‘Never get to do this again.’ A day in the North Carolina sports world during COVID-19
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Sports shut down the night of March 11 and the rest of the world followed its example.
Jazz center Rudy Gobert testing positive for COVID-19 set everything in motion. Shortly after, Jazz and Thunder players were pulled off the court in Oklahoma City. Later that night — 1,000 miles away — at the ACC men’s basketball tournament in Greensboro, UNC’s season ended with a loss to Syracuse in what would be the final sporting event played in North Carolina for the remainder of the academic year. The final three rounds of the ACC tournament were canceled the next day, along with the NCAA tournament.
The NBA, NHL and NASCAR seasons were suspended indefinitely, and all NCAA spring sports have been called off.
There are 11 minor league baseball parks across North Carolina that sit vacant during the coronavirus pandemic; the Durham Bulls have furloughed staff. Concord-based Speedway Motorsports, which owns and operates Charlotte Motor Speedway and seven other NASCAR tracks, has laid off 15 percent of its staff. New free agents signed by the Panthers and rookies who will be selected in Thursday’s NFL draft have to wait to move to Charlotte.
Live sports will return at some point. On April 14, the Observer checked in throughout the day with a NASCAR driver, a college athlete, pro, college and high school coaches and an NFL executive as they wait for that day to come.
Welcome to a day in the the life of sports in North Carolina during a global pandemic.
7:56 a.m.
It’s rare for Corey LaJoie to sleep in past 8 a.m. Today was no different.
He whips up breakfast then shuffles to the computer to check his emails and starts making phone calls.
Now more than ever, NASCAR drivers like LaJoie are connecting with their teams and sponsors to ensure that when the racing season resumes, their partnerships remain intact. LaJoie, driver of the No. 32 Ford Mustang for Go Fas Racing, said he’s primarily trying to deliver value to his sponsors through social media these days, but he finds it difficult to strike a balance between authenticity and product promotion.
“You’ve got to keep it original and keep it fun,” LaJoie said. “That way people still engage with it.”
8:30 a.m.
Ron Nored has read his bible and perused briefly from a self-improvement book. The Charlotte Hornets assistant coach, usually out the door before his wife and daughter rise, is ready for the best job he’ll ever have, even if it’s temporary:
The stay-at-home order has turned Nored into a stay-at-home dad to 2-year-old daughter Avery.
Nored can’t interact physically with his players and there is no indication when, or even if, the Hornets’ season will resume.
Nored, 30 and an elementary education major at Butler, decided this would be his window — probably the only one for a sustained period — to give Avery his undivided attention. Practices became painting. Film sessions are doing puzzles. Instead of instructing players, he tucks in Avery’s two baby dolls.
“My wife (Danielle) made a comment to her church group, that Avery is having the time of her life with us both home,” Nored said.
“I’ll probably never get to do this again, and that is always in the back of my mind,” Nored said. “To be able to be with her all the time is pretty special.”
Last Tuesday, Nored would have helped run the last practice of the Hornets’ regular season, then flown with the team to Philadelphia for the season-ending game Wednesday night. Instead, he was picking up sticks from the storm that blew through Charlotte, with a 2-year-old volunteering to help.
“Big sticks, little sticks. It was pretty cool moment for me, hanging out doing yard work,” Nored recalled. “She did just as much as I did. That was a lot of fun.”
Nored knows how lucky he is that his family is healthy and economically secure. He feels for all the hardship caused by the coronavirus.
He felt it was important to find a positive. That positive is not having to choose, at least briefly, between being a coach and a parent.
“This is what I’ve wanted; more than to be a basketball coach, more than anything else, I wanted to be a dad,” Nored said. “This has been pretty cool to live that out fully.”
9:00 a.m.
Before the Panthers mandated that employees should work from home, and the NFL shut down team facilities, Carolina’s Vice President of Communications and External Media, Steven Drummond, had only used Zoom once before in his life. Now his day starts at 9 a.m. with a call with the public relations team.
The increase in the number of virtual meetings over the past few weeks has been just one of many changes. Instead of the open, collaborative space they work in at Bank of America Stadium, the business groups within the Panthers organization now have to plan out various meetings.
Learning how to navigate around having kids and dogs in the background of work calls and FedEx ringing the doorbell have become the new challenges as opposed to scheduling meetings and walking down the hall to have a conversation.
Meanwhile, LaJoie realizes he can only get so much work done in the morning before it’s time to take care of the most important thing in his life: His infant son, Levi, who was born just over a month ago. By 9 o’clock, it’s time to feed “little man” with a bottle. From this point forward, his day will resolve around his firstborn.
“I really haven’t been doing much beyond just changing poopy diapers and trying to catch up on sleep,” LaJoie said.
By the time LaJoie gets the bottles cleaned and diapers changed, it’s time for the next meal. In the afternoon, LaJoie’s wife, Kelly, will the lead on baby duty so LaJoie can squeeze in a workout. He contemplates taking a nap instead.
9:53 a.m.
