Play in pandemic or keep parents safe? Charlotte two-sport standout puts family first
For most of the summer, some of the Carolinas’ best high school basketball players gathered in Rock Hill, almost weekly, to play travel basketball. College coaches couldn’t come, but many watched streaming broadcasts of the games. A lot of players received scholarship offers and earned national rankings.
Meanwhile, many of the state’s best high school football players have regularly competed in camps and combines throughout the state, sharpening their games and getting film they can send to college coaches.
One of the state’s best high school basketball and football players, Myers Park High’s Jacob Newman, wasn’t able to do any of it.
Newman’s football coach, Scott Chadwick, thinks he could be Power 5 level recruit in football. Rick Lewis, the state’s top high school basketball recruiting expert, invited Newman to this weekend’s annual N.C. Top 80 camp for the state’s best college prospects.
But Newman, a 5-foot-11 junior point guard and running back, hasn’t played any sport since his high school basketball season ended in February. His father has two underlying medical conditions that could put him at risk if he were exposed to COVID-19.
So no football. No basketball. And for now, no scholarships.
“It’s been hard,” Newman said. “I feel like if I was out there, I’d have an opportunity to get offers and get looked at. Your junior year is one of your biggest years for recruiting. Everybody knows that. So not being able to be out there, it’s been tough.”
Newman’s father, Tim, was an All-American football player at Division II Johnson C. Smith. Tim Newman played for the New York Jets and now works as a behavior modification technician for Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools.
“Staying at home,” Jacob Newman said, “and trying to be safe is bigger than basketball or football right now. Safety comes first and I want to make sure everybody that I’m near — especially my parents who I’ve got stay at home with — is safe.”
The games still go on
This weekend, Lewis will host the N.C. and S.C. Top 80. It’s his seventh year for North Carolina and sixth in South Carolina. Lewis said about a dozen of the invitees, like Newman, declined to participate. Games will be live-streamed, and the plan is to have teams of the best players from North Carolina play similar teams made up of S.C. stars.
Lewis usually runs tournaments and camps year-round, but the pandemic slammed the door on his Phenom Hoop Report business. When South Carolina eased restrictions in July, Lewis began holding tournaments again at the multi-court Rock Hill Sports & Events Center. The first was on the weekend of July 24. Lewis has held five more since then, each drawing an average of 130 teams, he said, from the Carolinas, Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, West Virginia and Virginia.
Lewis said he’s not heard of a positive COVID-19 case resulting from any of the events.
“We have not heard anything,” Lewis said. “We have not had one person come back and notify us that there’s been one case from our events. We’ve had teams drop out before they came to our events because somebody had been exposed to the virus. I think the protocols we’ve put in place have been very strict. I think we’re taking all the steps we can.”
Phenom Hoop Report requires all attendees, including coaches, to wear masks at all times. Fan attendance is limited, and teams and fans are asked to leave the gym after their game ends.
Players can only remove masks while playing. Players also fill out COVID questionnaires and all patrons and players must have their temperatures checked before they can enter the gym. Lewis has hand sanitizer stations throughout the building and sanitizer at each scorer’s table. He has also partnered with a company that manufacturers a special disinfectant spray that is used to clean basketballs, the scorer’s table and the bench areas between games.
At 63, Lewis knows he’s at an age that could make him susceptible to the disease.
“It’s a concern,” he said, “but it’s a concern that I could get it by going to the grocery store or going out to eat. With all the precautions we take, we try to minimize the risk as much as possible. But I’m not going to lie. There’s always a concern.”
Mallard Creek assistant boys basketball coach Dwayne Cherry has participated in a few of Lewis’ events. He coaches a 17-and-under travel team called Full Court. Cherry’s son, Brandon, plays for the team.
“I felt safe in them,” Cherry said of Lewis’ events. “They do a good job forcing you to wear your mask. They have people walking around monitoring. If some people have the mask below their nose, they say you have to pull it up or leave. I see them after games spraying down basketballs, bleachers, benches. They tell you when the game is over you have to leave. I would say it’s responsible. I think they’re doing a good job.”
Hurt by a loss of time
Back in Charlotte, 56-year-old Tim Newman frets his son, Jacob, is missing opportunities as each day goes by. Tim Newman said Jacob has heard from Division I basketball and football coaches since the summer began, but not many have offered yet. Some indicated they are interested but want to see him play.
