— "I'm canceling my doctors appointment tomorrow. I'm expecting a day from Hell."

That was the text I sent to HighSchoolOT producer Kyle Morton on Wednesday night. He was supposed to cover for me Wednesday late morning and early afternoon while I had an appointment with my doctor. I had watched the college and professional sports world collapse as I sent that text though, and I knew what was next.

Unfortunately, I was right.

I set my alarm for 7:30 a.m. on Thursday morning, much earlier than normal. After I got up, I sat down at my computer and started reaching out to different people to see if they had heard anything. I'm not sure I moved from that spot until almost 4 p.m. I made or received 63 phone calls on Thursday. I can't even tell you how many text messages were involved.

8:39 a.m. — I got a text message from a source that said the N.C. High School Athletic Association planned to hold a phone call with schools participating in the basketball state championships. The source didn't know exactly what the NCHSAA was going to do, but it became clear something was happening.

At the same time, news broke in Virginia that the Virginia High School League would be playing its basketball state tournament without fans. It was a sign of things to come, I thought.

9:00 a.m. — The NCHSAA conference call began at 9 a.m. I knew something was happening, I just didn't know what was happening. Word began leaking out shortly after that the NCHSAA was going to limit the number of people allowed into the state championship games though.

9:29 a.m. — I assume the call had ended at this point, though I'm not entirely sure. I had a source tell me the NCHSAA was going to limit attendance of the state championships to 35 essential personnel from each school, including the players, and 50 family members as fans.

We have a rule in the media though. You need two sources.

9:45 a.m. — Confirmation. Another source with direct knowledge confirmed what the earlier source had told me. 35 essential personnel from each school, 50 family members as fans. And no media.

At the request of one of my sources, I sat on that information for a little bit so the coaches had time to notify their players about what was changing.

9:53 a.m. — I signaled on Twitter that there was news coming about the basketball state championships.

10:28 a.m. — We broke the news on HighSchoolOT that the NCHSAA would be holding its state championship basketball games with a very small number of people in attendance. Among the new rules, media would not be allowed in the venue to cover the games, which was a concern to me and other members of the media. We had suggested that pool reporters be allowed into the venues to provide game stories, video highlights, game photos, and interviews to all other media outlets across the state free of charge, but the NCHSAA said the venues would not allow it.

10:38 a.m. — I had asked about spring sports, but a source told me that discussion was still behind had and that I should hold off on coverage planning for the state championships because "the situation is still fluid."

10:43 a.m. — The NCHSAA released it's official statement stating the basketball state championships would go on without spectators.

11:07 a.m. — A source in Wake County tells me "a big one" is coming from Wake County Schools soon, but doesn't offer any additional details.

11:34 a.m. — We confirmed the details of the "big one" for Wake County after an email went out to all district athletic directors. The largest school district in the state was not going to allow any non-conference games against out-of-county schools, it was postponing any event that involved more than two teams, suspending handshakes until further notice, and was requiring student-athletes bring their own water bottles.

11:49 a.m. — An alert goes out to the HighSchoolOT app breaking the news of Wake County's new athletic restrictions.

12:45 p.m. — Just when things started to settle down a little bit, I get another text message: "Another conference call with Chapel Hill. Stop the presses." I knew that wasn't good. In this instance, "Chapel Hill" referred to the NCHSAA. That's where their headquarters is located.

Appx 1:30 p.m. — I'm still not entirely sure what time this second conference call took place. Some people said 1 p.m., some people said 1:30 p.m. We do know it happened in the 1 p.m. hour though. Word started leaking out that statewide action was about to be taken.

1:46 p.m. — I get two texts at nearly the exact same time. One said postponed. One said canceled. It's the greatest problem in high school sports communication that we joke about frequently on Twitter, but today those two words carried very different meanings. If I report that the basketball state championships are postponed and they're actually canceled, or vice versa, that's a bad look. So I had more work to do.

1:52 p.m. —​​​​​​​ "Plug got pulled." That was the message that was sent to me by a third person. "You hearing postponed or canceled?" I asked. "I've heard both, so I'm sitting on it."