Richmond High School football coach Bryan Till is at home, getting ready to meet with some construction workers about having concrete poured at his house, and planning a virtual workout for his players, where he uses most anything he has laying around to help his players stay in shape.
“It’s been extremely different,” Till said. “A lot of virtual learning. Our kids are working out on their own. They’ve got to be motivated themselves to do that, so we’re posting as many different things as possible.”
With the hashtag “FindAWay,” Till posts almost daily alternate workouts for his players. At 10:43 a.m., he’s out in his driveway using cinder blocks and wheel barrows to simulate things his players can do without weights that will help maintain and build strength.
The spring is a big time for physical conditioning and Till knows that missing more than a month of school, so far, can be very detrimental to any player who chooses to spend too much time on the couch.
To keep the players’ minds engaged, Till and the Richmond coaches meet with different portions of the team via Zoom several times per week. They use a computer program that allows them to go over plays and responsibilities for the upcoming season via a shared screen.
“The (normal) school day, you know what it is, 7-3:30,” Till said. “Every day right now you have to look at your schedule and go ‘Here’s the differences and all the moving parts.’ You’re juggling all those balls in the air.”
10 a.m.
No longer housed in her dorm at Duke University, Blue Devils freshman track and field athlete Payton Little is back home with her parents in Hampstead.
The 11:30 a.m. practice she’d normally be getting ready for is replaced with a two-mile run through her Pender County hometown.
“Just to social distance and have an excuse to get out of the house,” Little said.
Some days, she finds a place to throw the discus and the shot put, which she did well enough during her Topsail High School career to land on Duke’s team.
“I have to drive around to find an abandoned field to find a place to throw,” Little said. “Two to four times, a week I find a place to throw where I’m not near anybody, I’m not going to hit anybody.”
On this day, in addition, she has to prepare for a 3:05 p.m. class, which she’ll attend online via Zoom.
Rather than relaxing, she finds this remote life tiring.
“It’s really just do busy work for Zoom class all day with intermittent exercising and rarely leaving the house,” Little said. “It’s really exhausting.”
10:04 a.m.
Charlotte 49ers football coach Will Healy knows that on a normal morning in April, he’d probably be wrapping up a meeting after an early-morning spring practice with his staff at a restaurant near the UNC Charlotte campus.
Instead, Healy and his wife Emily have just split portions of blueberry muffins, milk and breakfast bars for his sons Eli, 5, and Wynn, 14 months, at their home in Charlotte.
“Oh, no, Wynn just took half of Eli’s breakfast bar,” Healy says.
Healy is working from home during the coronavirus pandemic, juggling the long hours that a college football coach works with the duties of a father of two young dynamos.
Healy and Eli have just finished a game of P-I-G on an indoor basketball hoop, with the ball often bouncing down a flight of stairs after each shot.
“I’ve always worked hard, so that when I’m home, I’m present for my family,” Healy says. “The kids are used to me being gone so much, so that when I’m here, I’m playing with them.
“Now daddy’s here all the time and he’s got to work a lot and not play,” Healy says. “It’s hard to feel like I’m not neglecting them.”
Eli, still dressed in his pajamas but wearing shoes, has moved outside.
“Eli, please stay out of their yard!” dad shouts.
Noon
Drummond is pushing his team to use this time away from the office to improve what they do. He wants his team return to working at the facility, whenever that time may come, more efficiently than when they left.
A significant portion of the Panthers’ website team are young, single professionals and their mental health is one of the biggest priorities.
“The thing that concerns me the most is I have a lot of people, a lot of young people on my team, who are single … working from home comes at a cost and you’re isolated, you’re disconnected,” Drummond said. “I talk to them a lot about just making sure we’re addressing ourselves from a mental health standpoint, finding ways to have healthy social interaction, even if it can’t be face-to-face interaction “
Having a healthy work/life balance is part of that and a topic the group talks openly about. Drummond could be working in his home office 18-19 hours a day if he didn’t prioritize walking away from his desk.
12:42 p.m.
LaJoie opts for a CrossFit-inspired workout routine, which consists of a 1,000 meter run, 50 pull-ups, 100 push-ups, 150 air squats and a second 1,000-meter run. He usually performs these exercises wearing a weighted vest and using a kettlebell in his garage, which he’s converted into an at-home gym while quarantined.
A couple times a week, LaJoie instead goes on a 12- to 15-mile bike ride on a trail in Concords workout. The park entry to Fisher Farms has been closed due to COVID-19, but LaJoie said he found a good spot on the street to park and will ride in through the woods on his mountain bike.
“That’s a great way to stay sharp,” LaJoie said. “When you’re going 30 miles an hour between trees, you gotta pay attention and keep your hand-eye coordination fairly (tight).”
3:13 p.m.
Till has just returned from taking his 8-month-old daughter, Brynley, for walk in her stroller. But his break won’t last long.
He’s got Zoom meetings with staff and college coaches. With school out, he has more time to pack boxes and clean up for the impending move. A big storm blew through Rockingham a day earlier and it knocked out power and dropped trees. Till’s house, and precious internet connection, were not affected.
