Sports in the Carolinas can resume, yet some aren’t ready

LANCASTER, S.C. (WBTV) - Sports in the Carolinas look a lot different this year, as far as rules are concerned.

Gov. Henry McMaster will allow some South Carolina sports to start practicing on Saturday, though not all will.

Gov. Roy Cooper says non-contact sports in North Carolina, can start again, though some teams in Charlotte say they’re having trouble figuring out how to practice.

The Lancaster Dixie Baseball made a tough decision not to reopen.

Meantime, in Charlotte, the county is stopping teams from getting out to hit on fields.

“Obviously this is not the way we wanted the season to go," Lancaster Dixie Chair Brett Nelson said.

The baseball fields home to the Lancaster Dixie Baseball teams are empty.

What would have been a wet practice was just another wet day at the fields.

“We want to get back to normal we want to get kids back on the baseball field if it’s safe to do so,” Nelson said.

Nelson said it was not safe.

Despite being able to open, Nelson and board members made the decision to skip the baseball season.

“It’s extremely difficult,” Nelson said. “I’m sure there were a lot of kids ready to get back on the baseball field returning to some normalcy.”

Across state lines, players want the same thing.

Right now, a lot of my families are eager to work. They want to come. They’re desperate for anything normal for their kid,” said Al Dahlgreen, who owns a baseball facility in Charlotte.

Social distancing keeps Dahlgreen from having more than 10 people inside, so he thought when Phase 2 started, he would take his students outside to the fields.

Mecklenburg County stopped that wish when Mecklenburg County Manager Dena Diorio announced that county fields would remain closed.

“I can understand right now, okay, they don’t want to have games, but why not let one team go practice on a field, not dimension. We pay for that field,” Dahlgreen said.

Dahlgreen said he had reached out to the county but has yet to get a response.

WBTV reached out to the county, as well, and was told to look at the county website for a list of openings.

No answer on why the fields remain closed.

Boys and girls that play baseball and softball and their parents are citizens too. Why can’t we get out there and practice the things they want us to do?” Dahlgreen said.