They responded, "About 30 minutes ago it was delayed, but not sure now with every major sport taking the hit."

Still no clarity on what exactly was going on.

1:59 p.m. —​​​​​​​ One source finally confirms what was said on the NCHSAA conference call: the basketball state championship games are postponed indefinitely. Oh, and spring sports are suspended statewide until at least Apr. 6.

My response: "..."

2:06 p.m. —​​​​​​​ Finally I'm able to get someone on the phone with direct knowledge. This source tells me the NCHSAA has decided to postpone the basketball state championships indefinitely and that the spring sports will be suspended for three weeks. I'm comfortable now reporting the basketball state championships have been postponed, but I decide to wait on the spring sports news for a bit.

2:09 p.m. — HighSchoolOT reports that the NCHSAA had indefinitely postponed the basketball state championship games.

2:20 p.m. —​​​​​​​ I get a third, independent source to confirm that spring sports have been suspended statewide until Apr. 6, and that it would be effective on Friday at 11:59 p.m. We are in uncharted territory at this point. Never in my 13.5 years of covering high school athletics in North Carolina have I seen anything like this. We've seen hurricanes, we've seen snow, tornadoes, floods, and ice, but this was on a new level.

2:22 p.m. —​​​​​​​ HighSchoolOT reports the biggest news of the day — the NCHSAA took the extraordinary step of suspending all high school athletics statewide until at least Apr. 6.

2:25 p.m. —​​​​​​​ My reaction. And this sums it up.

2:31 p.m. —​​​​​​​ The NCHSAA officially announces the basketball state championships are postponed indefinitely and the spring sports season would be suspended until at least Apr. 6.

The day was not done though.

More news kept coming. The Carolinas Classic All-Star Basketball Games were canceled at 3:59 p.m. At 5:13 p.m., we received word from the N.C. Independent Schools Athletic Association it was suspending its contests indefinitely, news we broke literally as I was going on set at WRAL.

So much goes through your head in this situation.

Think about the boys and girls who were preparing to play for basketball state championships this weekend. They now enter a period of time — at least three weeks — where they can't practice or play with their team. During that time, they have no idea when — or better yet, if — they will ever get to play for that title.

You think about teams like Southeast Raleigh's girls basketball team, which has been to the state championship game five of the last six years, including the last three, and lost each time. What if this was meant to be the Bulldogs' season? You think about Farmville Central, which has the distinction of having the boys and girls teams in the state finals, and the boys have a chip on their shoulder after being seeded behind a team they had beaten on the road. And you think about teams like Newton-Conover's girls, a program that hasn't been to this level in nearly three decades.

Honestly, you feel for each and every team, player, coach, and community who is agonizing over whether these games will be played. We have no idea. Neither does the NCHSAA.

My next thought went to the spring sports. Their seasons literally just began, now they could be over. How awful for the seniors? And what about the kids that are working for college scholarships? Or the baseball players who have MLB scouts following them to games? What about the seniors who won't play competitive sports again? And what about the junior varsity kids who are being trained to be the next varsity players — does this have a long-term impact?

We have prepared for hurricanes, tornadoes, rain storms, snow, and ice. A global pandemic is something we — or at least I — have not thought about impacting high school sports. This is a much bigger issue than sports though, and the NCHSAA made the best decision it could. In fact, I think it was the only decision the NCHSAA could make. The association was being proactive, making the difficult decision for everyone and not leaving it up to individual athletic directors or school districts. Now everyone is on a level playing field if and when sports resume.

I was joking yesterday about missing the days of Twitter controversies about MaxPreps Rankings and the playoff system. It was just a few weeks ago we were having those, and man do I hate saying the same thing over and over only to have people refuse to listen, but it sure beats this.

As I told my HighSchoolOT team in a conference call while we were talking about our path forward in covering high school sports and coronavirus, this is going to challenge us, just like it will challenge the players and coaches. But we're going to find solutions, we'll all make it through, and on the other side we will be more adaptable and better for it.

Here's to flattening the curve and a return to normal, whatever that may be, as soon as possible.