N.C. public high schools can practice football next week, but Charlotte, Wake will wait
South Mecklenburg High football coach Joe Evans spent most of his weekend as an umpire for youth baseball games in Union County.
And that’s one of the reasons he’s so disappointed that Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools won’t allow its athletic teams to begin summer practices until July 6.
Monday morning, the N.C. High School Athletic Association announced it was ending its dead period, which had stopped all high school athletics statewide since March. That will allow its more than 400 member schools to return to the field as early as June 15, so long as local school systems allow it.
Like Mecklenburg, Union County and Wake County Schools — North Carolina’s largest school system — will also not start until at least July 6.
“It was the greatest thing, to ref a bunch of 12-year-old baseball players,” Evans said, “to see black kids, white kids, Hispanic kids, all kinds of young men, just out there playing a sport. They had so much fun. Sports is a universal language. With all the things going on right now, sports means a lot more than just the score on the scoreboard or your record at the end of the year.”
As the coronavirus pandemic continues to gain ground in North Carolina, school systems are making tough decisions about when and whether to return to high school athletics. And the virus is affecting different counties in different ways.
As of Monday afternoon:
▪ In Mecklenburg County, there have been 5,682 confirmed cases of COVID-19, and 110 reported deaths related to the disease.
A week ago, Mecklenburg had 4,412 cases and 92 deaths.
Some of the counties that border, or are near, Mecklenburg were much less affected. Union County to the south, for example, had 592 cases and 21 deaths through Monday. Cabarrus had 599 cases and 23 deaths.
▪ Wake County had 2,300 cases and 40 deaths as of Monday. A week ago, Wake County had 1,773 cases and 39 deaths.
▪ Durham County had 2,180 confirmed cases and 48 deaths and of Monday afternoon. Orange County had 405 cases and 40 deaths.
▪ Chatham County, which is immediately southwest of Wake County, has 733 death and 36 deaths. Johnston County, which touches Wake County’s eastern border, has 634 cases and 20 deaths.
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools’ system athletic director Sue Doran said, via email, that waiting to start until July 6 will “enable CMS to put in place appropriate procedures, train staff, and secure necessary equipment to enable a safe return.”
Doran said CMS workouts that begin next month will only involve fall teams, not winter sports like basketball and wrestling, and she said they would be limited to outdoor conditioning. The CMS workouts will not include using weights or other skill development equipment.
“Obviously,” said Evans, the second-year South Mecklenburg football coach, “we’d rather go on June 15 because that’s almost a month of time (compared with starting July 6) without your players, but we really don’t have a choice in the matter. People above us make those decisions and we go by it. You make the best of it.”
Wake County athletic director Deran Coe said July 6 “would be the earliest” that Raleigh-area schools would return to the fields.
“We are reviewing the NCHSAA guidelines,” Coe said, “so that when we return we are returning in as safe a manner possible for our student athletes and coaches. We need to put a protocol in place and need time to make sure our facilities are safe and our coaches are prepared for our student-athletes to return for safe participation.”
Elsewhere, Iredell-Statesville County schools will start June 15. Durham County District AD David Hackney said the county was assembling a task force to come up with a plan for moving forward. It planned to make an announcement later this week.
Schools in Johnston County are awaiting word from the school board. One school, Cleveland High, has been collecting Personal Protective Equipment in preparation for a return.
“We are well prepared and set up to do workouts at Cleveland. We have been collecting materials and developing a plan to return safely,” Rams’ head football coach Scott Riley said in an email to the News & Observer. “While we are prepared we are still awaiting word from Johnston County Public Schools for approval to return next Monday.”
Some N.C. Independent Schools, including Providence Day and Charlotte Christian, began football workouts Monday with basketball workouts set to begin Tuesday.
Like the NCISAA schools, the NCHSAA schools received a set of guidelines to return in what commissioner Tucker is calling Phase 1.
They include:
▪ A required physical examination form along with an initial screening form for each player before workouts begin.
▪ Players undergoing daily temperature and symptoms checks, along with guidelines regarding cleaning schedules, use of masks, hand sanitizer availability and limits on numbers of athletes allowed outside (25, including staff) and inside (10, including staff).
▪ Strongly encouraging schools to have licensed athletic trainers and first responders on site.
Tucker said response has been mixed on how the NCHSAA has handled summer workouts, beginning with pushing back the start of activities from a planned June 1 date.
“I have had some emails from parents suggesting that we shouldn’t have extended the dead period,” Tucker said, “and they felt it was wrong. They said, ‘Kids need sports and activities.’
“Some people have the message mixed up. Some people think we’re making decisions right now to resume sports in the fall. We’re not there yet. We’re trying to do something right now for the coming weeks.”
Schools that begin workouts June 15 will be able to go for two weeks before the next scheduled dead period runs June 29-July 6.
Staff writer Jonas Pope contributed to this story.
This story was originally published June 8, 2020 at 9:48 AM with the headline "N.C. public high schools can practice football next week, but Charlotte, Wake will wait."
