This upcoming high school football season is still up in the air it seems.
Greenwood High School coach Clinton Gatewood said the Mississippi High School Activities Association came up with a couple of options during a meeting Tuesday to start formulating a plan in case the fall sports seasons can’t start on time due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The veteran GHS coach wasn’t a part of the meeting, but he said football was the centerpiece of the discussion. It’s the highest-profile of the fall sports, and the highest-risk when it comes to the coronavirus.
MHSAA Executive Director Don Hinton said moving football season to the spring was discussed, but his preferred option would be to delay its start. The 2020 season is scheduled to begin Aug. 21.
“We could start even as late as September and still be OK,” Hinton said.
Gatewood said he has no feel on what the organization will determine.
“It’s just no way to know with the spike in cases coming through the state and Leflore County,” said the veteran GHS head man. “But it is what it is. We’ll have to roll with what (the MHSAA) says or be left out of the season.
“It’s a tough spot, but all the coaches and programs around the state are going through pretty much the same thing.”
The Greenwood Leflore Consolidated School District hasn’t allowed Greenwood, Leflore County and Amanda Elzy to start preseason workouts even though the MHSAA cleared a path for workouts a month ago as long as teams followed certain health guidelines.
Gatewood, who also serves as athletic director for the district, said that Clarksdale and Greenville Weston had to shut down workouts due to a couple of positive tests.
Leflore County head coach Eric House said it’s frustrating not knowing what might come of the season.
“We just have to be patient and hope they make the best decision for the kids and coaches,” said House, who formerly coached at cross-county rival Elzy. “We’ll have to be ready to roll when they give us the plan.”
The committee will meet again July 14, when it hopes to reach a consensus on what should be done. The COVID-19 numbers in Mississippi have been trending upward of late, and the MHSAA’s sports medicine partners believe it would be best to see what the numbers look like after the upcoming July 4 holiday weekend before a decision is made on fall sports.
Football preseason drills are scheduled to start Aug. 3.
“If we can’t start on those dates, then we’re looking at delaying it, maybe starting two weeks (later) and going from there,” Hinton said. “But we’re still trying to do everything at this point in time, as fluid as everything is, to try to keep the fall seasons in the fall.”
Contact Bill Burrus at 581-7237 or bburrus@gwcommonwealth.com. Follow on Twitter:@Bill_Burrus.
