The Mississippi High School Activities Association Executive Committee voted Tuesday to go ahead with the fall athletic season, but with a two-week delay due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We believe this is the right decision at the right time,” said MHSAA Executive Director Don Hinton. “As we’ve said since last spring, this is an unprecedented and rapidly changing situation where new information can and will alter plans and schedules at any time.”
Practice for football can begin August 17. Scrimmages between schools are allowed beginning August 28 with games starting September 4. Games scheduled for the first two weeks of the season will not be made up.
Practice for cross country, swimming and volleyball can begin August 10, with competition among schools permitted August 24.
For football, 1A, 5A and 6A schools will play 10 games, 2A, 3A and 4A nine games. The playoff schedule is unchanged, with first round games November 6 for 2A, 3A and 4A and November 13 for 1A, 5A and 6A.
The MHSAA had considered swapping the fall and spring sports seasons.
“The season being backed up and losing a couple of games is better than losing the entire season,” Casey Orr, first-year Kosciusko head football coach. “I'm glad right now that we are going to have an opportunity to play. The young men worked hard this summer. Our senior class deserves an opportunity to play football.”
He approved of the decision to not swap fall and spring sports.
“The logistics of swapping seasons with baseball and football would be really tough. Not just for football, but for all sports.”
“I think it was a good decision. For us being a small school, it’s best that we try to have fall sports in the fall and not try to move them around because of the number of kids that sports have to share,” said McAdams Athletic Director Kenyon Ross.
Ethel High School Principal Culley Newman agreed.
“It’s a decision they made in the best interest of the students involved and the schools involved. It will affect our school by not having some ball games in football. But other than that, we’ll just have to deal with the hand we were dealt,” he said.
“The board felt these changes will give all of us more time to try to get back into the routine of school,” said Executive Committee President Kalvin Robinson.
“There are going to be many challenges — ones we’re anticipating and those we don’t even know about yet — in returning to on-campus learning. It’s going to be different than what we’ve experienced in the past. Hopefully pushing back the start of the fall sports seasons will help make that transition a little smoother for everyone involved,” he said.
Hinton said MHSAA has been in contact with officials from the Governor’s Office and the Mississippi Department of Education.
“We’ve talked with sports administrators from Mississippi universities and community colleges as well as leaders from the National Federation (NFHS) and our neighboring state associations. All of us are looking for the best way to navigate these challenges and obstacles, but each us has our own challenges.”
He said swapping fall and spring sports would create an entirely different set of challenges and logistical issues, including an overlap with athletes, coaches and game officials.
“As far as swapping the fall and spring seasons, we’ve heard from many coaches and administrators who feel it would be unfair to ask the coaches and sports cancelled in April to turn around and play with all the challenges we’ll be facing this fall.”
All 2020 spring sport seasons ended prematurely, with no championships in any of the sports – baseball, softball, track, golf and tennis.
Hinton said the MHSAA will continue to make every effort to keep sanctioned sports and activities in place for the 2020-21 school year.
“We know how important these extracurricular activities are to the students, parents, families, schools and communities of our state,” he said. “We’re staying optimistic and doing everything we can to move forward for the upcoming school year. We’re listening to and relying on the medical experts, government officials and school administrators who are working to manage this situation. This is something none of us has experienced before.”
