The coronavirus has wiped out most sports on the Grand Strand, but all is not lost yet
The coronavirus has all but eliminated competitive sports around the globe, and the Grand Strand has been heavily impacted.
If you want to play or attend a sporting event, it has become slim pickings.
Myrtle Beach Speedway has yet to cancel or postpone races, however, and it is hosting Bell & Bell Night on Saturday (March 14) with five divisions of racing.
Gates open at 2 p.m. and racing begins at 3 p.m.
Speedway general manager Steve Zacharias said the speedway has been sanitized and measures are being taken to keep people safe.
“We’ve got disinfectant sprays all over the place, in the bathrooms. All of our concession workers are wearing gloves,” Zacharias said. “We’ve done everything we were told we needed to, to make sure it was safe environment.
“Then we’re going to try to spread everybody out in the grandstands. We’ve got 9,000 seats . . . so we’ll spread everybody out in the grandstands if they come.”
Zacharias said the speedway will assess its future schedule following Saturday’s race.
It has the Myrtle Beach Drift schedule next weekend, the Spring Break Myrtle Beach Nationals – formerly the Nopi Nationals – from March 27-29 and a regular slate of races for the next several months. “We’ll get through this one first,” Zacharias said.
The Myrtle Beach Pelicans, the Advanced Class A affiliate of the Chicago Cubs, are scheduled to begin the season at home on April 9 against the Wilmington Blue Rocks, but the team is waiting to see Major League Baseball’s next move.
MLB has delayed the start of its season, which was scheduled to begin on March 26, at least two weeks and has suspended all operations during spring training, and Minor League Baseball is expected to follow the lead of MLB.
“At this time we remain in contact with Minor League Baseball and are following their lead with the advice of medical professionals,” Pelicans general manager Ryan Moore said in a statement. “First and foremost is the health and safety of our fans, staff, players, and personnel.
“. . . As this is an unprecedented event and still evolving we will continue to monitor the situation and will provide more information as it becomes available.”
Coastal Carolina University’s athletic teams won’t play another game this school year after the NCAA canceled all winter and spring championships and the Sun Belt Conference canceled all organized athletics-related activities, including regular-season competitions, conference championships and practices, through the remainder of the academic year.
On Saturday, Coastal had suspended all athletic organized team activities including practices, workouts and training room usage for its 19 intercollegiate athletic programs. Camps and clinics are included.
“I join our staff, student-athletes, and all of Teal nation in the disappointment and frustration that this crisis has created, but our focus has and remains on the health and well-being of our campus,” CCU athletic director Matt Hogue said.
The Coastal Carolina Track & Field Invitational at Doug Shaw Memorial Stadium in Myrtle Beach was held Friday and Saturday (March 13-14) with 13 schools, including North Dakota, but CCU wasn’t one of them.
The City of Myrtle Beach canceled on Monday the second installment of its Spring Break Meets series at Doug Shaw, the Alan Connie Shamrock Invitational from Thursday through Saturday.
Golf Tourism Solutions, a marketing and technology agency that promotes the Myrtle Beach market and operates local events, has canceled the Palmetto High School Golf Championship that was scheduled April 9-11 with 32 teams from multiple states.
The Carolinas PGA Section, following guidance from the PGA of America, has postponed all activities/events through April 5, including a Grand Strand Chapter meeting and the CPGA Players Championship scheduled for March 23-24 at Belfair in Bluffton.
The South Carolina High School League has yet to cancel remaining spring athletic events, but it is expected to make a final decision following a Monday conference call with school district superintendents.
The SCHSL Executive Committee will then convene via conference call to determine any changes to the spring sports season for member schools. SCHSL officials say they are in regular contact with S.C. DHEC and the SCHSL Sports Medicine Advisory Committee, which is comprised of health and medical professionals from across the state.
Horry County Schools has canceled and banned all out-of-state sporting events for its schools for the remainder of the school year.
The South Carolina Independent School Association (SCISA) has suspended play in spring sports until at least April 3.
The Mingo Bay Classic high school baseball tournament at area fields in April, which attracts teams from several states, is still scheduled, though there have been numerous team cancellations. The two-week event is April 6-10 and 14-18.
“We will play the tournament as planned if we are allowed by the [SCHSL] and Horry Schools,” tournament director and Myrtle Beach High baseball coach Tim Christy said in a message to The Sun News.
This story was originally published March 14, 2020 at 2:06 PM.
