MHSAA suspends play through April 17th
The chance of seeing high school athletics again this spring took another hit on Friday, but not all hope is lost just yet.
Today, the Mississippi High School Activities Association extended its suspension of play from March 29th to April 17th.
The MHSAA Executive Committee confirms that decision just one day after Governor Tate Reeves’ order to close all Mississippi public schools until the same time.
MSHAA Executive Director Don Hinton says, “As long as schools remain closed on a statewide basis, return to competition and practice will not be an option.”
However, the fact that the governing body has yet to cancel all competition still leaves the door open for a potential return sometime next month.
Gulfport Head Baseball Coach Jamie McMahon said, “This is our busiest time of the year. We were 12 games in and it was fixing to be go time as far as middle of the season, playoffs, I mean district play and then trying to fight your way into the playoffs and just as a coach you’re like, I’m going nuts because I don’t have things to do as far as that’s what I do. Just not being able to practice or prepare and get to play the game, it’s rough.”
Harrison Central Head Baseball Coach Neil Frederic said, “I don’t know. It’s really difficult. I mean in Katrina, I went through that just like a lot of people did. But this is global. This is not centralized. And if we do decide to play, and I think that’s some of the question marks we have is I wonder what they are talking about behind closed doors. Do they have a plan? Do we play just like a little district tournament to decide who goes into the playoffs? Are we doing playoffs? Are we just going to play to have the kids have a little bit of a high school baseball season? That uncertainty in waiting another four weeks is going to be really tough I guess.”
Biloxi Head Baseball Coach Eddie Lofton said, “The hopes of the High School Activities Association, I’ve talked to some of the people that are on the executive committee and they really, really do desire for us to have a season. Even if it goes into the summer, there’s even been talks about it even if it goes into late May and on into June. If that’s the scenario we have, it’ll be different, yes. But at least it’ll be something that we can do.”
All three coaches say they’re taking advantage of their extra family time until things get back to normal.
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