UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — The challenges of conducting intercollegiate athletics during the coronavirus pandemic will be discussed by President Eric Barron and top Penn State Intercollegiate Athletics administrators during the next episode of WPSU’s “Digging Deeper” on Sunday, Dec. 13.

Charmelle Green, senior woman administrator and senior associate athletic director of student-athlete performance and health and welfare; Renee Messina, assistant athletic director for athletic training services; and Josh Nelson, assistant athletic director of applied health and performance services, will join Barron for the discussion.

WPSU’s “Digging Deeper: College Athletics during COVID-19” will air at 10:30 a.m. and 6:30 p.m. on WPSU-TV and can be streamed on live.wpsu.org. WPSU is a Penn State Outreach service.

Nelson says returning to competition was important for student-athletes to feel part of the University community again.

“I think that in itself is a massive reason why we want to get them back on the field,” he said. “It provides such a great opportunity for growth as an athlete, but just as a person in the college community.”

Messina said that returning to competition has important benefits from a health and welfare standpoint.

“Student-athletes competing at this level here have largely committed much of their teenage years and since they were very young training to become an elite athlete,” she said. “The opportunity to allow our student-athletes to get back to doing what they've devoted so much of their life to doing, I think is really important, not just from a physical health and welfare standpoint, but from a mental health one as well.”

WPSU’s “Digging Deeper” explores how work being done at the University impacts the broader community. Penn State senior Rhea Jha serves as co-host and rounds out each episode by asking Barron questions that are on the minds of students, faculty, staff and community members.

Visit the WPSU website for more information on central Pennsylvania’s public media station.