Charlotte high school athletes’ careers ‘stripped away’ by CMS board. Now they wait.

Before Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools Supt. Earnest Winston held a special meeting with the media Friday to discuss the district’s COVID-19 “readiness plans,” there was real hope, from many in the CMS community, that Winston would change his mind about stopping high school sports.

Nine days before that, in an emergency school board meeting, the district decided to shut down most sports, based on rising coronavirus cases in the area and a directive from Mecklenburg County Public Health Director Gibbie Harris.

Two sports that had already started postseason play — cross-country and volleyball — were allowed to continue, but those teams could not practice. Coaches told The Observer they felt that lack of practice would put teams at a disadvantage, but were happy to keep playing.

Providence’s volleyball team eventually made the state championship match. Ardrey Kell’s Murphy Smith won the N.C. 4A boys cross-country state title, and four teams — boys and girls from Ardrey Kell and Myers Park — had top-10 finishes.

For the other sports in-season, or about to be, Winston described the stoppage as a “pause,” as the district dealt with COVID-19 clusters in two high school programs and that general rise in cases in the county.

Sunday, the state reported more than 6,000 new COVID cases and 109 new related deaths. It was the fourth straight day with more than 100 dead from the virus in the state. Through Sunday, the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services reported that 8,695 people have died from the coronavirus — including 1,875 deaths in 2021.

“We recognize the importance of athletics and other extracurricular activities, but after much consultation with our local public health officials, with community spread at an all-time high, we made the decision to protect the health and safety of our student-athletes, our coaches and our staff,” Winston said Friday. “And we’ve seen a number of cases in our athletic programs over the past several months that have followed the proper procedures and protocols to mitigate the spread. (Last) week, some previously reported cases in two of our schools’ athletic programs were classified as clusters by our county health public officials. I want you to know it’s our intent to resume athletic practices and competitions as we return students to in-person learning in February.”

N.C. High School Athletic Association commissioner Que Tucker told The Observer that she didn’t know of any other counties that were stopping athletics, and CMS student-athletes and coaches know that, just over the county borders — in Union County, Cabarrus, Gaston and Iredell counties — high school games are still going on.

For Mecklenburg County athletes, watching their neighbors continue to play made the local stoppage harder to swallow, and many of the same people who thought Winston might do a 180 on Friday are again hoping he might reconsider at Tuesday night’s board meeting.

The pause and it’s affect on CMS sports

Four NCHSAA sports are in season. Lacrosse and soccer began Monday. Basketball started in early January and swimming began in November.

The pause of CMS athletics will take away large swaths of the basketball, lacrosse and soccer seasons.

▪ For lacrosse and soccer teams, the regular-season ends March 12; when CMS returns next month, essentially half the season is over.

“A lot of people rely on soccer for an escape,” said Myers Park senior Carter Hensley, whose team lost in the 2018 state final. “It was hard for me to grasp (the decision) for a little bit, and I had to realize it’s out of my control. I’ve got friends on the basketball and football teams and they’re all kind of shocked, mainly because CMS is the only county to postpone. Why is it just us? (In soccer), everyone else is about to start. Why do we have to sit back?”

▪ In basketball, CMS teams will not play or practice for a month, returning with one week left in the regular season. That will allow most teams to play five or six regular-season games, instead of a planned 14. Many schools had played three games before the pause began.

Meanwhile, other teams in the state will keep playing and have more time to prepare for the postseason push next month.

“It was a surprise but it wasn’t a surprise,” South Mecklenburg girls coach Cristie Mitchell said on Talking Preps, The Observer’s streaming high school sports show, Monday night. “With our numbers going up, I knew it was a possibility. When it did happen, of course we were heartbroken. Now we’re going to take a month off and come back Feb. 15. ... Taking a month off, you lose all the conditioning, all the endurance you’ve built up so far. It was already a short season and we come back in Week 7 of a seven-week season.”

Said Hough coach Jason Grube: “I didn’t see that coming. I thought if we were going to do that, it would be the entire state ... I feel bad for my seniors, really.”

▪ West Charlotte coach Sam Greiner thinks the pause could be a safety issue for high school football teams in the district.

