Mississippi Association of Coaches executive director Johnny Mims summed up the situation concerning high school sports with four words – “We just don’t know.”
His association puts on all-star games, including the softball and tennis games. Currently, MAC hopes to still hold those contests, but that’s very iffy because of the uncertain situation involving life in general at this time.
Softball games for players who will be seniors in the fall are scheduled for May 29 and 30 at Jones County Community College in Ellisville. Tennis matches for this year’s seniors are scheduled for June 11 at Parham Bridges Tennis Center in Jackson. Both are North vs. South teams.
MAC will make a decision on whether the contests will be held shortly, possibly this week. “We want to play it,” Mims said of the softball games. “If we can play it we will play it, but our hands are tied.”
At this time, no one is allowed on the Jones County campus.
It’s a similar situation with the tennis. The players are housed at Hinds Community College, which is closed, as is Parham Bridges.
Baseball all-star games scheduled for the first weekend in June at William Carey College in Hattiesburg have been cancelled. The games are put on by the Crossroads Diamond Club, which hopes to have a seniors day at a later date.
A notice on the MAC website states that the Crossroads Diamond Club voted to cancel the all-star games. “Even though we are unable to hold this special event, we are looking at the possibility of sponsoring a Senior workout and final game that will be played for college scouts. A decision about this Senior event will be made on May 4, 2020; therefore, we need all public school baseball Seniors interested in playing to contact their high school coaches who will be receiving an email asking who is interested in this event. The Crossroads Diamond Club will be monitoring the situation and considering what is best based on the guidelines set forth by our elected officials as to when players and fans can gather again. We know that this has been and will be a difficult time for all seniors who were not able to complete their high school baseball experience; therefore, we are working hard to find a way to have one last game.”
Club president Brian Goodman, the Houston baseball coach, said “What we are hoping to do is have a workout for any seniors who want to come and showcase their talents in front of college coaches.”
Because the season was cut short, many seniors who would like to play baseball at the next level did not have an opportunity to properly impress college or junior college coaches.
“Through 10 games you might have a terrible season. Then the next 20 you hit 20 home runs,” Goodman said.
It would be a skills demonstration of pitching, fielding, batting and running, to be followed by a game or games.
But everything, including the date, location and whether the event will even be held, is uncertain due to an uncertain world, and would depend upon the response.
“If we have only 40 seniors who want to get involved, there’s no sense in putting it on. But if we have 200 in classes 1A to 6A we’re going to try our best.”
Goodman encourages coaches to determine interest among their seniors.
Kosciusko and Nanih Waiya each have eight seniors. Kosciusko coach Derik Boland said five have already signed, so he contacted the other three. “I’m waiting to hear back from them.”
Nanih Waiya also has eight seniors, including four who have signed to play football. “I copied and pasted the email and sent it to all of them,” said coach Tyler Rogers. As of last Friday, he had not heard back from any of them. “I’m going to hit them up again.”
Also up in the air are two other annual MAC events – the Hall of Fame induction banquet and the coaches clinic.
The MAC Hall of Fame banquet is scheduled for June 19 at the Hilton Hotel in Jackson. The honorees are long time Starkville baseball coach Danny Carlisle who will be inducted posthumously, Mike Gavin, football coach at four Gulf Coast area schools, MHSAA executive director Don Hinton, Anthony Jenkins, who coached football, track and powerlifting at Hernando, and Bill Ward, who coached football for 38 years at Mantachie, Kosciusko and Pelahatchie.
The 2020 Multi Sports Clinic is scheduled for July 14-17 at the Hilton in Jackson. It is attended annually by hundreds of coaches in all sports.
Both events are still on the calendar, but are dependent upon events in the state.