And that is something he said he needs right now.
He knows how important it is to keep his team together. He knows that, for many of them, playing the sport is the gateway to graduation — for a job or for college.
“That is a huge concern we have,” Till said of losing players during the pandemic once they get away from a school-then-practice routine. “Those kids are also having an impact on each other and they’re not seeing each other. So all of those positive impacts, we’re losing out of some of those things. Football is such a large group of kids. I’m not concerned we lose them long-term but I’m concerned with the positive impacts that give them a chance to go to college, give them a chance to get that job later on. We haven’t had those months (together) that add up to those impacts.”
4:15 p.m.
As the day begins to wind down, Healy talks about what he accomplished: More phone meetings with his staff and staying in touch by phone and email with recruits and high school coaches. He also did some yard work, something he’s not had much experience at.
For much of the day, Healy and Emily worked the phones, trying to find temporary housing for friends in Chattanooga, Tenn., whose home was destroyed by a tornado Sunday night.
“I’ve got a lot of respect for what my wife does on a daily basis,” Healy says. “Not that I didn’t already have it. But these last few weeks have given me a new perspective on the life of a stay-at-home mom.”
Healy pauses.
“Eli, stay out of their house, please!”
4:30 p.m.
This is supposed to be when Little gets her bonding time with her Duke track and field teammates.
After her 3:05 p.m. class, she heads across Duke’s West Campus from the Sociology and Psychology Building to the Williams Track and Field Stadium across from Cameron Indoor Stadium.
It’s a 15-minute walk but she’s made the trip in as quick as five minutes for her cherished time. She throws the discus and shot put so she practices at a different time than the runners.
“Because I’m a thrower, I’m a little bit separated from the rest of the team because we can’t practice because they’re all running and I’m throwing an object that could kill them,” Little said.
But coronavirus means no college sports this spring. So Little is home in Pender County with her parents rather than heading to the locker room to head to grab dinner with her teammates.
An only child, she misses the camaraderie.
“I definitely miss seeing the people on the team who I’m not best friends with and don’t see all the time but still really enjoy seeing them,” Little said.
6:40 p.m.
With the NFL draft around the corner, the Panthers aren’t slowing down. The team is tweeting about re-watching Graham Gano’s game-winning kick from 2018.
Drummond hopes the pandemic is over soon, but tries not to think too much about it. He has a hand in a variety of areas, including the new Charlotte MLS team and the team’s future facility in Rock Hill. New employees have been brought in over the last couple weeks without being able to move to Charlotte, similar to the team’s new players signed over the last month.
He does regular conference calls with coach Matt Rhule and general manager Marty Hurney.
“Once the (stock) market closes, (team owner) Dave (Tepper) is really good about connecting with everybody and making sure that we’re still being productive and moving in the right direction,” Drummond said. “It’s worked really well and Tom Glick our president has done a really good job of communicating with the entire staff and making sure holistically the staff is still being communicated with on a regular basis, and checking on any needs that we need to address.”
Everyone from Tepper to the community relations staff has to have the equipment they need to work from home with the help of the team’s IT department. The facility being closed touches many areas.
While everyone is now situated, the Panthers’ leadership is focusing on taking some positives from this unique situation and taking a hard look at themselves. Trying to improve what the team does on the business side of things will remain the goal for however long they are unable to go into work.
7:28 p.m.
After dinner, LaJoie plops down on the couch with Levi on his chest and Kelly beside him.
“A normal night looks like probably every single other person in the country,” LaJoie said. “Watching Netflix or Amazon Prime, surfing for half an hour until you find something that you both can agree on.”
So far, those programs have included Tiger King, Ozark and The Office on Netflix. LaJoie said he’s also seen Pitch Perfect about seven times at this point.
“That’s one of my wife’s favorite movies,” LaJoie said. “So anytime that’s on, we just happen to watch it.”
9:10 p.m.
LaJoie is back on baby duty. Levi is usually wide awake between 9 p.m. and midnight, and that’s the time when LaJoie tries to get on his simulator rig to practice iRacing, the virtual racing game that many NASCAR drivers are utilizing since the season remains postponed.
“I can jump on there and play with guys like (NASCAR spotter) TJ Majors and a couple friends,” LaJoie said. “Dale Jr. is on there occasionally. We’ll all try to jump in some races.”
LaJoie said he can’t get as much practice in on the sim rig as other drivers who don’t have a family. Levi, who chills next to LaJoie in the basement on a Boppy pillow, starts fussing within an hour.
LaJoie said the transition into fatherhood has been challenging and overwhelming at times.
“You don’t ever get a break and you don’t really get constant sleep,” LaJoie said.
But the timing has been good.
“It’s kind of a good thing he came now,” LaJoie said. “It’s kept us busy in a sense.”
Reporters Alaina Getzenberg, Alex Andrejev, David Scott, Langston Wertz, Rick Bonnell and Steve Wiseman contributed to this story. Two small segments of this story were published in Sunday’s “Life Disrupted” project.
