With hurricane roiling, Coastal Carolina football team evacuates ahead of KU game

For the second consecutive year, the Coastal Carolina football team will embark on a vagabond journey necessitated by a hurricane.

The Chanticleers hope this year’s trek away from a closed campus caused by Hurricane Dorian won’t be nearly as long as the nearly three-week trip they went on last season because of the arrival of Hurricane Florence and subsequent widespread flooding.

The team was scheduled to travel to Greenville at 11 a.m. Monday and remain there until it flies to Lawrence, Kansas on Friday for its game at 7 p.m. Saturday against the Kansas Jayhawks.

CCU has cancelled on-campus classes indefinitely beginning Tuesday. S.C. Gov. Henry McMaster has ordered schools in Horry and Georgetown counties to close Tuesday until further notice, and also called for the evacuation of Zone A along the coastline in the two counties. Horry County has declared a state of emergency.

The CCU campus being closed includes university student housing.

According to Kevin Davis, CCU’s assistant athletic director for media relations, the Chants will practice at high schools in the Greenville area this week.

CCU classes will be continuing online and the CCU players will have allotted time for study halls while on the road.

Last year, CCU’s football team was away from campus for three weeks. It stayed in Raleigh, N.C., for a night before playing a reschedule mid-week game at Campbell that was scheduled to be played in Conway, and stayed in Jacksonville, Florida for eight days before traveling to Lafayette, La., for a game that it won over Louisiana.

The team returned to the Myrtle Beach area after the Louisiana game but the players and football staff were forced to stay in hotels or off-campus housing and practice at area high schools while campus remained closed before its game against Troy in Troy, Ala.

Coastal opened the 2019 season Saturday with a 30-23 loss to Eastern Michigan at Brooks Stadium in Conway.

CCU’s other fall athletic teams including men’s and women’s soccer, men’s and women’s golf, men’s and women’s cross country and volleyball are also having to make plans to remain away from campus.

This story was originally published September 2, 2019 at 10:29 AM with the headline "With hurricane roiling, Coastal Carolina football team evacuates ahead of KU game."