Area Youth Sports Overcame Adversity with Hurricane Florence and will do the same with the Coronavirus

In September of 2018 Hurricane Florence devastated  Coastal and Southeastern North Carolina. The area structural and economic effects were wide spread. The torrential rains from Florence caused serious flooding to the inland areas. The area schools were closed for a month, with substantial damage to the schools as many family were forced from there homes. The area County Governments , School Districts and the communities united to get our schools open and and our youth and student athletes back on the field or court a little over a month after Hurricane Florence.

In March of 2020, eighteen months later our area ,we find ourself with a different crisis that challenges our area and country with the Coronavirus Pandemic.  While the challenges to the way we live our lives from our family, work, school  as well as our involvement in sports is similar , the Virus Pandemic is more far reaching.  I’m not a doctor, public official or politician and am not knowledgeable enough to give opinions on the Coronavirus Pandemic that we are currently facing. The only advice I have is to do not panic, trust the experts with self hygiene and most of all pray that the Pandemic will be subside very soon.

Yes , at times like this I truly agree that we need to put sports in the proper prospective. With that said, the last couple of days have been life changing for everyone involved in sports from youth recreation, middle school, high school, college and professional sports. The sports world has come to a stand still. No professional or college sports to follow at this time. I will let the big boys and girls figure it out.  It is more of my feelings on the high school senior spring sport athletes in our area. In coaching I have always told my teams after the last loss of the season that the sun will rise tomorrow and you will play another game. On Thursday afternoon the NCHSAA made the decision to suspend all spring sports until April 6 and will reevaluate the situation at that time. For the Senior Spring Student Athlete, there is no guarantee that they will play another high school game. I personally am optimistic that things will settle down in 2-3 weeks and the teams and players will return to the field or court. For coaches, players and all sports fans I hope I’m right. It’s going to be long month without any sports.