SHS returns to athletic activity June 15

It’s been three months since Starkville High School was able to have players participating in athletic activities on campus and it’ll be another couple of weeks added on to it.

Fresh off of the Mississippi High School Activities Association’s announcement last week that workouts could resume on June 1 with restrictions, the Starkville-oktibbeha County School District has pushed the return back to June 15. Sources told the Starkville Daily News that the district office wanted to allow more time to prepare for a safer return to the fields and gyms on campus due to the amount of athletes that they are responsible for at SHS.

The news was later confirmed by SOCSD Superintendent Eddie Peasant.

“We just monitored how the pandemic was faring in our area and the state,” Peasant said. “I had conversations with other superintendents and other people in our district and we decided we felt a little safer waiting a couple of more weeks to see how things were going and gives us a little more time to prepare.

“Our coaches and other directors of other activities are still in the process of putting their plans together. We’ll look at those and evaluate those to make sure we’re comfortable with everything moving forward.”

Coaches will have to submit a safety plan next week that must be approved by the school district to ensure that the school is following proper CDC guidelines and ensuring the safety of the players that are on campus. SHS head football coach Chris Jones said last week that his staff would do all workouts outside on two different fields and would have workouts in groups of three to make sure there was limited exposure to others.

Jones had prepared for his players to return to the fields on June 2 as he wanted to have a meeting with all of his players’ parents on June 1 to discuss the coaches’ plans for their kids during the summer. That meeting will now take place on June 11 on the visitor’s side of Yellow Jacket Stadium.

“I think we’ve got a solid plan,” Jones said. “It might be different, but we want to be safe and efficient. We’re going to space everything out and make sure we’re getting stuff done while also staying healthy.”

SHS will have over 100 players involved in workouts this summer and Peasant also expects volleyball, cross country, baseball, basketball and other sports to begin to get going during the summer as well which makes things tougher to plan. Band also plans a comeback which adds to the planning.

There’s a competitive advantage that other teams will have over SHS with two extra weeks in the weight room and it’s something that Peasant and the district did consider. At the end of the day, however, it boiled down to the safety of their student athletes.

“It was something to think about of course, but we’re going to think about the safety of our students first,” Peasant said. “It was an easy decision and we feel confident this was the right thing to do to give us a little bit of time. There are challenges and we’ll probably run into some with the detailed planning, but we want to give ourselves the best opportunity to protect our student athletes.”

To this point, all area schools within MHSAA’S jurisdiction are planning to return next week as is Starkville Academy. Governor Tate Reeves opened schools in the state back up last week following that announcement to put the wheels in motion for a return.

Choctaw County will begin workouts on June 1 and implement five different workouts sessions on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday for football, basketball, baseball and cross country with no students allowed inside a weight room or field house. All workouts will take place outside. Female sports will meet during those same days with two different workout sessions.

East Webster football will meet three times a week as well to workout with the baseball team practicing twice a week on the off days scheduled. Eupora will begin on June 2 with workouts from 7-8:30 a.m. and work outside for the opening week. The other sports will begin meeting on June 1 to discuss their plans. All workouts are voluntary as instructed by the MHSAA.