Many teams outside CMS began conditioning last week. The first official statewide practice date is Feb. 8 and the first game in a scheduled seven-week season is Feb. 26. Greiner worries about losing the preseason conditioning and that first week of practice when CMS returns Feb. 15.

“So we’re going in, playing in less than 10 days, and we haven’t even put on helmets yet,” Greiner said. “I think it’s going to be a dangerous situation. I’ll be surprised if we do play. If we play, we’ll be ready to go, but you’re talking about going out in the cold, no weight room, no contact whatsoever, and you’re going to go into a full game in less than 10 days (from starting practice) with no contact scrimmage.

“It’s going to be a little suspect. I hate it for the seniors. That’s why I’ve been trying to put them in a bunch of camps to help get them recruited.”

▪ Of all the active sports, however, swimming was hit the hardest. CMS teams had concluded regular-season play before the district paused athletics and was about begin conference tournaments.

The official statewide end of the regular season is Jan. 30, which meant swimmers were not allowed to continue the way cross-country and volleyball were because the postseason had not officially begun. And because the swimming state championships are Feb. 10-13 and CMS won’t return until two days after that, the sport’s season is effectively over.

The swimmer and her email to the board

On Jan. 16, one day after CMS announced its decision, 18-year-old Ardrey Kell senior Emily Brown wrote an email to the entire CMS School Board.

She wrote that she “was devastated and in shock” and outlined a few reasons why she thought CMS swimmers should be allowed to continue.

She said there were only three meets left: Conference, regionals on Feb. 7 and then the state meet the week after. She felt swimming was in a similar spot as volleyball and cross-country, with county regular-season play completed.

“As a senior who has worked from the bottom to now finally being at the top three hard years later, it is extremely important to me and my classmates that we get to finish our season,” she wrote. “CMS is one of the only districts in the state that has not been back to school at all. While I understand that health takes precedent, I believe that CMS has chosen to overlook the students and student athletes.

“After watching many of the board meetings it has come to my attention that the student voice is simply overlooked and considered irrelevant. Remote learning has had numerous detrimental effects on students and in most cases extra curricular (sic) activities are what get us through each and every day. Taking away both in-person learning and extracurricular activities is stripping us of everything we have to look forward to and have to use as an outlet. ... I am asking you from the bottom of my heart to let me finish my senior year with this last and only memory I’ll have to cherish from my high school years.”

Last Friday, Winston sent a reply that Brown shared with The Observer. In his note, Winston explained why cross-country and volleyball were allowed to play and noted that the state calendar had swimming in regular-season until Jan 30.

“I know the important role that sports plays for many of our students,” Winston wrote. “As a former high school student-athlete, I remember the life lessons about leadership, teamwork, fairness and character that I took from athletics. However, the pandemic has changed our lives, and we must put safety on the field or court or in the pool first. The pause in sports — and it is only a pause, not an ending — was a decision based on student and staff safety.”

‘I don’t think the decision was right’

It’s painful, Brown said, losing the biggest parts of her senior season.

“To work up to this moment, being a senior, coming so close to end of our season is hard,” she said. “We were in the postseason in our eyes. We finished our last (regular-season) meet that Monday and I couldn’t really believe (the decision). Then we thought there was some hope.”

Brown said a large group of swimmers and swimming parents were emailing Winston and the board. And a week after the initial decision, when Winton announced his special media briefing, some thought he might reverse his decision on athletics, or at least on swimming.

That did not happen.

Brown, who will swim at Eastern Michigan next season, said she was gutted again. But the email campaign intensified.

Like many athletes in the affected sports, she is hoping for good news at Tuesday’s board meeting — that Winston might reinstate sports Feb. 2 when the Mecklenburg County health directive expires.

Hope. That’s all Brown or any athlete can do.

“We had a huge senior class this year,” she said, “and it hits so hard to go four years working to have it stripped away. It’s absurd, and to make it worse, every other district is going to the state and CMS is not there. ... I know the majority of my senior classmates, from my school and neighboring schools, had their last little shred of happiness stripped from them. I don’t think the decision was right.”

Note: At Tuesday’s board meeting, board member Rhonda Cheek made the case that swimming should continue. Winston said the district was continuing to talk with the county health department. “We will do what’s in the best interest of kids,” he said.

There was no change to the Feb. 15 return date.