Jacob Newman’s football coach, Scott Chadwick, believes that could change soon.
“I think he does get the attention from all the Division I Group of Five and Power Five schools,” Chadwick said. “He’s in that same boat with a lot of guys in that he was hurt by not having spring recruiting and obviously his recruiting is a little bit on hold right now because people are waiting to see what his season looks like.
“But I really think had coaches had the opportunity to see him practice and be on the field this spring, we’d be having an entirely different discussion of where his recruiting is right now.”
As of now, Newman has six college football football offers: four from Division II, one NAIA and one Division I historically black college, Mississippi Valley State. Last season, he played behind his brother, Tim Jr., now a freshman at Presbyterian College, on a talented Myers Park team that included top 25 national recruit Drake Maye at quarterback and receivers Muhsin Muhammad (now at Texas A&M) and Porter Rooks (N.C. State).
Newman also has a basketball offer from Division III Virginia University of Lynchburg. Newman and his father felt like the 2020 summer would’ve been big for his basketball recruiting and, like Chadwick said, playing football this fall would’ve helped boost his football resume.
Instead, Jacob has mostly sat at home.
“I think it’s hurting his recruiting,” Tim Newman said, “and it’s not his fault. There’s nothing he’s done wrong or I’ve done wrong. The virus is here and we have to respect life. A lot of kids could be exposing this virus to their parents and friends, and you have to think about what is really important now. Is sports important or is life important?”
Following the guidelines
John Taylor is the director of Parks and Recreation/Tourism for the city of Rock Hill. When South Carolina eased its COVID-19 restrictions ahead of North Carolina, Taylor said the schedule for the new Rock Hill Sports & Events Center filled up quickly, beginning with the first event held there July 9. The 170,000-square-foot facility has eight basketball courts in addition to the championship court, which has 1,200 stadium seats.
Taylor said the facility can hold up to 6,000 people, but right now the city is allowing between 1,500 and 2,000 to attend. Taylor said that any event at the facility must follow strict protocols, similar to what Lewis is using.
“It’s a new normal,” Taylor said. “But it’s like I tell people, ‘You’ve got COVID and you know it’s here.’ We’ve got to look for preventative and safety measures all the way up to a vaccine. But you’ve also got to cope with it, and this is one of the ways we can help society, particularly our young people, to cope with what’s going on — give them an outlet, give them a chance to let their energy out.”
Ultimately, Taylor said, playing or not playing in a pandemic is a decision everyone has to make.
“People have a choice,” he said. “We’re not making people come and we’re just trying to have as safe an environment as we can to let people have that choice.”
Jacob’s choice
Newman said his son was in tears when he got the invitation to the Top 80 and he had to tell him he couldn’t go. Jacob Newman had played in the event the past two seasons.
“It would be sad for Jacob to go down there and get an offer and lose a parent or grandparent because you catch COVID and pass that on,” Tim Newman said. “I love my son enough to not put him out there as a guinea pig.”
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools will allow football teams to begin skill development workouts Monday.
As of Thursday, Jacob Newman had attended a couple of Myers Park’s basketball skill sessions, which began last week. Along with that, he’s moved into the family’s basement. His mother brings food to him and he basically quarantines away from Mom and Dad.
Jacob Newman had been lifting weights and running at home, shooting basketball in the driveway and catching passes from his father. But he had not done any official training or playing in seven months.
“It’s good to get back in the gym and get the ball in your hands,” he said, “and to see your high school coaches and teammates and to try to get back some of that time you lost. It was good to have hope for a season.”
Newman said he and his parents have made a tough decision: That it’s important enough that he play at Myers Park this season that he will move in with a family member when the real practice begins. High school basketball starts in January and football a month later.
It will be hard to do both, and he may not be able to, but Newman said it’s important that he play something.
He said he can’t continue to just miss time.
“I wouldn’t be able to live with myself,” he said, “if I went somewhere, got COVID and brought it home and my parents got sick. But I feel like if it really comes down to it, I’ll be out there. It’s a risk, but this is my dream (to play college sports) and it’s something I need to do. I need to play my junior year. So if it’s a thing where I have got to stay with some other family member, I’ll do it. I know there’s definitely going to be some guidelines to it, but I need to play.”
This story was originally published October 9, 2020 at 10:39 AM.
