Governor Tate Reeves’ announcement on the closing of all public schools for the 2019-2020 school year likely met the end for high school sports in the spring season.
The Mississippi High School Activities Association followed and voted last week to end all sports and activities until the 2020-2021 academic year, however, summer sports and activities for schools will be allowed to begin on June 1 or until further notice.
“When the government canceled school, you kind of felt like that was going to happen,” Petal athletic director and football coach Marcus Boyles said. “You feel for those kids you have your baseball, softball, track, tennis, golf, archery and so many sports in the spring. You hate it for those guys and girls, especially the seniors, the underclassmen have next year, but for the seniors, this is it for them. Most of them are not going on to play somewhere else, so you feel sorry for them.”
According to Hattiesburg athletic director and football coach Tony Vance, the main focus now is to ensure students’ academics are taken care of before looking ahead to the next school year.
“I think the biggest thing for us is that we are educators first and that’s to make sure that we are staying in touch with our student-athletes and trying to make sure they are doing their thing and what they need to do,” Vance said.
According to the MHSAA, all competition, practice and tryouts for sports and activities are not allowed while schools are closed, but coaches are allowed to send workouts to players. With June 1 set as the start date for practice and activities to return, the fall season is still set to start on time, which includes the high school football season.
“I think you have to plan for the June 1 to hopefully start back and hopefully that its safe to start back,” Vance said. “We are planning for June 1. If that day gets moved up or back, then we’ll adjust accordingly until we hear from the MHSAA and our governor and those people who get paid to make those types of decisions that’s what we’ll do.
“Most schools start workouts June 1 anyway. It’s definitely enough time. We just need to make the adjustments you need to. I think our summer workouts are scheduled around the time or the week before anyway.”
In addition, the MHSAA will not require schools to have a dead week during the summer, which gives schools an extra week of practice during the summer. While fall sports are currently set to be on time, according to Boyles, the only way the high school football season will be altered is if the beginning of summer activities starts in July.
“You have to start having a serious discussion about bumping the start of the season back a little bit once you get into July and they haven’t done anything,” Boyles said. “Going out there in July when it’s 100 degrees and trying to get them conditioned to play football will take a while to do that. The later you get into July, then you have to start pushing that back.”
While the MHSAA has decided to cancel spring sports, MAIS has yet to cancel its season and continues to assess the situation week to week. According to PCS athletic director Rob Shillito, MAIS is still open to playing a shortened season for the spring sports and is also planning to have its fall sports to play on time.
“One plan that has bounced around is the possibility of a shorten season and playing only district games,” Shillito said. (There is also the chance to) maybe just do some friendly games to just let our kids play and maybe not have playoffs on the line. You want that competition there knowing that you are playing for something, but at the end of the day, the whole reason we’re holding on for the hopes of the season isn’t because of any type of championship it’s for the kids and the fun experience.”
However, MAIS will still end its season if ruled by health officials.
“What we are doing as athletic directors is trying to get as many potential plans in place if we can provide some type of competition for our kids then we are going to try and do it,” Shillito said. “At the end of the day, if medical professionals say its unsafe, then all of us are in agreement that we are not going to do a single then until they say it’s ok for you guys to get back out there.”
