It's a spring tradition – high schools hold sports banquets honoring athletes in every sport with MVP, Best Offensive Player, Best Defensive Play, Most Improved, and many other awards
At least that's the way it is in a normal year, but this is anything but normal. Athletic directors contacted say their athletes will be honored, but banquets are unlikely.
“We will do something. We don't know when or how,” said Choctaw County AD Jim Wood. “We're waiting for the shelter in place to be removed and social distancing to die down a bit. But we will honor our athletes in some way.”
Naming an MVP for a spring sport would be difficult because of abbreviated seasons, Wood said. “We may do something to honor the seniors. We haven't ironed out all the details.”
Kosciusko AD Macy Wilbanks said “I feel certain we will not have the typical athletic banquet. But we will order the plaques and we will get them to the kids. It will be a little bit more unconventional like everything else is right now.”
She said the one sport where there probably will not be awards is track because the boys and girls teams did not compete in any meets. “All the other spring sports played a portion of their schedules.”
Ethel AD Corey Parish said “We are going to reward our athletes,” but he's not sure how that will be done. For fall and winter sports there will be the usual awards but it will be up to the spring sports coaches to determine what type of awards.
East Webster has scheduled a video awards program for May 11, with coaches announcing the recipients.
Winona AD Charlie Parkerson said “The booster club is going to award our seniors with senior flags like they normally do. But we are not going to have an awards banquet because of the stay at home rules.”
How the school will honor athletes is still in the discussion stage. “Nothing has been finalized.”
French Camp would like to have some type of ceremony, if feasible, according to AD Rusty McKnight. “We just haven't decided what we are going to do.”
The same is true for McAdams. “Right now we have not made a decision,” said athletic director Carl Hathorn.
J.Z. George AD Nathan Moncrief held out slight hope for a banquet. “If we can have a graduation, I think we could work out a way to have a banquet. But that's a hope and a prayer.”
He said the school will do something to honor its athletes.
Eupora AD Alex Rawls said his school will honor its athletes and is in the early planning stage. “But I would be out of my element to say exactly what we are going to do.”
Grace Christian headmaster Jason Morgan said his school is considering a day combing academic and athletic awards. “Like so many other things, we would love to do this. We just don't have a date yet.”
