Choctaw County football coach Jeff Roberts was planning to use spring practice for development of some of his younger players who will need to replace graduating seniors, but he doesn't consider cancellation of practice to be a major loss.
“I think we will be all right with it,” he said of the decision by the Mississippi High School Activities Association to cancel spring practice for all schools as a result of the coronavirus pandemic that has closed public schools until at least April 17.
“Spring ball to me is to get these young guys reps, as many reps as you possibly can, especially with us graduating a bunch on the offensive and defensive lines.” Roberts said. “It would be good for them to have some some spring ball practice to find out who is going to step up and be the starters.” But he added “If we get that extra week it's going to help out alot.”
In announcing cancellation of spring practice on its website, MHSAA said it is considering adding an extra week of preseason practice in August. That would be when the Mississippi weather could be brutal.
“We can work around the heat,” Roberts said. “We can go inside. We can go later or earlier in the morning. One nice thing about our field is that early in the morning we get a nice shade. That helps a lot.”
Choctaw County would not have had a spring game. “I reached out to a couple of teams to see if they wanted to do a spring game,” Roberts said. “Most teams that I reached out to felt that because of baseball season it would be hard for them to do a spring game so we were going to just play (against) each other.”
Choctaw County is coming off a successful 2019 season. The Chargers finished 11-4, won Region 4-3A and reached the North State final. Key returnees include quarterback Tylan Carter, running back Dicenzo Miller, linebacker Brian Threadgill and wide receiver/defensive back Ques McNeal.
