11/12/2020 football Edit

Beavers Announce One COVID-19 Positive, Three Others In Quarantine

Brenden Slaughter • BeaversEdge

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Oregon State Athletic Director Scott Barnes informed the media on Thursday afternoon that the football program has had one player test positive for COVID-19, and that three others are currently in quarantine.

"We have one positive test and three others in quarantine," Barnes said. "We've had no positives the past couple of days and I will tell you that we are absolutely playing on Saturday."

The positive test came early in the week and from there, the contact-tracing process took place and determined that three other players would have to quarantine. Barnes said that it's not a specific position group.

Those four players will not be available for the team when they travel to Washington this Saturday and could be out beyond just this week as the quarantine process currently stands at a minimum of 10 days and a maximum of 14 days. The process began earlier this week, so the clock has already begun, it's just unclear how many days have passed.

"It's disappointing and we've got to use this as a learning experience to never let our guard down," head coach Jonathan Smith said. "We've been supportive of those four and our team has been as well."

Oregon State will be releasing prior to the start of Saturday's game who the identities are of the players who are currently quarantining. Barnes also said that the Beavers have conducted approximately 9,000 COVID-19 tests since June 1st and that 20 of them have come back positive.

Moving forward, the athletic department will be releasing football-specific COVID-19 numbers on a weekly basis to keep all parties informed.

"With everything going on, it's not shocking," Smith said. "You've got to reload and adjust and this whole season has been that way. We're focused on what we can control and not stress about what we can't. We've got four guys who are unavailable and so we move forward with four other guys who are ready to play."