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Interview: Chris Plonsky Discusses Texas’ Plan For Bringing Sports Back

University of Texas women’s Athletic Director Chris Plonsky talks about Texas’ reasons for staying with the Big 12 athletic conference with 10 teams after last week’s departure of Nebraska and Colorado to the PAC-10. (Photo by Robert Daemmrich Photography Inc/Corbis via Getty Images)

Chris Plonsky is the Chief of Staff and Executive Senior Associate Athletics Director at the University of Texas. She previously served as the Women’s AD at Texas, and has worked in college athletics for over 40 years. Below, she spoke with Just Women’s Sports about how UT is working to come back, the importance of reviving college football, and what comes next. 

What is Texas’ plan for reopening? And how has the university handled going virtual? 

We’re hoping to bring back some of our athletes by July 1st. That is the plan, but it could change. We’ve been in online learning for a while now, like most campuses, and it has been a difficult adjustment. Texas is not one of those campuses that had a massive online course offering beforehand. We’re a real big, touchy-feely campus. I hate to say that, but we really are. The humanities and the personal presentation part of teaching here has been at the heart of our institution forever. I think it’s why our education is so good.

Kids are now digital natives so they’ve really managed it well. From a sports perspective, it’s been devastating mentally because it was so sudden. I think kids are more resilient than us old people, but our coaches, they’re almost stir-crazy. We have a coaches’ Zoom meeting once a week and they’re so pent up right now. They want to be able to do more. We hope there’s a way that some sort of normalcy can be approached. But it’s certainly going to be in waves because as we know, even with little baby openings, we’re not ready yet, and we won’t be for a while.

The state is starting to reopen. What are some of the sanitation measures that have been put in place? 

Starting on Monday, there were 30 essential football-related staff employees who were permitted to go back to work. At the front of our North End Zone, we have a screening station, and employees had to pre-submit a questionnaire. Do you have any symptoms? Have you been in contact? There’s temperature-taking, boom, right there done by two sports medicine personnel. You get a wristband if you pass muster, and then you go to your socially distanced area. You have to wear a mask. And it’s very likely when we have student athletes back, they’re going to probably have to wear a mask to work out.

So much of the national conversation revolves around whether football can come back. Could you explain why that sport is so important to the bigger picture? 

The economic driver for those of us in the Power Five conferences is football, and the donations, ticket purchases and television that are tied to football. Right now, we’re slashing budgets just like the other schools you read about. We haven’t spent much at all. We’ve turned off the spigots, except what we need to keep our kids on scholarship and people on payroll and services through remote means.

But we literally have to have that sustaining economic engine of football in some form. Even if it’s football with limited fans, or football on television only — can you imagine the TV ratings? We saw that the WNBA and the NFL virtual draft ratings were some of the highest ever. So we’re hoping and crossing our fingers.

If you sat in our coaches’ Zoom meeting with us Wednesday morning, you would have seen every coach from golf to volleyball to softball to baseball just saying, “We understand it. You guys have to prepare first to see if the football staff and students can return in graduated ways, at whatever time frame the leadership of local agencies, health agencies, and our conference set.” Because if we can keep people healthy, socially distanced with hygiene and sanitation practices in place, and if we can keep the football team healthy in whatever six week period they say they need to train before a season starts, then we will have a blueprint for the other sports. That’s sort of the Texas plan right now, if you will.

So if some type of adjusted football season happens, let’s say no fans, but broadcast money is there, do you guys think that’s enough to support the rest of the programs for the year?

It would be enough if we have some football, but it’s certainly going to be adjusted. Our non-conference schedules are likely to be continually adjusted as we lead towards September. Sports whose competitive seasons are in the spring but do a lot in the fall might have to sacrifice a squeeze in the fall in order to have their spring season. We’re already having schools call us to say they can’t travel to Austin in the fall. As we go forward, there might be a surprise a day.

We can regionalize. We’re lucky, because we’re in Texas, so most of our conference opponents are nearby. The beauty of conferences is you might keep your regular season schedule. It just might need to be compressed to save money. But being in a geographically proximate, busable location, as Texas is, could be really helpful in this COVID environment.

This is where you really find out about your culture and your fabric. You’ve got to plan for every extreme. We’re going to prepare for all possibilities, but we need to stay positive.

How would you describe the overall outlook of your group given the uncertainty surrounding the situation? 

I think there’s a fighter’s spirit in all of us that are involved in athletics. We’ve all learned to deal with adversity, because that’s what sports are about. We love to learn. We love to compete. And when you lose, you learn from losses and you recover to try to get ready for the next win. You know there’s going to be another opportunity. So trying to get this done and achieve in some fashion is where we’re going to start. And then we’ll face whatever comes to us and we’ll be ready for that.

