COVID-19 protocols sideline Charlotte 49ers basketball coach Ron Sanchez
Charlotte 49ers men’s basketball coach Ron Sanchez will miss his team’s next two games because of contact tracing and COVID-19 protocols.
Sanchez will miss Saturday’s home game against North Carolina A&T and a road game at George Washington on Tuesday, the 49ers athletic department announced Friday.
Assistant coach Aaron Ferne will coach those two games for the 49ers (2-3) in Sanchez’s absence.
“I have complete faith in our coaching staff to lead our team through these times,” Sanchez said in a prepared statement. “Our players have proven resilient and they will be able to work through this challenge.”
The pandemic has hit the 49ers’ athletic department hard. The men’s basketball program had to temporarily suspend practices and meetings in mid-October due a cluster of seven cases within the program.
The football team had eight games postponed or canceled. Football coach Will Healy recently revealed, in an interview with the Observer, that he had COVID-19 this fall.
COVID-19 cases are way up in North Carolina, with a record 8,444 new positive cases reported Thursday.
