Boise State assistant coach tests positive for coronavirus, urges people to stay home
Boise State outside linebackers coach and co-special teams coordinator Zac Alley said Tuesday on a conference call with reporters that he tested positive for the coronavirus about a week ago and spent a day in the hospital, but he is currently symptom free.
Alley is the first known Boise State coach to publicly acknowledge testing positive, and he said as far as he knows, no other coach on the football staff has shown symptoms.
He showed no symptoms himself until the virus came on quickly a little over a week ago.
“I had no symptoms, no anything,” he said. “And in about a 24-hour period, I went from zero to 100.”
Alley said the worst of his symptoms was a severe pain in his chest and shortness of breath. On the insistence of his girlfriend, he went to the emergency room, and he said the nurses and doctors who treated him told him it was a good thing he did.
“Every breath was like taking a knife and sticking it through your ribs,” said Alley, adding he originally thought he had somehow injured his ribs. “As a young, healthy person, I didn’t think it would affect me as drastically as it did.”
Alley, 26, said he and his girlfriend were staying home for about eight days before he came down with the virus, and the only place he’d been was the grocery store. He said his girlfriend also recently had a head cold but wasn’t tested for COVID-19 and was also currently symptom free. COVID-19 is the disease caused by the coronavirus.
Alley had some advice for anyone still not taking stay-home orders and social distancing seriously.
“Don’t be out there getting around. It’s not fun,” Alley said. “We don’t live in a spirit of fear, but at the same time, you’ve got to be smart about it. If something feels off or different or wrong for you, at least get checked out.”
Alley is in his second season on the Broncos’ coaching staff, and moved to outside linebackers this year after working with the inside linebacker last season. He and running backs coach Winston Venable are co-special teams coordinators.
This story was originally published April 7, 2020 at 1:39 PM.
