UNC teams did a commendable job beating the odds.

Who among us thought the ACC would be playing football and other fall sports last summer? With the pandemic upon us and the medical experts still learning, the seasons looked like a long shot.

While other conferences pumped the breaks and/or called off football, the ACC heeded the advice of its 15-member Medical Advisory Group and opened up. Several football games were postponed or canceled, but here we are looking like we’re going to make it.

While the UNC campus was under siege for trying to bring students back and then calling off in-person learning, the athletic teams stayed in quasi bubbles and, more importantly, heeded their head coaches’ advice to stay healthy and safe.

Every week, headlines around the country about the coronavirus matched the results of the games played. The top four teams in college football right now – Alabama, Notre Dame, Ohio State and Clemson – all fought through decisions they made and are still in play.

Nick Saban was the highest profile football coach to get infected. Notre Dame teams avoided a campus-wide outbreak. Ohio State objected to the delay but has been okay so far while Wisconsin and other Big Ten schools have had to adjust their late-starting schedules. And Clemson got through a preseason problem and have since lost only their star quarterback.

Nowhere in the country has a school been more successful than Carolina. Hall of Fame coaches Mack Brown, Anson Dorrance and Karen Shelton have implored their athletes to take care of each other, and all three have managed to compete for championships.

Shelton surpassed 700 career victories and won her 23rd ACC field hockey title and could take home another national if the NCAA goes through with some fall championships in the spring.

Dorrance’s top-ranked team is in the semifinals of the ACC tournament and likely to win another title this weekend. Briana Pinto’s header off an Emily Fox pass beat Virginia Tech 1-0 in the ACC quarterfinals.

And Brown’s multi-talented Tar Heels are 5-2 and headed for the post-season again.

Kudos to Carolina programs for playing on and beating the odds.

 

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