With CCU baseball activities suspended due to COVID, hospitals work to limit cancellations
The Coastal Carolina baseball team has paused all activities for seven days because of coronavirus protocols, and area hospitals are trying to help the school avoid any further disruptions of its athletic seasons.
Coastal baseball had to postpone or cancel five scheduled home games over the next week — a three-game series against Appalachian State that was to begin Thursday and games versus UNC Wilmington and College of Charleston on Tuesday and Wednesday — because of at least one positive test and resulting quarantining per Sun Belt Conference COVID-19 guidelines.
As the official health care system of Coastal Carolina, Tidelands Health has reached out to CCU to get its student-athletes vaccinated, and as the DHEC-designated medical facility providing vaccinations to school faculty, staff and affiliates, Conway Medical Center has completed the first round of Phase 1b vaccinations with CCU employees.
In South Carolina, everyone age 16 and older is now eligible to receive a vaccine, and CCU associate vice president and chief communication officer Martha Hunn said the school has communicated details about vaccination opportunities with its student body.
Tidelands is promoting vaccinations and their benefits to CCU student-athletes and athletic teams.
Senior communications strategist Dawn Bryant said Tidelands is encouraging student-athletes to schedule their COVID-19 vaccination at one of its three regional sites in Myrtle Beach, Murrells Inlet and Georgetown, with evening and weekend appointments available.
“The CDC has some really nice guidelines around the requirement for an exposure to be quarantined. You really don’t have to quarantine if you’ve been vaccinated, but you had . . . an exposure to somebody else that would cause you to be [quarantined],” said Tidelands Health chief operating officer Gayle Resetar.
“So, for example, we are working closely with CCU athletics to try to help them get some of their athletes that we work with vaccinated next week. And again, that absence of a quarantine requirement is a big plus, because it was impacting and impacts their practice schedules in a different way.”
Vaccination appointments can be scheduled at scdhec.gov/vaxlocator .
“We’re reaching out through area schools and universities, businesses, churches, chambers of commerce, community organizations and more to make sure the people of our region have the information they need to schedule their vaccination,” Bryant said. “. . . Getting our region vaccinated quickly and safely is the best way to end this pandemic and restore our way of life.”
Kevin Davis, CCU’s assistant athletic director for media relations, said the school has received offers from medical services to provide mass vaccinations for athletes, but opted to provide education and information through the Teamworks app on where to register and to allow its athletes to schedule their own appointments.
“We’ve had a number of agencies reach out to us about working with our student-athletes and our department for the vaccinations,” Davis said. “We’re doing like the university in terms of how they offered up the option to receive a vaccination. That’s something we’re offering to our student-athletes and giving them the information on where they can go to sign up for vaccinations. We have not made any formal agreements. That’s a right [the players] have in terms of whether or not they want to do it.”
CCU baseball coach Gary Gilmore, who is in the midst of pancreatic neuroendocrine cancer treatments, has had both of his vaccine shots.
Several Coastal programs have been forced to cancel games because of coronavirus protocols this school year.
Among them, the football team had to cancel the Sun Belt Conference Championship game against Louisiana because of a positive test and subsequent quarantining, and the women’s basketball team was forced to cancel 11 games over three different occurrences of positive tests.
CCU teams have also been impacted by scheduled opponents’ COVID issues on several occasions. Most recently, the volleyball team had two home games this weekend canceled because of a positive COVID test within the Erskine volleyball program.
CCU, whose baseball team is 14-9 overall and 1-2 in the Sun Belt, will soon announce if and when this week’s baseball games will be rescheduled.
Existing tickets will be honored for those games. Information on potential refunds for season ticket holders will be forthcoming. Contact the CCU ticket office at 843-347-3499 with ticketing questions.
This story was originally published April 2, 2021 at 4:40 PM.
