CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- When the COVID-19 pandemic brought the sports world to a screeching halt, teams that were on the road had to figure out the logistics of getting their players and staff home safe.

Think about what that meant for college athletic directors who had multiple teams either on the road or preparing to travel or host games.

Charlotte 49ers Director of Athletics Mike Hill was in Texas for the Conference USA men’s and women’s basketball tournaments when the games were canceled on March 12.

“We didn’t know what would happen at that point; if it would be a quarantine situation; if it would be a shelter in place,” Hill told us this week. “You think about the movements of two basketball teams, your women’s team and your men’s team and associated staff, and band members and cheerleaders, it’s a lot of people to move.”

Hill said thanks to the tireless work of everyone on his staff, everybody got home.

“Our staff did an amazing job identifying flights,” Hill said. “Amazingly enough this decision was made on Thursday morning (March 12) to cancel the tournament and everybody in our travel party was home by Thursday night.”

In the coming days, the NCAA canceled all spring sports and the longer the spread of the coronavirus continues, it could threaten fall athletics for colleges. Hill is hopeful that won’t happen, but says they have to prepare for the worst.

“We’ve talked very frankly about the short term or potential long term impact of the crisis,” said Hill. “It is absolutely a possibility, in my opinion, that the fall sports season could be in jeopardy. But we don’t know that yet. I think we have to prepare as a department and as an organization for a worst case scenario.”

The coronavirus may have brought a premature end to the collegiate sports calendar, but it was one of the more successful years in 49ers athletics since Hill took over two years ago. The highlight, of course, was the football team earning its first winning season and going to its first bowl game. But men’s and women’s basketball, soccer, golf, tennis and track all trended upward.

“I think we can reflect back on the job that all of our athletes and all of our coaches and our staff did and take a lot of pride in it,” Hill said proudly.

Now all they can do is be patient and hope this pandemic doesn’t cost them and others the fall season.