At the heart of all of this is who we’re serving. We desperately want to give our student athletes, both men and women, the opportunity to represent our school and to compete. And to do anything less than that, it would be heart-wrenching for us and them.

At some point our national health experts are going to get their arms around this and they already are making incredible progress. The question is when and how. The tough part of this will be keeping ourselves self-sustaining. If certain avenues of revenue do not appear, the next natural thing will occur. And that I think is very applicable to what all athletic departments are going through right now. It’s collaborative, it’s transparent, it’s good communication, but it’s also very hopeful. And I think what we can count on is that we’ve got really creative, incredibly intense competitive minds here that care about young people.

US Tennis Stars Advance as Wimbledon Field Narrows

Italy's Jasmine Paolini celebrates her first-round win over Latvia's Anastasija Sevastova at the 2025 Wimbledon Championships
World No. 4 Jasmine Paolini fell in the second round of the 2025 Wimbledon Championships on Wednesday. (Daniel Kopatsch/Getty Images)

The 2025 Wimbledon Championships wrapped its second round on Thursday, with the grass court Grand Slam seeing just 15 of the tournament's 32 seeded players advance to the Friday and Saturday's third round.

A full half of the WTA's Top 10 players did not survive the week, with 2024 Wimbledon finalist and world No. 5 Jasmine Paolini joining four first-round star exits by falling to unseeded Kamilla Rakhimova in a three-set, second-round battle on Wednesday.

At the same time, unseeded fan favorites like Japan's No. 53 Naomi Osaka and England's own No. 40 Emma Raducanu secured third-round spots at the London Slam, joining top surviving contenders like No. 4 Iga Świątek and defending Wimbledon champion No. 16 Barbora Krejčíková.

Notably, a full five US players managed to move ahead, tied for the largest national contingent still standing at the tournament.

Led by 2025 Australian Open champion No. 8 Madison Keys, the US group also includes No. 10 Emma Navarro and No. 12 Amanda Anisimova, as well as unseeded players No. 54 Danielle Collins and No. 55 Hailey Baptiste.

With matches against Świątek and No. 7 Mirra Andreeva, respectively, Collins and Baptiste have a tough third round ahead — though Navarro's battle against the 2024 champ Krejčíková arguably headlines Saturday's slate.

US tennis star Emma Navarro eyes a return during a 2025 Wimbledon match.
US star Emma Navarro will face 2024 champ Barbora Krejčíková in Wimbledon's Round of 32. (Rob Newell/CameraSport via Getty Images)

How to watch Wimbledon this weekend

While world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka is still holding strong in the dwindling field, this year's Wimbledon play is proving that the London Slam is anyone's to take, as the grass court humbles even the sport's top stars.

Expect the twists and turns to continue as tennis's best battle for spots in Sunday's Round of 16.

Round-of-32 Wimbledon play kicks off at 6 AM ET on Friday, with live continuous coverage of the tournament airing on ESPN.

Finland Opens Women’s Euro 2025 with Upset Upset Win Over Iceland

Finland's Katariina Kosola and Emma Koivisto celebrate a goal during their opening 2025 Euro match.
Finland earned a surprise 1-0 win over Iceland in their 2025 Euro opener on Wednesday. (Alexander Hassenstein/Getty Images)

The 2025 European Championship is officially underway, as Euro action kicked off with a group-stage upset on Wednesday.

Though the 2025 UEFA tournament's opener was a sweltering affair amid a European heat wave, world No. 26 Finland prevailed, earning a 1-0 upset win over No. 14 Iceland in Group A.

Finnish winger Katariina Kosola played hero, curling in the winning goal in the match's 70th minute — just 12 minutes after Iceland midfielder Hildur Antonsdóttir picked up the competition's first red card.

"The result is important for our confidence," Kosola said after Finland's first major tournament win since the 2009 Euro. "It was the kind of goal I have been practicing a lot."

"It's terrible to lose and we feel frustrated," said Iceland head coach Thorsteinn Halldórsson. "It is an even group and we knew Finland were good, but our first half wasn't good enough."

Elsewhere, No. 16 Norway closed out Wednesday's slate on top of Group A, taking three points by defeating host No. 23 Switzerland in day's second match.

Led by captain and 2018 Ballon d'Or winner Ada Hegerberg — who pulled the match even with a second-half strike — Norway battled to a 2-1 comeback win, despite the Swiss side outshooting and out-possessing the Norwegians.

Spain jersey hang in lockers ahead of the team's 2025 Euro opening match against Portugal.
Reigning World Cup champions Spain will open their 2025 Euro account against Portugal. (Aitor Alcalde - UEFA/UEFA via Getty Images)

How to watch this week's 2025 Euro action

Group B steals the 2025 Euro spotlight on Thursday.

