BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – Today we continue SamfordSports.com's series giving alumni, fans and friends an in-depth video interview focused on the lives of our student-athletes, coaches and staff in the wake of COVID-19. In Friday's fourth episode, Jonathan McAfoos visits with women's basketball senior Olivia Crozier, who is currently working as a nurse at UAB Hospital.
 
Crozier was part of the eight-player senior class that helped lead the Bulldogs to the program's first regular-season Southern Conference title and third SoCon Tournament championship. Less than a week after winning the SoCon Tournament, however, the NCAA Tournament was canceled due to COVID-19.


 
Crozier said at first she did not think they would ever cancel the NCAA Tournament, but she quickly saw that things were headed in that direction.
 
"At first I was like, I really don't know if they're going to cancel the NCAA Tournament, just because it's such a big thing," Crozier said. "But, at the same time, I knew how other things were unfolding, like the NBA canceling, so I knew if they're canceling, we were probably going to get canceled."
 
At first the NCAA said they would probably play the tournament with just family and close friends in attendance, but it eventually announced the tournament would be canceled completely.
 
"They had dwindled down to where it was just going to be a couple of family members or something per person," Crozier said. "I thought that was going to be a good idea, because you could still keep the social distancing, but still make this an experience. But, then I got that text message sent in our group message as a team and it kind of just hit me like, wow, did this really actually just happen, this is crazy. At first, I actually started crying, because it's something you work toward for so long, and being a senior, that was my only chance. But at the same time, it's out of my control and there's nothing I can do about it."
 
Life his hectic for any student-athlete. Balancing school and a full practice and game schedule is tough for anyone, but for student-athletes in majors like nursing, it can be extra challenging.
 
"A normal day for me was going to clinical first for eight hours and then coming back and practicing for a couple of more hours, trying to get homework done, sleeping for a few hours, waking back up, going to clinical," Crozier said. "But my last semester, I was in my preceptorship in the ER at St. Vincent's East, and I was night shift. So there were a couple of days where I was up for 26 hours before I finally got to go to bed. I had to do an interview on 45 minutes of sleep one time. It was really, really crazy, but at the same time, in preparing me for the real world, if I could stay up for 26 hours straight and still perform and be sane, I can go through a 12-hour shift, no problem."
 
Crozier said she is grateful to all of her teammates, coaches and professors for supporting her throughout her time at Samford.
 
"I can thank my support system," Crozier said. "My teammates, my coaches always believing in me. But also, on the other side, all of my professors were always encouraging me, saying, we don't know how you do what you do, but we are always here if you ever need our help. I couldn't have done it without a support system like that."
 
Crozier started work as a nurse at UAB Hospital this week. She said her first week on the job was mostly learning.
 
"This week was orientation for us," Crozier said. "For UAB, just because of the normal need for nurses anyway out in the work force even before this pandemic happened, they didn't really want to push back the days that we were starting. So they said we're going to try this for the first time. We're going to do our orientation, mostly virtual, there's only going to be one day this week that you come in and it's to learn our computer system. When you come in, sign it, use germ-x, wash your hands, sit every other seat to make sure you're social distancing."
 
Crozier said when she goes back in next week, she will be assigned to a specific area.
 
"When I start next week, starting Thursday, I will be working on the heart and lung transplant, intensive care unit," Crozier said. "So hopefully no one on that floor will have the coronavirus, because that is not a floor you want to be around. More than likely, I'll be wearing a mask, 24-7, not only to protect myself, but to protect people that I'm with, because since I'm young and healthy, I could have it at some point and not even know, so we always have to take those precautions."
 
Crozier said she has friends who are already working in emergency rooms and neonatal intensive care units (NICU) that are effected directly by the pandemic.
 
"I actually have some friends that work in the ER at UAB," Crozier said. "And I have a really close friend who is going to be my roommate who works in the NICU at Children's. In the NICU, she is wearing a mask, 24-7, you're not allowed to have visitors there anymore regularly, just to protect everybody. In the ER, there are tons of people coming getting tested, people waiting to get on floors, it's just a lot of people coming in and out. There is one pod dedicated to people who don't have it, just to try and separate the people coming into the ER so you don't spread it."