Terry High School has canceled its first two football games on week one of the season because of a positive COVID-19 case. Many students are being forced to do virtual learning, which for some means no football practice. Mississippi High School Athletics Association Director Rickey Neaves said whenever a school decides to go virtual, sports are also required to be put on hold.”They will have to forfeit games for the next two weeks … Hopefully, this early in the year none of those games are region games and won’t keep them from making the playoffs,” Neaves said.Neaves said they recommend schools follow Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines, but ultimately they leave it up to schools to decide what is best for their students.”Just hang in there, we have some tough lessons to learn in life this could be one of them … just keep practicing and trying and everything will work out in the end,” Neaves said.Players took to Twitter in frustration. They said there were not enough cases to cancel two weeks of games.Routinely an outbreak is considered three or more people, but MHSAA said the decision to go to virtual learning is up to each individual school. Senior players Dylan Gray and Kaden Coats are upset over another season of being sidelined. “It’s not fair honestly. You know, if they shut down football then they should shut down the whole school. Because we were up there at the school with all the other students,” Gray said.”I don’t think we should get shut down just for one player. Like if it was three, four, five, okay. But a football team is only 85 players. Eighty-five costs the whole school, the whole school gets shut down,” Coats said. “We didn’t get to play last year because of the COVID outbreak. And this year they are taking away my senior year to get a scholarship and easy film. Just teams that we should get a lot of film on. It just breaks my heart. As a player and as a senior in my last year, it breaks a lot of our hearts.”Routinely an outbreak is considered three or more people, but MHSAA said the decision to go to virtual learning is up to each individual school.Coats also said that it is his last opportunity to get scouted to play at the collegiate level.Senior player Xavion Shaw is in advanced placement classes and is worries about the impact of virtual learning will have on his ability to succeed. He claimed that teachers not giving them instructional time, only busywork. “I take AP classes myself. So, me missing instruction time in class is losing it. It’s like I’m losing on the back end with education because we have no virtual set up for class,” Shaw said.According to MHSAA, Terry High School is not the only Mississippi school that is unable to play sports right now. They said that there are at least 15 other high schools that are doing virtual learning and are not playing sports.
TERRY, Miss. —
Terry High School has canceled its first two football games on week one of the season because of a positive COVID-19 case.
Many students are being forced to do virtual learning, which for some means no football practice.
Mississippi High School Athletics Association Director Rickey Neaves said whenever a school decides to go virtual, sports are also required to be put on hold.
“They will have to forfeit games for the next two weeks … Hopefully, this early in the year none of those games are region games and won’t keep them from making the playoffs,” Neaves said.
Neaves said they recommend schools follow Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines, but ultimately they leave it up to schools to decide what is best for their students.
“Just hang in there, we have some tough lessons to learn in life this could be one of them … just keep practicing and trying and everything will work out in the end,” Neaves said.
Players took to Twitter in frustration. They said there were not enough cases to cancel two weeks of games.
Routinely an outbreak is considered three or more people, but MHSAA said the decision to go to virtual learning is up to each individual school. Senior players Dylan Gray and Kaden Coats are upset over another season of being sidelined.
“It’s not fair honestly. You know, if they shut down football then they should shut down the whole school. Because we were up there at the school with all the other students,” Gray said.
“I don’t think we should get shut down just for one player. Like if it was three, four, five, okay. But a football team is only 85 players. Eighty-five costs the whole school, the whole school gets shut down,” Coats said. “We didn’t get to play last year because of the COVID outbreak. And this year they are taking away my senior year to get a scholarship and easy film. Just teams that we should get a lot of film on. It just breaks my heart. As a player and as a senior in my last year, it breaks a lot of our hearts.”
Routinely an outbreak is considered three or more people, but MHSAA said the decision to go to virtual learning is up to each individual school.
Coats also said that it is his last opportunity to get scouted to play at the collegiate level.
Senior player Xavion Shaw is in advanced placement classes and is worries about the impact of virtual learning will have on his ability to succeed. He claimed that teachers not giving them instructional time, only busywork.
“I take AP classes myself. So, me missing instruction time in class is losing it. It’s like I’m losing on the back end with education because we have no virtual set up for class,” Shaw said.
According to MHSAA, Terry High School is not the only Mississippi school that is unable to play sports right now. They said that there are at least 15 other high schools that are doing virtual learning and are not playing sports.
