On the front lines of the fight against COVID-19, you'll find many former student-athletes from Loyola University Chicago.
 
All have charged in headlong, with some putting their personal lives on complete hold as they work to heal others 
 
"I enjoy being here," said Dr. Billy Clark, an Indiana University anesthesia resident working in internal medicine. Clark spoke recently from the county hospital in Indianapolis.
 
"We're definitely working more with this," he said. "The tough part for me, I have an 18-month-old and my wife is pregnant, due in July. So, I sent them home to my in-laws house because I don't want to bring anything home and get them sick. That's been a tough thing, just dealing with that. Basically, it's just me and my dog sitting at home when I do get home."
 
Clark played basketball for the Ramblers, graduating in in 2014. He started in 2015 at University of South Carolina School of Medicine in Greenville, South Carolina, graduating in 2019 before matching into anesthesiology at Indiana University. 
 
Former soccer standouts Laura Trevillian and Vivien Schultz are working as hospital nurses in the Chicago area. 
 
All are seeing firsthand what the COVID-19 pandemic has wrought. 
 
"I think it's just the uncertainty," said Trevillian, who is working as a nurse at Edward Hospital in Naperville, Illinois, while pursuing a master's degree at Lewis University with the goal of become a family nurse practitioner. "We get a lot of emails every day. It's never settling, ever, no matter what part of your life. So not knowing with 100 percent confidence that, 'You should wear these gowns and this mask,' and then the next shift we change because there's a new recommendation. 
 
"When we were in school, you knew how to dress up for certain isolations. You know how to do that. But when it comes down to something that we're not sure of such as how it transmits because it's never happened like this before. It's a little unsettling."
 
Trevillian graduated from Loyola in 2011 with a degree in biology before heading to Lewis University for nursing and her master's degree.
 
Schultz has been working at Advocate Christ Hospital in the cardiac ICU. She said she wants eventually to "keep learning and eventually get certified in critical care."
 
She is undergoing trial by fire now. 
 
"It's been crazy so far," she said. "It's all we talk about at work. It's really affecting my unit at little bit because I'm in ICU, and it's just kind of nerve-wracking because you know that something is going to be coming, but you don't know what. We're kind of waiting for the hits like every other country is.
 
"It's a very high-critical unit. We're one of the only Advocate sites that can handle ECMO, which is the highest level of care. So if we get a patient that has coronavirus, we think they'll come to our unit. That's why we're trying to prepare as much as we can."
 
As former athletes, these three medical professionals are able to draw on their experience on the soccer pitch or the basketball court in their current situations.  
 
During her Loyola soccer career, which began in 2007, Trevillian helped the Ramblers to a pair of NCAA Tournament appearances and was named an All-Horizon League player in 2008. Just as today's events are providing perspective, Trevillian said she learned perspective while rehabbing from injury. 
 
"When I was at Loyola and I was going into my senior year, I tore my posterior cruciate ligament," she said. "I thought it was like the worst thing in the world, and, 'Why did this happen?' And so many good things happened after that I can't even tell you. Jordan Hicks (former Loyola basketball star), when I was injured, he and I ended up in therapy pool together. That's how we became friends, which transpired into me meeting his mom. We were that close.
 
"I was hanging out with his mom before she passed. I told her (Jordan) would always be a part of my family. That was one good thing. Because I went there, I ended up meeting my husband. We've known each other forever but we ended up rekindling because of how that worked out."
 
For his part, Clark has found that being a former student-athlete has helped open doors during the course of his education, and for all the right reasons: time management, hard work and self discipline.
 
"Absolutely without a doubt," he said without hesitation. "Actually, when I was applying to medical school when I interviewed and I mentioned that I was an athlete and they said, and this is a direct quote from the dean of the medical school: 'That changes everything.' He explained that they love having athletes because of what you just mentioned. We are forced to be very good at time management. You have to be adaptable. You have to work with a diverse group of people. You learn to be a leader among people with different backgrounds."
 
Of historical interest, Clark's father, Bobby, was a member of the Ramblers' Sweet Sixteen men's basketball team in 1985. 
 
"His team was definitely more successful than mine with his team going to the Sweet Sixteen," Clark said. "But I've been a Loyola fan my whole life. My dad played, and both of my grandfathers played. My mom's dad (William McCarthy) is in the Hall of Fame at Loyola for basketball. My dad's dad also played there. My dad probably had the most success out of all of us team wise. My sons are already committed, 18 months and due in July. The Clark boys, that's what we do. We go to Loyola."
 
And in a humorous vein, Clark said the Ramblers' run to the Final Four in 2018 has brought him his fair share of attention. 
 
"It's been really awesome," he said. "In all 10 (med school) interviews, the leading theme was, 'Oh, my God, you played at Loyola?' Where before, people couldn't even pronounce it. They thought it was a Division III school. And now all of a sudden, I'm some star basketball player because that team went to the Final Four.
 
"It happened right at the time we're applying to residency. Everybody's heard of us now. I've turned into some all-star basketball player."
 
For Clark, Trevillian and Schultz, all were stars in their own right at Loyola. Now they're starring in even more important roles. 
 
Perhaps Schultz had the best bit of parting advice for today's trying times. 
 
"I know it's frustrating for a lot of people to stay in and the social distance and to kind of put a hold on their lives," she said. "But just know it's for the good of the whole nation. the social distancing part isn't about them as much as it is about those who are immune compromised and who need it."
 
 
Bruce Miles is a 1979 graduate of the Loyola University Chicago College of Arts and Sciences. He worked for the Daily Herald in Arlington, Heights, Illinois, from 1988-2019. He served as the Herald's beat writer covering the Chicago Cubs from 1998-2019.