said. “Our medical advisory team’s done an amazing job, and our medical team here. How the contact tracing works and all the protocols that we go through, the exact situation that happened down there would not happen here at the University of Washington.’’
UW will now turn its attention to its fourth scheduled 2020 season opener: Oregon State on Saturday. But despite Lake’s tireless optimism, he’s prepared for yet another interruption.
“It feels like we’re surprised anymore,” he said. “We’re not even surprised anymore. It’s just, OK, here we go. It’s on to the next. And let’s build a plan and let’s get ready to go. That’s all you can do at this point. … And that’s just how it has to be, and don’t be surprised by it.
“As we sit here right now, the schedule could change by the end of the day and I would not be surprised. I would not be surprised. And we’ll be ready to move on and go. Like we talked about when the pandemic first started, the teams and the staffs that just put their heads down and keep working and grind through this thing are going to be the ones that come out on top successful.”
This story was originally published November 9, 2020 at 3:11 PM with the headline "How coach Jimmy Lake, UW Huskies moved forward after Cal cancellation."
