Advertisement

Cleveland State coach Chris Kielsmeier tests positive for coronavirus

Chris Kielsmeier, the Cleveland State women's coach, announced he tested positive for the coronavirus on Saturday night.
Chris Kielsmeier, the Cleveland State women's coach, announced he tested positive for the coronavirus on Saturday night. (Justin Casterline/Getty Images)

Cleveland State women’s coach Chris Kielsmeier has tested positive for COVID-19, the school announced on Saturday night, marking the first confirmed case of the coronavirus at the university.

Kielsmeier just wrapped up his second season with the Vikings, and posted a 21-11 record.

[ Coronavirus: How the sports world is responding to the pandemic ]

“We appreciate Chris doing the right thing by staying home and alerting us as soon as he started feeling ill,” Cleveland State president Harlan Sands said in a statement. “His actions were helpful in limiting exposure to the CSU community.”

Kielsmeier is the latest figure in the sports world in the United States to announce that he has the coronavirus. Utah Jazz players Rudy Gobert and Donovan Mitchell were diagnosed with it earlier this week, and a Detroit Pistons player. Their positive tests prompted the NBA to quickly suspend operations on Wednesday night. Nearly every other sports league in the country has followed suit in recent days, postponing or canceling events for the foreseeable future.

Cleveland State announced that it would suspend all non-essential on-campus operations and begin offering classes remotely for all students when they return from spring break.

As of Saturday night, there were 26 confirmed cases of the coronavirus in Ohio, according to the New York Times, and nearly 2,700 cases across the country.

While Kielsmeier didn’t say when he started noticing symptoms or how severe they were, he did say that he was improving.

“It has been a very challenging couple of days,” Kielsmeier said in a statement. “I am beginning to feel better and look forward to getting back to 100 percent.”

More from Yahoo Sports: