Born & Bred // October 2020 // Resilience

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TAR HEELS PERSEVERE

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LETTER FROM THE EDITOR Reading through the editor’s letter from the last issue of Born & Bred feels like looking in a time capsule.

At that time, we still had hope that we’d all be together in Kenan Stadium and the Smith Center and Carmichael Arena this fall. That seems almost as jarring now as watching a clip from an old game and seeing the fans stuffed elbow-to-elbow into any American sports facility, or watching strangers high five each other after a big play.

Hopefully, we can get back to that reality sooner rather than later. But if we’ve learned anything over these last six months, it’s that putting a timeline on the full recovery of the sports world is a nearly impossible venture. For now, we’ll have to be content with scattered fans—if any fans—at games, and with substituting Asheville for Maui, and with socially distanced celebrations.

We gave significant thought to whether it made sense to produce a magazine about Carolina sports when, in general, there aren’t really all that many Carolina sports actually happening. What we ultimately decided is that what you love about Tar Heel athletics are the scores and the victories, certainly.

But even more than that, it’s the people. And no matter whether field hockey is able to compete for a third straight national championship or basketball is able to have the annual influx of alums working out with the current team, there are still plenty of people and stories worth writing about. That’s what we hope you’ll find in this issue, as Tar Heels around the world tell us how they’ve handled recent challenges.

Campus is different this fall. It’s jolting not to have to factor in that normal class change pedestrian traffic on weekday afternoons on Cameron Avenue.

It will never feel right to exit off Interstate 40 onto Highway 54 on a Carolina home football game day… and then breeze right into campus without spotting

a single car flag or hitting typical traffic near Glen Lennox. There will be no Late Night with Roy Williams this basketball season.

But we couldn’t resist ending this issue with a cautiously optimistic look forward to the spring, as Alexa Graham reminds Rams Club members what it means to her and her women’s tennis teammates to get one more year at Carolina and one more chance to represent the Tar Heels.

Thanks to the generosity of Rams Club members, along with Roy and Wanda Williams, Graham’s squad will be a national title contender this spring.

Maybe, just maybe, we’ll even get to watch them in person.

Adam Lucas Editor in Chief

PRODUCED BY THE RAMS CLUB // EDITOR IN CHIEF ADAM LUCAS // CONTRIBUTING WRITERS PAT JAMES & LEE PACE // PHOTOGRAPHY JEFFREY CAMARATI & ANDY MEAD // DESIGN JUJUBE SPORTS PUBLISHING

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“You can always communicate. You may have to do it in a different format. But good teams communicate at an elite level.” — COURTNEY BANGHART

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ON THE COVER: Patrice Rene battled through injury and a challenging summer to return to the Tar Heels.

COVER PHOTO BY JEFFREY CAMARATI THIS PAGE: MARCUS GINYARD, JEFFREY CAMARATI, GRANT HALVERSON OPPOSITE: GETTY IMAGES, JEFFREY CAMARATI

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EDITOR’S LETTER p. 3

TAR HEEL TICKER p. 6

CAROLINA EVERYWEAR p. 16

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10 Locked Down Abroad

A trio of Tar Heels who were in Europe when the pandemic began had very different experiences

BY ADAM LUCAS RESILIENCE

18 Corner of the World Tar Heel cornerback Patrice Rene made a long journey to play a foreign game

BY LEE PACE RESILIENCE

24 A New Ending

Many spring sport seniors changed their plans in order to come back to Chapel Hill for another chance as a Tar Heel

BY PAT JAMES

30 An Enduring Legacy

For the first time in 55 years there aren’t any players in the NBA who were coached by Dean Smith COMPILED BY ADAM LUCAS

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32 ‘It was time’

Marvin Williams showed his usual unique perspective when explaining his NBA retirement

BY ADAM LUCAS

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34 Preparation Pays Off

Handling the pandemic required cooperation from a host of athletic department staff

BY PAT JAMES FIRST PERSON

38 ‘Forever grateful’

Returning senior Alexa Graham thanks Roy and Wanda Williams and The Rams Club

BY ALEXA GRAHAM

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LESSONS LEARNED We asked some Tar Heel head coaches what they’ve learned about communication since mid-March PHOTO BY JEFFREY CAMARATI

JOE SAGULA, VOLLEYBALL

“What we learned to focus on was trying our best to reflect about the positive, and not be overwhelmed, taking things one day at a time. The second, was to allow time to listen, to really hear what was on our players’ and coaches’ minds about their feelings, all the uncertainty and realize we are all in this together. We have all done a lot of listening, and realize we have so much to learn.

“We learned to make time every day to let people express themselves and relate to each other. Communication on a consistent basis was therapy for everyone. We connected with a lot of people, and we encouraged everyone to reach out to family they may not have seen in a while and simply express that we are there for them, and cheering them on and to say thank you.

Communicating gratitude is a wonderful exercise that needs to be practiced on a daily basis to our friends, family, our donors and all who support Carolina.

“And finally, being a great teammate is always a standard in our team culture. This fall it has taken on an even bigger meaning. It goes well beyond being good and working together on the court. Being a good teammate means what we do the minute we walk out of the gym, the behaviors and standards we uphold to do things well, stay healthy, wearing a mask, because it is those decisions and behaviors that impact everyone on our team. That is what we communicate every day.”

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MACK BROWN, FOOTBALL

“Bubba (Cunningham) made a comment early in the process that we should overcommunicate and I think that’s true. We have total responsibility for our programs and less control than we’ve ever had. It’s never been more important to have a tremendous staff because your staff has to do a great deal of the work to stay in touch with our players.”

SAM PAUL, MEN’S TENNIS

“Right away, we learned it’s really important to connect despite the circumstances and then to stay connected despite the distance between us. At first, the conversations weren’t about tennis at all but about connecting with the guys and their families. After we moved through that process, we started helping the guys set goals for tennis, because that’s their passion.”

“To this day, even months later, the top priority is making sure the guys are doing well mentally and are happy.

There’s still uncertainty surrounding how the season will look, and the way they’re feeling is how we’re all feeling. We’re all in this together, and it’s very important to remember that in everything we do. In some ways, this experience brought us closer together as a team.”

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WORDS OF WISDOM

A collection of Tar Heel basketball alumni offer advice to this year’s freshmen PHOTO BY J.D. LYON, JR.

BRICE JOHNSON

“Just enjoy it. Your responsibilities are to go to class, play basketball, and do whatever Coach tells you to do. Take it day by day and enjoy every day. Once you leave, you’ll dream about being able to come back. It’s a ride, and it’s going to be a lot of fun.”

TYLER HANSBROUGH

“Freshman year sets the foundation for your four years. Listen to the coaches and earn everything from playing time, respect and chemistry with your teammates. Four years goes by fast, so take advantage of it while you’re here.”

MARVIN WILLIAMS

JUSTIN JACKSON

“Just go out there and try and soak it all in. It’s going to seem like they’re throwing a lot at you at a really fast speed but just keep going. Things might get tough but don’t stop pushing forward.”

MARCUS GINYARD

“I‘ll never forget how DG (Danny Green) always wanted to say something. He always wanted to explain himself or ask a question when Coach told him to do something. So the first thing that comes to mind is just keep your mouth shut.

Just do whatever Coach says and it will be a lot easier for you. No explanation needed. Say, ‘Yes, sir’ and do whatever he says. Keep your head down and work hard.

“We always have a good group of guys. We have great guys who are motivated and excited to be where they are, and if they keep that attitude and follow the lead of the older guys who have been there, and give 100 percent effort and come ready to work, they’ll be fine.”

“Follow the upperclassmen. I know that puts a lot of pressure on the upperclassmen, but that is their job. I don’t have the experience I had without a Jawad Williams, Sean May, Jackie Manuel, Raymond Felton, David Noel or Melvin Scott. I could not be more thankful for them. Sometimes you hear stories about freshmen going to college and the upperclassmen aren’t as friendly. I didn’t know what to expect and my experience wouldn’t have been the same without those guys. They are still like my older brothers now. We still have that same dynamic now.

And I would tell the upperclassmen, you have to lead. You have to do things the right way.”

DEON THOMPSON

“It is important to find leadership from the upperclassmen. Watch the work ethic of the guys who are leading by example and try to emulate that. Also, try and be like a sponge and soak up all the new things they are learning from the coaching staff. Even if they hear something from one of the coaches explaining to someone else, take it as information that could pertain to them, so the coaches do not have to repeat the same information to them.”

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ANSON’S BOOK CLUB

For decades, Carolina women’s soccer coach Anson Dorrance has required his Tar Heels to participate in a team-wide book club, in which they read a current book of Dorrance’s choosing and discuss it as a group.

With the unsettled last few months, Dorrance had a diverse set of books for the players to read. Book club selections since the COVID-19 situation began in March have included the following.

Full Team

How to be an Antiracist

by Ibram X. Kendi

Dorrance’s review:

“It was a wonderful experience for our kids. This is a huge issue that all of us are challenged by in this country.”

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Sophomores and Juniors When Nobody was Watching by Carli Lloyd The Talent Code by Daniel Coyle Atomic Habits by James Clear

Dorrance’s review:

“These are all designed to help these groups reach their dreams.”

TA R H E E LT I C K E R

Freshmen

Regular Selections

(read each offseason)

U Thrive by Daniel Lerner

Dorrance’s review:

“He’s a friend of mine who teaches at New York University, and it’s all about how to come in and survive your freshman year.”

Freshmen

Seniors

The 10 Natural Laws of Successful Life and Time Management

by Hyrum Smith

The Second Mountain by David Brooks

Dorrance’s review:

“We want to have a certain balance within the program. We don’t want to preach from just one voice. His book is extraordinary.”

Seniors

This is Water by David Foster Wallace

Dorrance’s review:

“I am someone who actually reads commencement addresses, and in my opinion this is the most extraordinary commencement address I’ve ever read in my life.”

Sophomores

The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People

by Stephen Covey

Juniors

Man’s Search for Meaning

by Victor Frankel

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BY ADAM LUCAS // PHOTOS BY MARCUS GINYARD, DEON AND AMBER THOMPSON

A trio of Tar Heels who were in Europe when the pandemic began had very different experiences

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hink back to everything you experienced this March and April. Remember the isolation, the boredom and the monotony.

Now imagine that you had to do it in a foreign country in which you only partially speak the language.

That’s the situation endured by several Tar Heel basketball alumni who were playing basketball overseas when the pandemic began to shut down much of the world. Marcus Ginyard and Brice Johnson were in France, while Deon Thompson and his wife, Amber, were in Spain.

On March 12, Ginyard’s team, Limoges CSP, was five hours into a nine-hour bus ride for the squad’s longest road trip of the season. They had just passed Paris, with everyone on the bus frequently refreshing their phones for the latest news, when the LNB Pro A—the top league in France—cancelled the next evening’s game.

“The bus turned around and we came back home,” Ginyard says. “The next day, the president of France (Emmanuel Macron) came on television and said the entire country was about to go into a lockdown for two weeks. Most of us knew it would probably be longer than two weeks, but that’s where we started.

Within 24 hours it became evident that this was going to be a very difficult situation.”

Even the simplest of tasks—such as watching a televised presidential address— can be complicated when you’re in a foreign country. Fortunately, Ginyard has taken extensive French classes and is nearly fluent in the language. But even someone confident in the language might have some questions when the president of the country is addressing the nation and potentially determining whether non-natives might be able to leave the borders.

Ginyard’s French proficiency gave him a big advantage not enjoyed by Brice Johnson, who was also in France playing with Chorale Roanne Basket. While Ginyard had taken French classes as far back as middle school, Johnson had no such background with the language. After he signed with the team in midJanuary, his first couple weeks in France were spent trying to interpret body language and offering an occasional—and cautious—thumbs up in response to French-based questions.

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RESILIENCE “They shut down pretty much the entire country of France,” Johnson says. “Eventually they told us if we got stuck, they didn’t know if we’d be able to get out.

So I was on the next flight out…I eventually decided I’d rather be home where I at least know the language rather than being there and everything is shut down anyway. There was no point in sitting in an apartment not knowing the language. I’d rather be locked in my house here.”

Across the border in the south of Spain, Deon Thompson was in a slightly different location.

Thompson’s wife, Amber, relocates to spend time with him while he pursues his international basketball career. That’s led them to a wide variety of experiences, from Serbia to Germany to Spain.

The couple traditionally tries to immerse themselves in the culture of whatever country becomes their most recent basketball home. But even the adventurous travelers weren’t prepared for what happened in the spring and summer of 2020.

“The lockdown measures in Spain were extremely strict,” Thompson says. “We were unable to leave our home unless it was for the grocery store, the pharmacy, walking a pet or for a medical reason. After a couple of months, we moved into phase 0, where we could leave our house for designated exercise time only from 7 a.m. to 11 a.m. and 8 p.m. to 11 p.m. Amber and I don’t know how we managed to spend that much time in an isolated lockdown.”

Ginyard—Thompson’s teammate on the 2009 Carolina national championship team—was having a very similar experience in France. Fortunately for the Virginia native, he had changed apartments just days before the lockdown began. The swap placed him in nearly the exact center of town, making it much easier to get out to get necessities. He realized how fortuitous his change had been when he saw police issuing fines to citizens driving around town for non-approved reasons.

Ginyard, who has lived in nine different countries and played for 13 different teams, found that the two-story setup of his new apartment had the added bonus of making him feel like he had a living space and a separate workout space. “I felt like I was going somewhere different even if I wasn’t,” he says.

Americans playing abroad become accustomed to certain hurdles. Ginyard, for example, once left the Ukraine just days ahead of massive unrest that eventually destroyed the airport he used to fly out of the country. He was also once removed from a commercial airplane after

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No matter how much they made the best of it, the reality is that Thompson and Ginyard haven’t really been home in over a year. But the complexity of their decision is illustrated perfectly by Johnson, who came back to America but hasn’t yet been re-signed by a European squad. That puts a major dent in his earnings, while Thompson and Ginyard began practice with their European teams as scheduled in August.

International squads often provide the opportunity for their American players to return home for a few days around Christmas. Ginyard and Thompson aren’t even sure they’ll get that break this year, and even if afforded the opportunity, it remains a concern that they might come home and then be unable to get back into Europe after spending time in the United States. So their immediate plans are to play basketball and continue to be flexible. But they know where they hope to be at some point in the near future.

“You don’t realize how nice it is to just be able to say you’re home,” Ginyard says. “It’s tough to not be able to walk downstairs and have coffee “YOU DON’T REALIZE HOW NICE IT IS TO JUST BE ABLE TO SAY YOU’RE HOME. with my mom or have camp with all those IT’S TOUGH TO NOT BE ABLE TO WALK DOWNSTAIRS AND HAVE COFFEE WITH MY kids who recharge me. It’s tough not MOM OR HAVE CAMP WITH ALL THOSE KIDS WHO RECHARGE ME. IT’S TOUGH getting that grounding time. No matter how far away I go, that time back home is NOT GETTING THAT GROUNDING TIME. NO MATTER HOW FAR AWAY I GO, THAT always a moment of grounding.”

TIME BACK HOME IS ALWAYS A MOMENT OF GROUNDING.”

his team tried to shortcut international work visa rules.

But this summer presented another new challenge: once players made the choice to stay overseas, they had to find a way to prepare their bodies for the start of an impending season that was very uncertain.

Both Thompson and Ginyard usually come back to the United States in the summer and spend numerous days working out at the Smith Center. Ginyard runs the Marcus Ginyard Basketball Camp, which had to be canceled in 2020.

In a normal summer, both would have had virtually unlimited gym access back in the States.

But the Thompsons are also eager travelers, so they tried to get creative while making the best of the situation. “Luckily, spending a summer in the south of Spain is not the worst place to be,” Deon says. “We enjoyed being able to travel around the south of Spain and I was able to use my team’s gym and work out with my coaching staff in Malaga.”

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C A R O L I N A E V E R YWE A R Rams Club members like to wear their Carolina Blue, and they’ll wear it all over the US and the world when travel conditions permit. If you have a photo of you in your Carolina gear in front of notable landmarks in the US and abroad, send them our way to be a part of Carolina EveryWear!

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To have your photo included: -Send your photo digitally to bornandbred@ramsclub.com.

-Identify everyone in your photo and the location of the photo.

Here are the “Rules”: -At least one person in the photo has to be a Rams Club member -You must be wearing Carolina gear -You must be in front of a notable landmark (sorry, as cool as Kenan Stadium and the Smith Center are, they don’t qualify).

SHOW US YOUR COLORS!

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“DURING THESE TRYING TIMES, MY HEART BREAKS FOR ALL THOSE IMPACTED ACROSS THE CAROLINA FAMILY, INCLUDING OUR STUDENT-ATHLETES. OUR STUDENTATHLETES HAVE MY FULL AND COMPLETE SUPPPORT.” -LT DALTON SAWYER, USN, WHILE ON DEPLOYMENT IN THE MIDDLE EAST

1) Brandon Hartzell of Stephens City, Va., at the John Lennon Wall in Prague, Czech Republic 2) Niki Simpson & Thaddeus Fine of La Porte, Tex., in Cancun, Mexico; 3) Grant & Luke Collins of Greensboro at Old Baldy Lighthouse on Bald Head Isalnd, N.C.i; 4) Tim & Beth Hodges of Elkin at el Archo, Cabo San Lucas, Mexico; 5) Richard Britt of Mooresville at the Oak Island Pier in Oak Island, N.C.; 6) Margaret Jackson, Christopher Jackson, Jill Jackson, Oscar Jackson, Betsy Press and Jennifer Lorenz of Raleigh fishing in Prince William Sound, Alaska; 7) Dwight & Beverly Lewis of Nags Head at Portal Point, Antarctic Penninsula.; 8) Tommy Isenhour of Gastonia; 9) Jerry Thomas of Greensboro; 10) Dwayne Goulet of Goldsboro; 11) Stephen & Sandra Rich of Chapel Hill; 12) Joe, Lisa & Bear of Athens, Ga.; 13) MAJ Jason Turner, US Army, shows his kit from the Tunnel to Towers 5K run in Kabul, Afghanistan; 14) LT Dalton Sawyer, USN, while on deployment in the Middle East

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CORNER OF THE WORLD

BY LEE PACE PHOTOS BY JEFFREY CAMARATI & ANDY MEAD

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Tar Heel cornerback Patrice Rene made a long journey to play a foreign game

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his was quite the stage for the 18-year-old who was born in Haiti, grew up in Canada, went to high school in Virginia, had a French name and could speak three languages (English, French and Creole). Here was Patrice-Marc Rene, lined up in his first college football game in man-to-man coverage in the third quarter of a nationally televised game, his North Carolina Tar Heels facing off against Georgia. The Georgia Dome in Atlanta was stuffed to the rafters; millions were watching on television. The opposite cornerback slot for the Tar Heels was manned by Des Lawrence, the senior and two-year starter.

“I had always dreamed of playing big-time football in the States,” Rene says. “And there I was. I’d only seen an atmosphere like that on TV. The speed, the contact, a different level of competition. It was all totally foreign to me.”

Not surprisingly, Bulldog offensive coordinator Jim Chaney and QB Jacob Eason decided to test Rene, who brought physical presence to the Carolina secondary (6-2 height, 4.6 speed) but was a raw neophyte under the lights. On two third-down snaps, Georgia targeted the receiver on Rene’s side. Both times, Rene was in position downfield along the sideline.

Both times, he failed to locate the airborne football, made contact with the receiver and was flagged for interference. Georgia scored a touchdown to quell the Tar Heels’ momentum on the way to a 33-24 win.

“I was like, ‘Okay, this is what reality is, this is what it’s really like at this level,’” Rene remembers. “I had to learn from my mistakes. The experience was kind of a wakeup call for me and allowed me to understand where I’m at and the stage that I’m on. I had to learn the speed of the game and playing a different level of competition. I think being able to get my feet wet as a true freshman really helped me a lot in my career.”

Dre Bly, the ex-Tar Heel All-America cornerback and later an NFL Pro Bowl player, was on the sidelines that night in Atlanta. He was seven years removed from the league, living in Charlotte, coaching youth league and high school ball and remained connected with his alma mater through head coach Larry Fedora and his assistants.

“Trice was thrown right into the fire—huge game, season opener, national TV,” Bly says, invoking Rene’s nickname (say, Treece). “I remember noticing he was right there on every play. He was never beat. I knew then he’d have a good career. He was going against the best of the best. It was great coverage. It was just a matter of looking back and finding the ball.”

Reflecting back four years later, Rene catalogues that game as just one of a number of hurdles he’s had to leap throughout his career—indeed, his entire life.

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political unrest and frequent flooding in the early 2000s to seek another home. They picked up and moved to Ottawa, and there young Patrice became enamored of all sports and particularly football, noting on a football recruiting website at the age of 14, “My dream is to be able to play in the NFL. My goal for now is to work hard to improve my academics so I am able to attend college in the States.” The Renes took Patrice on weekends to various camps and recruiting showcases across the border into New York, Ohio and Pennsylvania so he could develop his skills and broaden his network.

Patrice began working with a coach named Victor Tedondo, who founded Gridiron Academy in Ottawa to help young players develop their skills beyond what they could learn through a high school athletics infrastructure more geared to the Canadian national sport of hockey. Tedondo told the Renes that Patrice would have a better chance of getting a college scholarship if he matriculated to an American high school and used his network to introduce Patrice to the coaching staff at Episcopal High in Alexandria, Va. “My parents were all for me leaving to chase my dreams and excited for me to make that jump,” Rene says.

He moved to Virginia for his final two years of high school and soon “EVERYTHING HAPPENS FOR A REASON AND I JUST TRY TO LOOK AT THE drew recruiting interest from coaches BRIGHTER SIDE OF THINGS. I JUST TRIED TO SOAK UP AS MUCH KNOWLEDGE across the East, Midwest and MidAtlantic. Rene originally committed AS I COULD FROM ALL THE COACHES, AND I DID LEARN A LOT OF DIFFERENT THINGS FROM EACH OF THEM. I’M GRATEFUL FOR THAT, SO IT’S ALL PART OF THE to Rutgers, believing that being close to a grandmother, aunt, uncle and JOURNEY AND EXPERIENCE TO ME.” cousins in New York City would be convenient. But he changed his plans and recalibrated after Scarlet Knights Coach Kyle Flood and “He’s been through a lot,” Bly says. “Four corners coaches his staff were fired, leaving Ohio State, Wisconsin, Boston and an ACL—that’s a lot for anyone to deal with. He’s had no College and Carolina atop the mix of options. stability. He’s been taught four different techniques. I don’t And as so frequently happens when someone visits Chapel care who you are, that’s hard. He’s done a good job dealing Hill for the first time, “I fell in love with the campus, I fell in with that adversity and the change.” love with the guys and I felt like this was going to be my home Rene speaks of “attacking” the day and whatever challenge and I decided to commit.” sits before him, of “loving the grind” and that there’s no Rene started eight games his first two seasons and every regimen a doctor or strength coach can give him that’s too game as a junior and was primed for his senior year until strenuous. being hurt against Miami. He was halfway through his rebab “Everything happens for a reason and I just try to look at protocol that was expected to take nine months when the the brighter side of things,” Rene says. “I just tried to soak up Covid-19 pandemic hit in March and he had to return to as much knowledge as I could from all the coaches, and I did Ottawa. He had no gym access and city laws restricted the learn a lot of different things from each of them. I’m grateful use of public athletic fields. Rene was constantly on Zoom for that, so it’s all part of the journey and experience to me.” and Facetime calls with strength coach Brian Hess and trainer Pierre and Marie Rene had five children and named their Luke Ross to keep up his conditioning and knee rehab. youngest with a combination of both names, hence “PatriceIn the midst of it all, an uncle in New York died from the Marc,” and were living in Haiti when they decided amid “Coach Fedora always used to say, ‘Adversity is coming.

It’s always going to come,’” Rene says. “The only thing that matters is how you’re going to handle it, how you’re going to react to it and how you’re going to respond.”

As a sophomore and junior, Rene was the most reliable link in the secondary as the Carolina defense was woefully bad, giving up an average of 33 points and 440 yards per game in 2017-18.

He’s had a different position coach each year—Charlton Warren in 2016, Terry Joseph in 2017, Henry Baker in 2018 and then Bly when he was hired by new head coach Mack Brown in December 2018.

Rene injured the ACL in his right knee in game two of what was to be his senior year and was lost for the season. He redshirted and preserved the year of eligibility.

And he was hit with an unusual challenge during the Covid-19 pandemic, having to leave the country to join his family in Ottawa when Carolina shut down in March, do makeshift workouts and appeal to the Canadian Embassy to return to Chapel Hill in May so that he could get proper care of his knee and a suitable venue for his rehab.

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virus and the family gathered via Zoom for a memorial service.

“It was really hard, we have a big family and are very close,” Rene says. “To not be able to physically be there for my aunt and cousins, that was hard for us.”

Rene was finally allowed back into the United States after an appeal to the Canadian Embassy to leave the country and return to Chapel Hill in May. “The whole process was very eye opening,” Rene says. “I had to dig deep down and realize how much I love the game of football. My love for the game is even stronger after what I’ve been through. It’s been a tough process. But hard work was instilled in me at a young age. I’ve accepted everything that’s happened and just attack the process. I found a deeper love for game of football. You cannot control what happens. You can control your attitude.”

Bly kept an eye on Rene during the 2016-18 seasons and relished the opportunity to coach him when he was hired.

Both coach and player are intent on building on the solid defensive debut under coordinator Jay Bateman in 2019 and re-establishing the defensive tradition at Carolina that sagged during the Fedora-engineered offensive era from 2012-18.

“Once I got the gig, I knew the one thing I would instill in my guys would be to try to teach them to be confident and not be afraid to make a mistake,” Bly says. “Going back to his freshman year, Trice was great in coverage, he was just afraid to make a mistake, to make a play, which led to him getting beat.”

“I think it’s time for the defense to step up to the plate and showcase to the world what we’re able to do,” Rene says. “I think we have a lot of guys with great talent and a great coach at the forefront, and I think we’re going to accomplish a lot of things.

People are going to start to notice that the Carolina football team is not just offense—it’s a team, we’re a really good team in all three phases of the game—offense, defense as well as special teams.”

Rene will graduate this fall with degrees in communications and sociology. His dream of a dozen years has been to play in the NFL, so that’s priority No. 1. Back-ups in the business world include using his passion for fashion and apparel design to explore options in retail clothing, communications and marketing.

As he speaks the third week of September, game two of the 2020 football season has just been cancelled. After a dominating season-opening win over Syracuse, the Tar Heels were set to meet Charlotte in Kenan Stadium on Sept. 19, but the game was cancelled because of Covid-19 testing issues with the 49ers squad.

“The year 2020 has been full of surprises,” Rene says. “You’ve got to expect the unexpected.”

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A NEW ENDING

BY PAT JAMES // PHOTOS BY JEFFREY CAMARATI & REBECCA LAWSON

Many spring sport seniors changed their plans in order to come back to Chapel Hill for another chance as a Tar Heel

H

anging out by one of the many pools at the Baha Mar resort in Nassau, Bahamas, on March 12, Makenna Jones couldn’t help but look around and think of how lucky she was to be there and be in the position she was in.

One of three seniors on the North Carolina women’s tennis team, she and her teammates were a month removed from claiming the ITA National Women’s Team Indoor Championship when they arrived in Nassau for spring break. At the time, the Tar Heels were 18-0 and the favorites to win the NCAA team title.

They were also an exceptionally close group, and their visit to Nassau had all the makings of the sort of trip that brings a championship team even more together.

Yet, it was there, in this tropical paradise, that their title pursuit abruptly ended.

Jones was by the pool when she was told the ACC had suspended all athleticrelated activities due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Later, while in the lobby, she and her teammates learned via Twitter that the NCAA had canceled all remaining winter and spring championships.

“It was just such a surreal experience of going from, ‘Wow, this is incredible.

I’m so happy to be here,’ to, ‘Now what?’” Jones said. “We all just spent the night sobbing.”

The next day, however, as reports started circulating that the Division I Council Coordination Committee had agreed that eligibility relief was appropriate for spring sport student-athletes, those emotions quickly changed.

Still at the resort, Jones said she and fellow seniors Sara Daavettila and Alexa Graham started screaming out of excitement upon learning about the D-I Council’s decision. And while the council wouldn’t officially extend their eligibility and that of other spring sport seniors for 17 days, Jones wasted little time booking an apartment for the 2020-21 school year.

“I was a little bit naive in thinking it was a done deal, I was coming back, everything was going to be perfect and easy, and not really realizing what about the financials, what about the logistics,” Jones said. “So, that wasn’t maybe my smartest time. But I was just going with my heart, and my heart is always in Chapel Hill. I knew I had to find a way back.”

As did so many others.

Three days before the sports world suddenly shut down, Katie Hoeg helped lead the top-ranked and undefeated UNC women’s lacrosse team to a thrilling 20-18 win at No. 6 Northwestern. In tallying four goals and four assists, the senior tri-captain became Carolina’s all-time leading scorer. The joy she felt after such

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RESILIENCE of a senior year under normal circumstances and would be returning to a campus unlike the one he was used to due to COVID-19 protocols.

As much as anything, though, he’d already spent close to a year getting himself ready to move on from the sport he’s played since he was five years old.

“You prepare yourself emotionally and mentally, and then when it ends abruptly like that, you don’t know how to feel because you didn’t go out on your terms, you didn’t get a senior day, you didn’t get to make a run at the national title – you never had a chance,” Tessar said. “And then when you get that opportunity to come back, then you have to put yourself in a situation where you’re like, ‘I just got myself so mentally and emotionally ready to kind of be done with this game. Now I’ve got to emotionally and mentally put myself back in it to ultimately get ready to go back out of it.’ That was my biggest concern.”

By the time August rolled around, Tessar said he was 50-50 about returning. Then, on Aug. 7, his coach of the last three years, Mike Fox, retired.

Despite his love for Scott Forbes, who succeeded Fox after 19 seasons on the Carolina coaching staff, Tessar said the idea of not playing for Fox also made him think of leaving.

“Ultimately, I had a conversation with Coach Fox and he just kind of reminded me that this might be the decision you think is best right now, but 10-20 years from now, it’s going to be one you’re going to regret,” Tessar said. “I think that kind of helped me make my decision to come back and hopefully make a run at this thing and win a national title.”

That’s the storybook ending Tessar, Hoeg and Jones all are looking for. And they all know who to thank for the chance to write that final chapter.

On July 23, UNC announced Roy Williams and his wife, Wanda, donated more than $600,000 to fund scholarships of spring sport seniors whose seasons were cut short due to COVID-19 but will be returning to Carolina to compete in 2020-21. As surprising as that news was to some people, it was anything but for Jones.

“Everything that the Williams family has done up to this point has just been incredible, and this is just another thing to add to that,” she said. “But it blows my mind, honestly, how generous and selfless they really are. … What they did basically is the definition of the true Carolina Family that we have here.

“They’re showing everyone what it means to be a Tar Heel, and that means “YOU PREPARE YOURSELF EMOTIONALLY AND MENTALLY, AND THEN WHEN family first. It’s incredible. I couldn’t be any IT ENDS ABRUPTLY LIKE THAT, YOU DON’T KNOW HOW TO FEEL BECAUSE YOU more thankful because I am where I am DIDN’T GO OUT ON YOUR TERMS, YOU DIDN’T GET A SENIOR DAY, YOU DIDN’T because of them, as well as the rest of my GET TO MAKE A RUN AT THE NATIONAL TITLE – YOU NEVER HAD A CHANCE.” teammates.”

a game, however, was soon replaced with heartbreak.

Because the ACC initially suspended all athletic-related activities before cancelling them through the end of the 2019-20 academic year on March 17, Hoeg held out hope that the suspension would eventually be lifted and she could play a few more games, despite the cancellation of the NCAA championship. So, on March 13, she and some of her teammates met for a workout.

As they channeled their frustration into a few exercises, Jenny Levy FaceTimed Hoeg to tell her about the D-I Council’s decision.

“I just remember crying tears of happiness,” Hoeg said. “And all of my friends were like, ‘Wait, did she just say that?’ We were freaking out together and hugging each other. After that, my first phone call was to my parents because I know they were worried about everything and they were thinking of me. So it was a big relief for them, too.”

That wasn’t the only call that Hoeg had to make.

Unlike Jones, who had been preparing to play professional tennis after graduating in May, Hoeg was getting ready to move on from her sport. She was planning a gap year before starting dental school, and had lined up a teaching and coaching job at a high school in Nashville, Tennessee.

Hoeg said she’s lucky she didn’t have postgraduate plans that were difficult to change. She did still have to make a somewhat uncomfortable call to her potential employer, though.

“The headmaster of the school was so sympathetic and really understanding and knew where I was coming from,” she said. “He couldn’t have been more gracious in his response to me saying, ‘Hey, I have to do this.’ … I knew it probably would feel awkward. But I was so steadfast in my belief and commitment to coming back that honestly, even if he was upset or whatever his reaction was, I knew I was going to come back no matter what.”

At first, Dallas Tessar, a senior outfielder on the baseball team, was just as certain that he’d come back to Chapel Hill so he could get the sense of closure that he and so many others had been denied. But as the summer went along, he considered leaving.

Several factors almost persuaded him. Among them was the opportunity to go get a job, likely at Civic Financial Services, a private money lender based out of Redondo Beach, California.

There was also the fact that he’d experienced the majority

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A NEW ENDING

EXTRA YEAR MEANS EXTRA

OPPORTUNITIES Despite her love for learning, Makenna Jones said she hadn’t ever thought of going to grad school before the chance to return to UNC came about. But once she knew for sure she was coming back, she set her sights on enrolling in Carolina’s sport administration graduate program.

“I love sports more than anything, so it was a perfect fit for me,” said Jones, who graduated in May with a bachelor’s degree in exercise and sport science with an emphasis on sport administration. “I almost went a different direction, but I couldn’t be any happier that I ended up in this program. It’s been nothing but awesome.

“During COVID, I don’t think there could be a better time to be learning more versus being in the job field. So, I really think it was, in a way, meant to be.”

A biology major and chemistry minor, Katie Hoeg became the first UNC women's lacrosse player to earn first-team Academic All-America honors from the College Sports Information Directors of America in June. That came after she was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa honorary society last November.

After deciding to return to Chapel Hill, Hoeg added an English minor and enrolled in a research opportunity with Dr. Ilona Jaspers, the director of UNC's toxicology curriculum, investigating how vaping – also known as juuling – impacts cardiorespiratory systems.

"We were thinking about investigating the impacts of juuling on student-athletes because I can bring my experience from being a studentathlete. …” Hoeg said. “So we’re trying to figure out how we can both utilize our experiences and expertise in a way that would be really advantageous to the student-athlete population.”

Dallas Tessar graduated in May with a bachelor’s degree in sociology and a minor in history. He’s currently enrolled a post-baccalaureate program consisting of four classes each semester.

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Dear Carolina Family, In a time where circumstances can keep us apart, I continue to be inspired and motivated by the thing that ties us all together – we love and support our Tar Heels. Despite cancellations, lost seasons and missed moments, the Carolina Family has come together to ensure that our University and our athletics program continue to thrive.

You have been amazingly generous with your gifts and your donations of season ticket purchases and seat licenses you will never be able to use. You have been loyal, patient and flexible in a constantly changing landscape. You have embraced the need for our community to keep one another safe, making many personal sacrifices for others.

Your dedication helps keeps us committed to our top priority – the young men and women who compete for Carolina. Thank you for supporting our student-athletes. Thank you for being a Rams Club member.

Go Heels!

John Montgomery Executive Director

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DEAN SMITH-COACHED PLAYER FIRSTS

RESILIENCE

AN ENDURING LEGACY

PLAYER DRAFTED

ABA ALL-STAR

BILLY

LARRY BROWN & DOUG MOE 1968

CUNNINGHAM 1965

NBA ALL-STAR

ABA ROOKIE OF THE YEAR CHARLIE

BILLY

SCOTT

CUNNINGHAM

1971

1969

With Vince Carter’s retirement, for the first time in 55 years there aren’t any players in the NBA who were coached by Dean Smith.

Here’s a look back on some league milestones.

ABA MVP

NBA ALL-ROOKIE TEAM PICK

BILLY

BOB

CUNNINGHAM

MCADOO

1973

1972-73

NBA MVP

NBA SIXTH MAN AWARD

BOB

BOBBY

MCADOO

JONES

1973-74

PHOTO BY USA BASKETBALL/GETTY IMAGES

1983

NBA DEFENSIVE POY

NBA FINALS MVP

MICHAEL

BOB

MICHAEL

JAMES

CUNNINGHAM JORDAN WALTER

DAVIS BRAD

DAUGHERTY

MCADOO WORTHY PHIL

FORD VINCE

CARTER

[EIGHT DIFFERENT PLAYERS WITH 25 TOTAL SELECTIONS]

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WORTHY

1988

DEAN SMITH-COACHED ALL-NBA TEAM SELECTIONS BILLY

JAMES

JORDAN

1988

DEAN SMITH-COACHED NBA ALL-STARS BILLY

BOB

WALTER

CHARLIE

MICHAEL

JAMES

BRAD

VINCE

BOBBY

JERRY

ANTAWN

RASHEED

CUNNINGHAM JORDAN JONES

MCADOO WORTHY STACKHOUSE

DAVIS

DAUGHERTY JAMISON

SCOTT

CARTER WALLACE

[12 DIFFERENT PLAYERS WITH 64 TOTAL SELECTIONS]

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‘It was time’

BY ADAM LUCAS // PHOTO BY MARVIN WILLIAMS

E

ven as a college freshman, Marvin Williams always possessed a uniquely mature viewpoint on life.

So it’s no surprise that as he chose to end his 15-year professional basketball career this summer, he had a perfect explanation for why the time was right for retirement.

“It’s more about off the court for me than on the court,” he said. “My personal life is so different now. I have two young daughters, one of whom is five years old and has a hard time when it’s time for me to go on the road. She doesn’t understand if I’m going to be gone for two nights or two weeks. That hurts me to leave my family like that.

At this point in my life, actual living is more important to me than playing basketball. It was time.”

That’s exactly the perspective you’d expect from a player who left Carolina after his freshman season— having never started a game, but as a national champion who was picked second overall in the NBA Draft—and then returned to Chapel Hill every summer for a decade to work towards his degree. He remains the only one and done college basketball player to earn his degree, and he also earned over $120 million during his professional career.

Williams is beloved by the Tar Heel coaching staff and Carolina basketball alumni. His commitment to Carolina is tangible—the weight room at the Smith Center is named in his honor. So it’s not implausible to imagine him making his way back to Chapel Hill at some point during his retirement.

For now, though, he has other ideas.

“I know I want to stay around the NBA game,” Williams said. “I don’t want to coach or be in the front office. That’s too much stress. I want to find something a little less stressful. I would love to stay around basketball and teach kids about basketball. If I could do something that involved traveling and teaching kids the game, that would be awesome.”

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Marvin Williams showed his usual unique perspective when explaining his NBA retirement

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RESILIENCE

PREPARATION PAYS OFF

BY PAT JAMES // PHOTOS BY JEFFREY CAMARATI & BORN AND BRED STAFF // GRAPHICS BY SOUTHWOOD

Handling the pandemic required cooperation from a host of athletic department staff

I

n working with organizations such as the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games, the Atlanta Paralympic Organizing Committee and the Special Olympic World Games in the 1990s, Jaci Field was first exposed to the world of emergency planning.

It wasn’t until years after she joined the Smith Center staff in 1999, though, that the emergency management community really started growing.

UNC specifically joined the movement in 2003, when the Gillings School of Global Public Health launched its certificate program in community preparedness and disaster management. The school then doubled down on that program in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, establishing a graduate program in disaster management in 2007.

Observing all this, Field decided to enroll in the graduate program, from which she earned her certificate in 2008, so she could further contribute to the Carolina community. For much of the last 12 years, though, she wished she wouldn’t ever have to use the skills she acquired.

“Every emergency manager hopes that they’re semi-bored and just in planning phase all of their career,” said Field, now a member of UNC’s athletic facilities and planning staff and the director of Eddie Smith Field House. “But it’s good to be prepared when you need it because you know it’s going to happen.”

Finally, in March, it did.

As soon as the COVID-19 pandemic brought the sports world

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to an abrupt halt on March 12, college athletic departments started brainstorming how they could safely bring studentathletes, coaches, staff and fans back to campus. At UNC, Field found herself at the center of such talks. But she was far from alone.

As the athletics department’s emergency response officer, John Brunner – the associate athletic director for event management – performs emergency response tasks when an incident, namely a natural disaster, occurs. His early conversations regarding the virus, he said, focused on how the department could help the University by disinfecting surfaces and installing safety signage and physical distance markers. Those talks escalated once sports were shut down.

“We were preparing for a triage unit in one of our athletic facilities given what was happening overseas,” Brunner said.

“Is our health care system going to be overrun? And then we worked on supporting the hospital. We did a bunch of donations of food and snacks for hospital workers.

“We also put in time to invest in our emergency response system. FEMA (the Federal Emergency Management Agency) offers a free professional development series course, so our staff all did that. A lot of the stuff was very relatable to emergency responses, whether it’s a long- or short-term response.”

Because many infectious disease experts at first believed the virus could be gone by the fall, Dr. Mario Ciocca – UNC’s director of sports medicine – said his staff initially focused

PREPARATION PAYS OFF on how they could continue to support the student-athletes while they were away from campus.

Once it became apparent, however, that the virus would be sticking around, Ciocca turned to his peers at other ACC institutions to figure out how they were attempting to keep everyone safe.

“We definitely sort of fell upon each other where we started doing weekly conference calls – and we’re still doing them,” said Ciocca, who represents UNC on the ACC’s COVID-19 Medical Advisory Group, which formed in May to share information related to the impact of COVID-19 on college campuses and the return of college sports.

“It was like, ‘Let’s get together weekly.’ And now we’re doing it every two weeks. But let’s go over and answer each other’s questions because we all have the same questions and are trying to figure out the best way to do things. So there was a lot of collaboration among the ACC docs, and that continues to happen.”

Brunner and Field also participated in several calls with their colleagues at other institutions, highlighted by a weekly call that Bubba Cunningham organized with other schools in the UNC system. Later came talks with personnel from professional leagues – including the UFC and the Bundesliga, two of the first leagues to return to action amid the pandemic.

“We got plans from the NBA and the NFL and several teams within each of those leagues and the NFL, and we read all of their plans and we really modeled a lot of our planning after what they were doing,” Field said. “I think the professional sports have been just as great a resource as everyone else since we kind of move about facilities the same way.”

Of course, not everything professional leagues did was applicable. For example, the idea of creating a bubble as tight as the one the NBA formed at the Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Florida, was initially out of the question considering student-athletes had to attend classes and would inevitably interact with the rest of the student body. However, ever since UNC moved classes online for the fall semester, Ciocca said that’s been easier to simulate.

Despite all the planning Brunner, Ciocca, Field and so many others did, they all understood that their efforts would go to waste if people didn’t comply with the protocols they helped establish. They also knew a scenario could easily arise where someone could test positive for the virus despite following the guidelines. That came to fruition when UNC shut down voluntary football workouts in July after 37 members of the athletic department – players, coaches and staff – tested positive for the virus.

“I think it was something where you can talk all you want, but until you experience it, you’re not going to realize it,”

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RESILIENCE

need to do this right. We are the University of North Carolina.

Ciocca said. “I think it was sort of a good reality in terms of, We are the flagship.’

‘Look, this can spread pretty quickly. Sometimes you do all the After months of preparation, UNC finally held its first athletic right things and you still get sick.’ event since March on Sept. 12, when the football team hosted “This age group of ours is usually real mild or asymptomatic, Syracuse at Kenan Stadium. Five days later, the women’s soccer but it can be more serious and it can lead to causing other team welcomed Wake problems. And I Forest to Dorrance think as you start “EVERY EMERGENCY MANAGER HOPES THAT THEY’RE SEMI-BORED AND JUST IN Field. to see some cases, PLANNING PHASE ALL OF THEIR CAREER, BUT IT’S GOOD TO BE PREPARED WHEN In many ways, Field then it starts to said, both events sink in for that age YOU NEED IT BECAUSE YOU KNOW IT’S GOING TO HAPPEN.” were surreal. They group, like, ‘Oh, were also a welcome respite. yeah, this can affect us. We are starting to see some cases “I’m so excited for us as a department to get to do the and maybe we need to take this a little more seriously.’ I think thing we do,” Field said, “that we have plans in place that you start to see more buy-in of masking and doing the things will allow us to further our mission in making sure everybody they need to do to take care of themselves.” continues to be able to represent the University through That buy-in hasn’t applied to just those within athletics. It’s also athletics. And I think having those plans and having the ability extended to other members of the University community, none to operationalize those plans, that’s an exciting piece. And more important than the local public health officials who helped whether it means we can do it with fans or not, if we can do support the return of sports every step of the way, said Brunner. it safely for as long as we have these situations, then that’s “It’s been a really wonderful team,” he said, “and as we’ve success. I’m excited to see the end of this, but it just means had these calls and these visits and Zoom meetings over the patience, that’s all.” last six months, it’s never been, ‘Are you kidding me?’ It’s, ‘We

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BORN & BRED

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FIRST PERSON

I

‘Forever grateful’

what we started. Few things have given me more pride I can remember the day my senior season was cancelled then being a Tar Heel and it’s not because of how great our like it was yesterday. Our team was on spring break, we athletic teams perform, or our highly regarded academics. were all in the pool, and as the day went on different It’s because being a Tar Heel means being a part of the conferences and leagues were cancelling sports across the Carolina Family, and that is one of the greatest feelings in board. By dinner time my senior season had been cancelled the world. and my teammates and I, especially my two co-seniors, were absolutely devastated.

We were struggling to wrap our heads around the fact that our college tennis careers were supposed to ALEXA GRAHAM end in May, so to have it taken from Women’s Tennis us out of nowhere was one of the “Whenever I see Coach Williams on most heartbreaking things I had ever campus he doesn’t hesitate to say hi experienced. Carolina was my home and wave. Coach and Wanda are a and the women’s tennis team meant everything to me. part of what makes the Tar Heel family We began to have hope shortly so special, and I know I am speaking after our season was cancelled when for all returning seniors when I say the NCAA put out a tweet that stated athletes who lost their season would that we are forever grateful for this most likely be getting an extra year of opportunity they have given us.” eligibility. Now we had to wonder: will the ACC allow it and will UNC allow it? After a few months of not being sure, I got a call from coach Brian Kalbas saying that the Rams Club has found the money, and I would be able to return for an extra year on scholarship.

No one knew at the time, but the Rams Club received an anonymous donation by none other than Roy and Wanda Williams. When I found out, I was extremely grateful, but not surprised.

Coach and Mrs. Williams are the epitome of what it means to be a Tar Heel. From my freshman year, Coach Williams has attended every possible match he could after basketball season was completed. I remember when we returned home my sophomore year from winning National Indoors and Coach Kalbas had a voicemail on his phone from Coach Williams congratulating us. Whenever I see Coach Williams on campus he doesn’t hesitate to say hi and wave. Coach and Wanda are a part of what makes the Tar Heel family so special, and I know I am speaking for all returning seniors when I say that we are forever grateful for this opportunity they have given us.

Getting to spend another year training and competing alongside my team is a dream come true. We are so excited Illustration by to get another chance at the season and hopefully finish Jason McCorkle

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“

CAROLINA INSIDER PODCAST HOSTED BY JONES ANGELL AND ADAM LUCAS

POWERED BY

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