Paschal addressed the return of workouts at the training facility, the upcoming football season, and the team’s reaction to the Black Lives Matter movement.
June 9, 2020 – Bradley Charles – Bluegrass Sports Nation
We’re over a week into June and the UK football season opener is less than three months away. As excitement for the upcoming season continues to build, the UK football team resumed in-person workouts at the training facility on Monday, while still managing to cooperate with COVID-19 guidelines.
Earlier today, UK defensive end Josh Paschal spoke with the media via Zoom about a number of things, including how glad he is to finally be back at it. Paschal said, “Everybody is just appreciating being back and just appreciating even just going to workouts and pulling up to the facility (and) getting out. We’re appreciating warmups, being dead from workouts and things of that sort. Being sore is such a good feeling now.”
While UK football fans have high hopes for the upcoming season, a lot of people outside of BBN are still doubting the Cats. When Paschal was asked if the team was motivated by some people predicting the Cats to only get five or six wins this season, he said, “Yeah, this happens every year. They always say we’ll win five games (and) finish close to last in the (SEC) east. But every single year they do that, that just adds fire to the tank. It just gives me chills, because I’m just ready to play football and just ready to prove everybody wrong. This whole team, we’re a brotherhood and I just feel like this year is going to be something special.”
Paschal also discussed the protocol and guidelines that allows the team to be able to workout at the training facility amidst the ongoing pandemic. According to Paschal, before they go to the facility, each player has to answer a mobile survey which asks them if they have experienced a fever above 100 or certain symptoms since they last left the facility. Once the players arrive at the facility, a trainer checks their temperature and asks them if anything has changed since they filled out the mobile survey.
Workouts are done with great precaution. The players must stay at least six feet apart and wear masks throughout the session. Any piece of equipment that has to be used by multiple individuals is sanitized after each use.
It’s clear that UK is taking great precautions with the return of players to the training facility. In fact, Paschal said that he wasn’t at all concerned about returning to the training facility amidst the ongoing pandemic. Paschal said, “…We’re basically in the safest place in Lexington right now over at the facility.” Paschal went into greater detail towards the end of the press conference, which can be found here.
The junior was also asked about the team’s participation in the Black Lives Matter march which took place in downtown Lexington last Friday. Paschal said, “This is a time where I feel like the team is united. We’re all fighting for the same cause and we all were on Friday also. I know that every single one of my teammates, no matter the color of their skin, they all have our backs, specifically the black players. We know we have the support of our white teammates and vice-versa. We’re a brotherhood and we really showed that on Friday.”
While the last few months have been quite hectic, it appears that football is right around the corner and that’s something for which we can all be thankful. To watch the entire press conference, click here.