‘ We thought we’d always be here’
Anne Arundel- based Shuckers cease operations due to pandemic’s impact
Anne Arundel County’s one- ofa- kind minor league basketball team is no more.
Owner John Wolfe earlier this month announced Bay Area Sports, which owns and operates the Baltimore Shuckers based in Severn, ceased operations after nine years years due to the economic toll of the coronavirus pandemic.
Wolfe aimed to expand his semi- professional basketball venture into a full league called Maryland 3x3 Basketball, but efforts to launch the venture were canceled this spring when the pandemic hit.
All year long, Wolfe eyed not only how professional leagues handled playing during coronavirus, but also how the pandemic took a toll on finances. Having fans in the stands contributed about half of the Shuckers’ profits and sponsors the rest. Wolfe did the math; without either to continue funding the team, the Pasadena- based business could not survive.
Wolfe considered streaming games online but said “it wouldn’t be the same.” Fans were more to the Shuckers than benefactors. In Wolfe’s eyes, they created the atmosphere that made the whole event worth while.
The Shuckers intended to play this year, even after the pandemic first struck. Wolfe and his business partners cycled through several versions of planning, includinghope for a season starting in the fall should coronavirus cases drop enough to do so safely.
Then, towards the end of the fall, cases spiked.
“We just thought there’s no perceivable future for us,” Wolfe said. “Whenwe talked about dates, we thought about next summer, and we’re like ‘ we just can’t make it that long.’ ”
The Bay Area Shuckers were founded in 2011 and competed in the now- defunct American Professional Basketball League for five seasons, where the team claimed two division titles in 2013 and 2016 andwon 46 games. They rebranded as the Baltimore Shuckers after the 2016 season and moved to the Central Basketball Association for three years. The squad, which played at Anne Arundel Community College for a year but later played three to four home games at Annapolis Area Christian School, finished 51- 55 all- time.
The Shuckers played other teams based out of Kentucky, Indiana, Tennessee, Mississippi and Illinois.
After Wolfe started the team, he didn’t have “an exit strategy,” he said. Most minor league basketball teams bloom and wither within a year. Once the Shuckers hit their fourth and fifth years, Wolfe felt more confidence that the teamwas here to stay.
“The team had become a staple in the area,” Wolfe said. “We thoughtwe’d always be here.”
AACS athletic director Josiah Wolf was sad to learn that the Shuckers had folded. The school has a joke that they had home- court advantage because their basketball teams used the semi- pro team’s longer 3- point line painted on their court. Wolf used to pop his head in to watch games, working as an on- site coordinator or selling concessions.
“They were good, [ and it was] also fun seeing some youth teams come up towatch them,” Wolf said.
Giving back to his community was the purpose ofWolfe’s basketball venture from the start. Through the Shuckers, the Pasadena resident hoped to steer players towards the pros. In that, he succeeded; nearly one in four Shuckers players ended up playing professionally overseas.
Meade graduate Antonio Wright played for the Shuckers for six years, rightupto the end. He couldn’t imagine leaving a group of fans, players, coaches and owners that felt like family.
“Those I’m going to miss the most are probably the fans. Those fans are loyal,” the combo- guard said. “They came to every game, no matter how many games we won or lost.”
Players weren’t the only beneficiaries. Wolfe calculated about 30 to 40 of the Shuckers’ dancers graduated to cheer for the Ravens, Washington Football Team, Capitals and Wizards. Even the team’s PA announcer, Paul Clary, ended up moving on to emcee for the Bowie Baysox.
Wiley Baker was “sold on the Shuckers” after he attended the team’s second game in 2011and got the gig to call games forWNAV 1430AMbeginning in 2013.
He couldn’t turn down the opportunity to participate with a “one of a kind” team.
“It’s an event. Just like going to a Bowie Baysox game, except the basketball version,” Baker said. “It was even more than that.”
Baker treasures memories of not only the basketball, but of the dazzling halftime performances and breaks.
“Being able to be their play- by- play guy was something special,” Baker said.
Baker contracted coronavirus earlier this year and understands the severity of the virus. Nevertheless, he’ll mourn the loss of the team. He hopes when the pandemic is over that a team like them could return.
” The organization was tremendous, not only for the players and the cheerleaders, but for the entire community,” Baker said. “The Shuckers got the entire community involved, from families to individual sports organizations to sponsors. … It was a privilege to be a part of something thatwas so down home.”
Hope for a future iteration of the Shuckers is not in vain, though Wolfe knows he can’t even think about it until at least next summer. Wolfe turned in the final paperwork on Monday to close down his LLC, which goes into effect at the end of the year, meaning he’d have to build up the business again fromscratch.
Still, Wolfe knows there’ll be a thirst for basketball again and that people will be “starved” for activities when it’s safe to be around one another.
Wright can’t imagine a future where the Shuckers don’t return.
“Hopefully they’ll come back out of nowhere, and everything will be back to normal,” Wright said. “Because Shuckers not around is not normal.”