Everything comes to standstill with winter weather, sports not immune

It doesn't matter if it happens indoors or outdoors this time of the year. When winter weather hits this area, it brings sporting activities to a complete standstill.

Schools, roads and businesses close as snow and ice begin to make travel hazardous and it's just a situation that people around here do not see very often.

There were two soccer matches and five basketball games originally scheduled for high schools in our coverage area on Tuesday and none of them were played. Of course playing soccer was going to be pretty much impossible with a half inch of snow on top of the fields, but basketball had to be canceled as well because of dangerous road conditions.

Once the winter weather advisory was issued for the Golden Triangle, it didn't take long for the postponements to start being announced.

Starkville High School was the first to announce that its home soccer matches against Murrah were going to have to wait. It had to be a tough call for the Yellowjackets because it was supposed to be senior night. It will still take place, but just at a later date.

The first basketball games to be postponed were Choctaw County's home games against Houston. It was the second time in as many games that the Chargers had to adjust their hoops schedule because of weather.

It didn't take long for East Webster, Eupora and all of the other local schools to join Choctaw County to not play basketball on Tuesday night. Hopefully conditions improve the next couple of days so everything will get back to normal.

Despite the closing of some roads on campus Tuesday afternoon, Mississippi State decided to go ahead with plans to play Tuesday night's men's basketball game against Vanderbilt.

It was a very important outing for the Bulldogs to play and win, but there weren't very many who braved the elements to actually make it to Humphrey Coliseum.

The MSU marketing staff provided gave out Bonafide Tough maroon t-shirts to fans that attended the game. Tough had to describe anyone who actually got there.

If it were left up to me, I would have found a way to postpone the game for at least one night, but with television, officials and other factors, that's not an easy move to make.

Due to an early deadline for Wednesday's edition of The Starkville Daily News, the results for the Bulldogs and Commodores were not able to make the printed edition. Look for a report on the game at starkvilledailynews. com and a follow up story in Thursday's SDN.

Danny P. Smith is the sports editor and columnist for The Starkville Daily News. The opinions in this column are his and do not necessarily reflect the views of the SDN or its staff.