Sports

Coastal Carolina Football Team Brought Pets With Them As They Evacuated From Hurricane Florence

September 21, 2018 / 11:05 AM EDT / CBS Philadelphia

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CONWAY, S.C. (CBS Local)- With Hurricane Florence approaching the Carolina coast last week, several universities in the area had decisions to make with regard to their football teams and games that were scheduled for the weekend. For the Coastal Carolina Chanticleers and head coach Joe Moglia, the storm put them on a road trip that included not just the players and staff, but a bus full of pets as well.

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According to a report from USA Today, the Chanticleers began their road trip last Tuesday, Sept. 11, filing into five buses with several training vans trailing behind as they made the trip from Conway to North Carolina to play Campbell the next day.

During that staff meeting Sept. 10, a hand shot up. Marvin Sanders, the Chanticleers' defensive coordinator, had a question: "What about dogs?" And a little later, during a team meeting to explain the plans, a hand shot up. A player had the same question.

"I wasn't planning on the dogs," Moglia says. "But then I realized, dogs are like members of families. We can't leave them behind by themselves – so let's bring them with us."

The "pets bus" included 12 dogs, a couple of cats and a fish leading the team's head coach to compare the team's bus caravan to Noah's Ark.

After beating Campbell last Wednesday, the team immediately bused down to St. Augustine, Florida where they have been staying in a hotel ever since. The Chanticleers fly to Louisiana Friday for a game against Louisiana-Lafayette on Saturday. Then, they will return to South Carolina, but not back to campus. As USA Today reports, the school is expected to be closed to students until at least Sept. 28, which means that players and coaches that don't live off campus will be put up in a hotel until the campus reopens.