Mississippi High School Activities Association executive director Don Hinton succinctly summed up the state of high school athletics in Mississippi in a handful of words – “It's all up in the air.”
What we know now, subject to change at any time:
— Gov. Tate Reeves has issued an executive order closing public schools until at least April 17 due to the coronavirus pandemic.
— MHSAA has suspended all athletics and other activities until that date.
— The Mid South Association of Independent Schools (MAIS) has suspended activities through the end of this week and schools are closed.
The MHSAA still hopes to hold a state championship for powerlifting and hopes to have a spring sports season, when and if schools reopen, but everything depends upon schools reopening.
“We're still in the postponement stage,” Hinton said.
If schools were to reopen April 20, the earliest that competition could resume is the following Saturday, the 26th. “We're going to allow them several days to acclimate and at least have some practices before they jump into any strenuous competition with other schools,” Hinton said.
The MHSAA website lists athletics and activities for April that have been canceled – archery state championships, concert band championships and the Mississippi Choral Arts Festival and State Choral Performance Assessments.
The MHSAA Executive Committee also voted to cancel spring football practice, but will consider adding a week of preseason practice prior to the 2020 season.
The state powerlifting championships might be held, but not at the scheduled date of April 18 and probably not at the Mississippi Coliseum in Jackson. Hinton said the Coliseum probably would not be available at another date.
“Powerlifting is still on the calendar as one of our sports that we hope to finish if we are able to get back to school.”
North and South state powerlifting meets would have to be completed before the state championship could be held. Because the Coliseum is the only venue that can accommodate all nine championships – six for boys and three for girls – at the same time, as many as nine high schools might be utilized.
Spring sports – baseball, softball, tennis, golf and track – were suspended when schools closed. MHSAA hopes to resume those sports and conduct championships.
“But there may be a point when schools are not back that we may have to cancel all of it,” Hinton said. “We'll see as we move along.”
MHSAA receives input from its Sport Medicine Advisory Committee.
Les Triplett, MAIS director of activities, said “MAIS has taken a stance of week to week because this uncharted territory is so fluid. Sometimes changes are hourly. This time frame allows us to stay in contact with our schools on an almost daily basis so we can all know what has happened and what we anticipate the upcoming week to be like.”
MAIS, headquartered on Pearl, has member schools in Mississippi, Louisiana, Tennessee and Arkansas.
As of Sunday, there were 207 confirmed cases of coronavirus in Mississippi, including two in Winston County and one each in Attala County and Webster County.
