The athletic year has ended for the Mississippi High School Activities Association (MHSAA), but possibly not for the Mid South Association of Independent Schools (MAIS).
“Right now, given the way things are, we cannot say definitely what we're going to do. But what we can say is that we haven't given up on doing something,” said Chris Chance, MAIS associate director for activities. “There are some plans based on when and if things are relaxed a little bit.”
He added that if shelter in place requirements were to come to an end, baseball could resume. “There is always the possibility that we could come back and play some type of truncated season then move into the playoffs. Or failing that, find a location and play a tournament over two or three days to try to save baseball.”
Chance said track is a little different. “But there are a couple of scenarios where we could gather and do something.”
Tennis and golf would be easier to pick up. “Golf is really easy. There has been more golf played over the last two weeks than probably any time in history.”
Chance said MAIS cannot make any definite decisions at this time. “But I can tell you that we are open to any options that would give us an opportunity to play.”
If nothing else, he said MAIS would like to allow schools to schedule a hand full of games, perhaps four, allowing a senior night to recognize the graduates.
MAIS schools are not subject to the order from Governor Tate Reeves closing public schools. If a decision is made to resume athletics, each school would decide if it wanted to participate.
“Everybody may not be able to participate. Everybody may not choose to participate,” Chance said. “Some might decide to play golf, but decide they don't want to play baseball. We feel like we have the flexibility right now to not say it's done.”
Carroll Academy will not compete even if spring sports are resumed, according to athletic director Tommy Acy,
MAIS schools could field athletic teams even if on campus classes are not resumed. “At the majority of our schools, if not all of them, learning is still taking place,” Chance said. “I have a 17-year-old in a private school and he will tell you that he has probably done more work in this five weeks than he did in the five weeks before.”
The MAIS e-sports championships were held because competitors played from their homes. Class tournaments were last week and the overall championship Monday
The MHSAA executive committee voted April 15 to cancel all sports and activities the remainder of the school year. But that vote was merely academic. Sports and activities were effectively cancelled one day earlier when Reeves closed schools. No classes means no extracurricular activities for MHSAA schools.
“We don’t go to school to play sports,” said MHSAA executive director Don Hinton. “The safety and well being of our student, school personnel and communities is always at the very top of our priorities.”
The organization had contingency plans to save the spring sports season if schools had reopened. Now MHSAA is hoping that the fall season will go off as scheduled. The tentative schedule calls for practice to begin July 27 for volleyball, swimming and cross country and August 3 for football. First regular season games would be August 11 for volleyball, August 28 for 2A, 3A and 4A football and September 4 for 1A, 5A and 6A football. First meets are set for August 15 for swimming and August 17 for cross country.
But all that is contingent upon schools reopening on schedule, and that’s still iffy.
“Everything is up in the air,” Hinton said. “The whole thing has everybody confused. We just have to wait and see.”
When spring football practice was canceled, MHSAA left open the possibility of adding an extra week to preseason practice. That too is up in the air, but Hinton said teams will be given ample preparation time.
“We are just starting to look at what we will do for our football season if we have to start school a little later. How would we handle that? What would we do for our other sports? We have 19 sports and seven activities. We have to take each one and formulate a plan.”
MHSAA classifies band, bass fishing, cheer and dance, chess, choral, esports and speech and debate as activities. MHSAA approved bass fishing for a two-year pilot program beginning this school year. An invitational tournament at the Ross Barnett Reservoir that was scheduled for March 28 is among activities cancelled.
The NCAA approved an extra year of eligibility for spring sports athletes, but MHSAA will not have any similar dispensation. Students 19 before August 1 remain ineligible.