While No. 13 Italy snagged a 1-0 opening win over No. 20 Belgium to kick off the day, 2023 World Cup champions and tournament favorite No. 2 Spain will face No. 22 Portugal at 3 PM ET.

Friday's Group C slate will pit No. 12 Denmark against No. 6 Sweden at 12 PM ET, before No. 3 Germany contends with No. 27 Poland at 3 PM ET.

Closing out the first group-stage matches will be arguably the toughest draw of the 2025 Euro pool.

Saturday's Group D slate features major tournament debutants No. 30 Wales against the No. 11 Netherlands at 12 PM ET, with No. 10 France taking on defending champions No. 5 England to cap the day at 3 PM ET.

Live coverage of 2025 Euro matches will air across Fox Sports platforms.

USWNT Caps Summer Friendlies with 3-0 Canada Shutout

Yazmeen Ryan, Michelle Cooper, Claire Hutton, Mandy McGlynn, and Izzy Rodriguez and the rest of the USWNT huddle after their July 2025 friendly win over Canada.
The USWNT finished the summer international window with 11 goals, conceding none, across three matches. (Brad Smith/ISI Photos/USSF/Getty Images)

The world No. 1 USWNT ruled the pitch on Wednesday night, shutting out North American rivals No. 8 Canada 3-0 to finish the international window on a high note.

Catching the Canada backline sleeping, US midfielder Sam Coffey opened the scoring at the 17-minute mark before 19-year-old Claire Hutton claimed her first-ever USWNT goal by heading in a Rose Lavelle corner kick in the game's 36th minute.

Houston Dash forward Yazmeen Ryan then padded the US tally in the waning minutes of the match, finding the back of the net just eight minutes after subbing onto the field.

Despite fielding a young roster, the US overpowered a veteran-heavy Canada side in almost every category, topping their Northern neighbors in shots, shots on target, possession, and — most notably — set pieces.

Canada ultimately couldn't match the game's mental pace or physical battle, as the USWNT scored all three goals off dead ball situations — a free kick, a corner kick, and a throw-in.

"It's not about the opponent," US head coach Emma Hayes said after the match. "It's about what we do, and I felt that was extremely dominant."

With Wednesday's contributions, the USWNT finishes the summer window with 11 goals scored across the three friendlies — and zero goals conceded.

The US now enters an extended break before reconvening for another as-yet-unannounced friendly series in October — but players will be expected to perform in the meantime.

"I said to the players in the end in the huddle, if you want to compete to win the biggest things, it's not what you do here that matters," said Hayes. "It's what you do when you go back to your club."

Seattle Storm Looks to Climb the WNBA Standings in Weekend Gauntlet

Seattle Storm star Nneka Ogwumike high-fives teammates as she's introduced before a 2025 WNBA game.
The No. 5 Seattle Storm will face No. 4 Atlanta and No. 3 New York this weekend. (Soobum Im/NBAE via Getty Images)

The 2025 WNBA regular season returns on Thursday night, with teams at the top of the league standings looking to prove their mettle against close competition across the long holiday weekend.

The No. 5 Seattle Storm have arguably the toughest weekend assignments, taking on the No. 4 Atlanta Dream on Friday before tackling the No. 3 New York Liberty on Sunday.

Four middle-of-the-pack teams will look to close in on a double-digit season win tally while the league's frontrunners strive to maintain their advantage in this weekend's slate:

  • No. 7 Las Vegas Aces vs. No. 8 Indiana Fever, Thursday at 7 PM ET (Prime): Though still without star Caitlin Clark, the Fever hope to harness their 2025 WNBA Commissioner's Cup victory momentum against an Aces side tied with Indiana with an 8-8 season record.
  • No. 5 Seattle Storm vs. No. 4 Atlanta Dream, Thursday at 7:30 PM ET (WNBA League Pass): Seattle will look to make strides against a strong Atlanta side while putting last Sunday's stinging 84-57 loss to up-and-comer Golden State in their rearview.
  • No. 6 Golden State Valkyries vs. No. 1 Minnesota Lynx, Saturday at 8 PM ET (WNBA League Pass): The rising Valkyries must face a Lynx side hunting redemption, as the league-leaders look to bounce back from their stifling Tuesday Commissioner's Cup upset loss.
  • No. 5 Seattle Storm vs. No. 3 New York Liberty, Sunday at 1 PM ET (CBS): With injured Liberty center Jonquel Jones still sidelined, the Seattle Storm will have a chance to steal a weekend game against the reigning champs, as New York struggles to re-find their footing.

With the 2025 WNBA All-Star break looming, early top performers must keep standards high if they want to hold the line when the season crosses the midway point.

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