DestinationFAY

Sports: Something for everyone BY SA M M Y BAT TEN P ete Subsara, director of marketing for Fayetteville's minor league baseball franchise, remembers a conference call in November 2019 discussing the purchase of merchandise for the 2020 season. "A lot of that is made in China, and we were told there might be a delay (receiving shipments) due to a virus,'' Subsara said. "Five months later everything changed.'' The Coronovirus, or COVID-19, hit home in March 2020, causing the cancellation or altering the world of sports on just about every level. Here in Cumberland County, the highly anticipated second season of the Fayetteville Woodpeckers minor league baseball season was wiped out, along with the ice hockey campaign for the Fayetteville Marksmen. But our favorite local sports activities are back, and Fayetteville has plenty of places to watch some outstanding competition. e Woodpeckers, a low Class A minor league baseball affiliate of the major league Houston Astros, are scheduled to start their second season May 4 in Zebulon against the Carolina Mudcats. It will be the first of a 120-game regular-season schedule that will feature 60 games at their home park, Segra Stadium, located in the heart of downtown. Following its first year of operation in 2019, Segra was named High-A Ballpark of the Decade by Ballpark Digest and at least nine players who appeared for the Woodpeckers that season made it all the way to the major leagues in 2020. MAYBE YOU DIDN'T KNOW... On Dec. 8, 1985, Fayetteville had its first professional tennis exhibition when Ilie Nastase and Stan Smith came to town. Sports promoters Leonard Black and Neill McGeachy had the seating in the old Cumberland County Memorial Arena arranged like Wimbledon or the U.S. Open with box seats with a court shipped in from Winston-Salem. Smith and Nastase agreed to squeeze in the Fayetteville stop between exhibitions in New Haven, Connecticut, and Hilton Head, South Carolina. Back then, Fayetteville was home to the Fayetteville Sports Club USTA $10,000 Tennis Classic, which drew players like Renee Richards, Kathy Rinaldi and Bonnie Gadusek to the old Dark Branch Racquet and Swim Club. Fayetteville-based Short Stop Food Marts founder Vance Neal, who helped fund the event, got the chance to play doubles with two-time Wimbledon champion Nastase. Smith and another local businessman, Lee Tart, were on the other side of the net. The home portion of the schedule featured a May 11 opener with a six-game series at Segra against the Kannapolis Cannon Ballers. Tickets to home games can be purchased for the full season, in multi-game packages or for single games online at the team website www.milb.com/ fayetteville/tickets/single-game- tickets, or at the Segra Stadium box office. "We went seven months with no new Woodpeckers news,'' Subsara said. "But with our schedule (for 2021) released we've had tons of activity here. We've had great engagement with the fans on social media. We're excited and fans are excited. We're not really sure what capacity limits (at Segra Stadium) will look like. But any baseball is good baseball.'' Later in the year, the Fayetteville Marksmen will be back on the ice at the Crown Coliseum where they'll resume competition in the independent Southern Professional Hockey League after actually missing more than just a single season due to COVID-19. The team's 2019-20 campaign was abruptly cancelled with a month left in the regular season, and due to state restrictions the Marksmen were one of five SPHL teams forced to sit out the 2020-21 season. But Fayetteville president and CEO Chuck Norris vowed the Marksmen would return, and they are now preparing for a comeback in 2021- 22. Their 56-game regular season schedule runs from October to April. "Obviously, it's been challenging for Crown Coliseum 25 DestinationFAY 2021-2022

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