The decision by the Mississippi High School Activities Association Executive Committee to go ahead with the fall athletic season, albeit with a two-week delay, was good news for coaches. But there was a downside.
Football games scheduled for the first two weeks of the season will not be made up. Kosciusko loses games with Yazoo County and Newton County, McAdams with J.Z. George and West Lowndes, and Ethel with West Lowndes and Central Holmes.
Practice for football can begin Aug. 17. Scrimmages between schools are allowed beginning Aug. 28 with games starting Sept. 4.
“The first two games are a chance to see guys running your offense and defense and kind of see what you have,” said first year Kosciusko head coach Casey Orr. “It’s missed reps and missed opportunities. But it’s the same for everybody. We just have to adapt. I do hate it for our seniors. It’s two less football games they get to play.”
Kosciusko did add a game at Holly Springs for Sept. 25, which had been an open date. “That kind of helps us a little bit.”
Orr is looking for a possible opponent for a scrimmage.
Kosciusko will open the season at Winona Sept. 4. The Whippets lost a shootout to the Tigers last year 35-28, despite 290 passing yards and three TDs by sophomore quarterback Ethan Wood.
McAdams has seen a major reshuffling of its schedule and not only because of the delay in beginning the season. The Bulldogs will not play J.Z. George. The game with West Lowndes was canceled, but the two teams will meet in the Aug. 28 scrimmage at West Lowndes.
McAdams was originally scheduled to play Ray Brooks Sept. 18, but that game was canceled because the school was closed. The Bulldogs were able to schedule Sebastopol to fill the vacancy.
The Bulldogs will begin the season with road games against Union Sept. 4, Ethel, the first Region 3-1A game, Sept. 11 and Sebastopol Sept. 18 before the Sept. 25 home opener with Leflore County.
Coach Kenneth Nelson said the lost games will hurt because it means fewer games before the Bulldogs begin region play.
With the loss of the first two games, Ethel will begin the season with a home game against Hamilton Sept. 4. That was the Tigers closest game in a winless season last year, a 7-0 loss in a defensive struggle with both teams producing fewer than 200 yards of offense.
“They don’t really care who they play. They just want to get at it,” first year EHS head coach Adam Smith said of his players.
Smith is attempting to schedule a scrimmage. “We’re talking to a couple of coaches.”
Kosciusko had four volleyball matches scheduled prior to Aug. 24. Matches with Greenwood, Starkville and Winona have been rescheduled and first year coach Nikki Stephenson said she expects to reschedule a match with Choctaw County.
Kosciusko will kick off the season with a Region 4-4A home game against Lanier Aug. 27.
Kosciusko had a winning record (8-6) in the first year of the program last year, and Stephenson is optimistic. “We look really good. We have a lot of potential. I tried to get a lot of younger girls this year to build the program. I want it to be fun for them to learn and have a good time.”
Ethel and McAdams are among many Mississippi schools that will launch volleyball programs this year. The schools had a match scheduled for Aug. 20 that probably will not be rescheduled because it is a non-region match, according to Ethel coach Chris Schuster.
Ethel has not held tryouts for the team, but about 30 girls have signed up. “The interest is there,” Schuster said.
McAdams has 18 players on the team and coach Ashley Brown said about five more will be added. None have experience in the sport.
“That’s going to be the challenge for us,” she said. “We’re basically going to be starting out and going from there.”
The first match is at home August 27 with Holmes County Central.
