Note: In just a span of days, the COVID-19 outbreak brought collegiate athletics to a halt while greatly impacting everyday aspects of life. Winter sports were canceled in the middle of NCAA Championships and spring sports were canceled with their seasons just beginning or in some cases, yet to begin. In our new "How We Adjust" series, Elmhurst's coaches and staff are discussing just how they dealt with the news that their seasons had ended and how they're adjusting to the current conditions. 
 
Elmhurst College Head Athletic Trainer Joe Mattingly and the rest of the Elmhurst Athletic Training staff (Katie Serpico, Ashley McGee and Danielle Osterman) were preparing to host a jammed-packed weekend of home athletic events when the COVID-19 outbreak began to change things day-to-day, and hour-to-hour. Mattingly and the athletic training staff were initially facing a lot of unknown.
 
"The immediate impact for us was simply the unknown," said Mattingly. "With this virus and its implications changing by the hour, we truly did not know what was going on. We were supposed to host the Sweet 16 for men's basketball, a tennis match, men's and women's lacrosse games and a softball doubleheader all in one weekend when the details began to change. We went from game on, to no fans for our Sweet 16 game, to eventually no games at all. It was a lot to process and being that the majority of our student-athletes look to us for medical guidance it was tough, as we did not have many answers. Most kids wanted us to tell them what was going to happen but nobody knew as these are truly unprecedented times. We tried our best to keep the student-athletes calm and informed."
 
Eventually, it sunk in that the winter championships and the spring sports seasons were over in an instant. The shock took its toll on the Elmhurst student-athletes and coaches, including the athletic training staff.
 
"Honestly, it was really tough and emotional for us as a staff," said Mattingly. "We all look forward to working games and after working all the preseason practices at crazy hours of the day, to see these sports seasons taken so prematurely was really hard. We see all the hard work that our student-athletes and coaches put in and we really felt awful for them. We also felt a feeling of sadness as we realized our staff would not be working together every day anymore. That was especially hard as we are really close group and spend a lot of time together."
 
As student-athletes headed off campus and prepared to begin taking classes online, Mattingly and the rest of the athletic training staff was working quickly to address student-athletes who were currently rehabbing from injuries.

"For our athletes with simple nagging injuries or soreness, they were just instructed to rest and give their bodies time to heal," he said. "For longer-lasting injuries, we gave the student-athletes take-home exercise packets to continue their treatments at home. For post-operative student-athletes, we referred them to [the closest] Athletico by their homes or the clinic in Elmhurst where they could continue their rehab."

Even though they're not currently on campus, the athletic training staff continues to find a way to work with the Elmhurst student-athletes.

"We connect with our student-athletes weekly through text, email, team sync or phone calls," Mattingly stated. "We have a great website we use for home exercise programs where we can develop unique programs for each student-athlete and send them instructions on how to complete each one. We have also reminded our coaching staff to please encourage their student-athletes to reach out to us any time, any day so we can assist them and get them the help they need."

With Illinois working under a stay at home order, Mattingly and the training staff are still finding ways to work together, albeit not in person.

"Our staff communicates every day through text or call," he said. "We have a weekly video meeting to update each other on what we are doing, how to help our athletes and just a general well check-up on each other. The mental aspect of what this virus is doing to everybody will cause a great strain on people if we do not check on one another and support each other."

Despite not having student-athletes to work with in person on a daily basis, the athletic training staff still has plenty to focus on over the coming weeks.

"We are checking in with our athletes as much as possible, creating those home exercise programs, working on next year's budget and also working on our athletic training manual," said Mattingly. "We have also ramped up our social media account and are giving daily tips and facts as well as creating online videos to demonstrate different exercises for our students while they are at home. Lastly, we are taking some time to go over our base knowledge in Athletic Training and seeing how we can improve on what we know by using online learning." 

A father of two young daughters, Mattingly spends the rest of his free time with his family and like the rest of the country, has started finding some shows to binge watch.

"Personally, I am spending much appreciated time with my two daughters and trying to keep them occupied. We try and go on walks and work on their homework, anything to keep them from going stir crazy because they truly do not understand what is going on. My wife and I have also started watching Parks and Rec recently to give us a good laugh because we all could use one right now."