NC tournament brought normalcy for family
On June 3, David Hicks and his family crossed a state border and into a different world.
Locals walked around with bare faces. Walking into a grocery store, there were no lines, no requirements. When the family stopped at a gas station, Hicks had to remind his family to wear masks. Just a few short days, and they’d already forgotten.
And there was baseball.
It was like the coronavirus pandemic never happened.
“I was just so excited to be back in a normal world,” Hicks said.
Hicks, who coaches on the South River wrestling staff, and his Edgewater-residing family drove down to Charlotte, North Carolina last week for a baseball tournament, where his son, Gilman freshman outfielder Adam Hicks, played with his team 5 Star National Atlantic branch in the Best in Class 2022 Invitational.
This was before Maryland Superintendent of Schools Karen B. Salmon announced on Wednesday high schools will be allowed to resume practice and training activities following the same guidelines previously put into place for youth athletics.
In a normal world, a baseball game in June would be as commonplace as clovers. But despite their otherworldly surroundings of normalcy, an Anne Arundel County ballplayer taking part in an actual game is anything but normal right now.
That’s because there haven’t been any games, baseball or any other sport, since mid-March, when Gov. Larry Hogan enacted restrictions that made sporting
events impossible. Even as the state moved into Phase 2 and youth sports teams across the county may begin distanced, safe practices, there’s no wiggle room for actual games within Maryland lines as it stands now.
It’s a different ballgame in other parts of the country.
“People are headed down south to play,” Hicks said. “That’s where things are opening up quicker.”
Maryland’s neighboring states are operating a little looser, but still within the confines of the ongoing pandemic. In Delaware, recent youth guidelines require umpires to post up behind the pitcher’s mound, rather than behind home plate, and there, a catcher must squat six feet away from the batter. No baseman can hold runners on, and stealing is prohibited.
In Virginia, where Hicks and his family will travel to compete again on Thursday, they expect to be told some safety guidelines when they arrive at the field.
But down in Charlotte, baseball ran business as usual.
The slightest sliver of a coronavirusaffected atmosphere showed up in the lack of handshakes after the game. That, and five of the eight teams cancelling due to coronavirus-related caution, transformed a two-day tournament into a doubleheader.
“I asked the coach what things have been like down there, and he said, ‘David, we’ve been practicing since things closed down,’ ” Hicks said. “Two or three times a week. None of the players have gotten sick. Everyone’s been tested. Everything down there is normal.”
North Carolina, a state with a population of 10.5 million, has recorded a little more than 38,171 cases and 1,089 deaths as of June 10, according to the North Carolina Department of Health website. Both totals are about half of what Maryland is dealing with — 59,465 cases and 2,719 deaths, per the Maryland Department of Health — but with a smaller population (6.05 million).
The Hicks family wouldn’t indulge their restriction-less experience too much. Unlike the locals, the Hicks group kept masks on in public. They washed and sanitized their hands and kept distance from others.
When given the option of indoor or outdoor seating at a restaurant, Dave Hicks said they took one peek at the packed house inside and chose open air.
“I was shocked at first because I’ve been living the last few months under our guidelines here in Maryland. I really didn’t know what to feel,” he said. “I miss being normal and experiencing life like we had it before. Of course, the virus is always at the forefront of my mind because I don’t want to get sick, I don’t want my kids to get sick.”
But to Adam Hicks, it still felt like freedom.
The loss of his high school season crushed the Gilman freshman like every other spring athlete, and it was a pain he’d expected to stretch on indefinitely. He’d played just three junior varsity games this spring, and as days went by, the tournaments his travel team was supposed to participate in were being canceled.
When Hicks learned the North Carolina tournament would play on, despite the cancellations, the six-hour drive didn’t matter. Baseball was back.
“I know everyone was just pumped to be playing,” the Gilman freshman said. “Just having an organized game with umpires. All of that was kind of foreign because we hadn’t played. But it was all very, very fun, honestly.”
There was no actual victory to be had in either game. Not one of Hicks’ team had played group baseball since March, whereas North Carolinian teams had been holding entire games. The Atlantic crew got smacked, 16-8 and 21-4.
That wasn’t the point. With every swing and catch, the months of misery that came with no baseball shed off.
“Since it was our first game in a long time, I feel like our goals were just to knock off the rust and get going again,” Hicks. “We do have some games that we think we can get in and not get canceled.”
Since returning home, the Hicks family hasn’t noticed any symptoms of coronavirus and they pretty much keep to themselves. David Hicks knows there would be some who would criticize the loophole that allowed them to get some baseball in.
“There’s going to be people against it,” Hicks said, “but that’s how everything is in the world. These kids need to play. They need sports back.”