TYLERTOWN — It wasn’t a tremendously difficult decision for Walthall County school board members to let online students participate in school sports and clubs — once they decided to let the sports teams play.
The board’s work session Tuesday was dedicated the questions of whether fall sports should be played and who should be allowed to play.
“We want to play. The kids want to play,” said Tylertown Athletic Director Jason Johnson. “But maybe we need a bigger group to sit down and decide about that.
“As we move on, we want to play sports. We want your blessing to play.”
Johnson and his counterpart at Salem, Chris McCallum, said they were following the governor’s orders and new regulations drawn up by the Mississippi High School Activities Association to keep players as safe as possible.
They said all of the coaches at the two schools had attended training on the virus regulations.
“We’re doing everything the guidelines say,” Johnson said.
He noted that three football coaches at Northeast Jones had had COVID-19, and two Tylertown football players had been diagnosed with the virus after being tested because their parents had it, leading the Chiefs’ coaching staff to suspend summer workouts for two weeks while team members quarantined.
That prompted board member Deloris Breland to ask how coaches know it’s safe for those two players to play, since the virus is known to cause complications such as tissue damage to organs like the heart.
Johnson said those players have doctor’s releases, as required under the new MHSAA rules,
While the health of their players is always a top concern, Johnson said the coaches’ biggest concern with COVID-19 is “community transmission to the families.
“I interviewed some of my parents, and they have reservations, but in the end, even with those reservations, they’re going to let their kids play. I talked to two medical professionals, and one said it wouldn’t be a good idea to play. The other one said he hadn’t heard anything to make him think it would hurt to play.
“If we’re going to play during a pandemic and players get sick, we want to know we have your blessing.”
“You want someone else to blame,” board president Bobbie Lewis said.
“That’s how this game works,” Johnson said.
For football, Johnson said the coaches’ box along the sidelines had been extended for this year from their normal ends at the 20-yard lines to the 10-yard lines to better social distance players who aren’t in the game, and it’s recommended that students have assigned places to stand on the sideline.
Masks are required on the sidelines as well, with wraparound masks that players can push down around their necks while playing and pull back up on the sidelines recommended. Johnson said if a player made a tackle by grabbing the exposed part of the mask, a horse-collar penalty would be called.
Salem principal Vanessa Boyd said she feared parents would be angered if fall sports were canceled, since students had already been practicing, and that seniors with no other opportunity left to play might transfer to private schools to be able to play.
“I worry about the repercussions if we don’t play,” she said. “We’re already in school with students together in classrooms.”
McCallum echoed that concern, saying players and their families may be tempted by overtures from elsewhere if the players lose football and other sports after already losing most of the spring sports seasons.
“Other schools are coming after our students,” McCallum said.
With sports a standard part of the school year and already set to be played, the board didn’t take a vote on allowing sports to continue, which lets teams continue to practice and play.
Board members voted unanimously to allow virtual learners to practice and play with their teams.
Johnson pointed out that the school district had not told potential online learners that they would not be eligible to play sports before having them sign up for virtual instruction.
He said MHSAA ruled specifically that online students would be eligible under the organization’s rules if the students are enrolled in school and making progress toward completing and passing courses.
Blocking the students from playing now would be “changing the rules after they signed up,” Johnson said.
He also pointed to the class sizes at Tylertown High, which allow for decent social distancing with the number of students taking online instruction.
Maintaining distancing “would be difficult if we bring those students back into the classroom,” he said.
Also, those students have already been practicing with their teammates for the coming seasons.
Board member Linda Metz asked how teams would be affected if the virtual students were blocked from participating, and johnson said teams in some sports “might not have enough players to play.”
McCallum said none of Salem’s football players are taking online classes, but other teams, including dance, have some members taking classes online.
Breland asked if the district could push back the start of their season into September or even October, but Johnson said MHSAA didn’t allow for that.
“You can opt out of a sport, or a season, or a semester,” Johnson said. “You can’t just start late.”
Johnson laid out the financial difficulties the teams and the schools expect to face as the year progresses, as well.
“Our financial strain is going to be tremendous. We operate on what we get from our gates only,” he said. “We have some carryover that, with what we can get this year, will be just enough to pay officials and mileage. Next year to start, we’ll have zero budget-wise.”
THS principal Dr. Ronald Morgan said most of the athletic budget is covered by the football gates, and he estimated the four home games now slated to be played would net the school about $8,400 under the capacity and attendance rules now in place.
That amount “will cover our expenses, but that’s about all,” Morgan said.
McCallum said Salem would expect about $900 per home football game.
Johnson said THS will likely be producinging vouchers for tickets in advance of game dates, so that only the number of people allowed per participating student will be able to get into the games by presenting the vouchers at the ticket booths.
Johnson said the schools would have to maintain their usual levels of security because of the need to reinforce the attendance limit of two spectators per team, cheer or band participant at games.
In addition, MHSAA has mandated a safety officer to patrol crowds and enforce social distancing and the wearing of masks.
To avoid other temptations to ignore masking or social distancing requirements, Morgan and Johnson said Tylertown would not have concession stands in operation during the games.
“We looked at having someone walking through the stands with items for sale, but then you have to handle money, and the CDC says you shouldn’t handle money,” he said.
