Platte County’s baseball team was ready to start the season, unofficially, with a jamboree at Liberty on Monday, March 16.
Coach John Sipes tweeted out instructions of what to wear for the event.
Two hours later, the jamboree was postponed to Tuesday, March 17. Later that evening, the season came to a screeching halt before it really event started.
That was part of a domino effect that could be seen throughout the day. The Park Hill schools were slated to have practices on Monday as well but they were called off before players arrived.
By Monday night, Park Hill, Platte County and North Platte all announced no school through April 3, which also means no games and no practices. Earlier in the day, the Park Bulldogs lacrosse team announced they would stop practice and games until April 6, a decision made hours before the school districts announced a similar timeline.
Many teams were ready to get the season going. On Friday, the Creekside Baseball Park hosted a jamboree with the Park Hill and Park Hill South baseball teams.
The spring season was put in further limbo earlier on Monday when the state’s governing body for high school athletics, MSHSAA, called off the basketball final four for this upcoming weekend in Springfield and tweeted a statement on spring activities would be forthcoming.
Citizen file photo
Platte County’s Cayden Davis gets a hit in a game last year against Liberty. The Pirates spring season has been put on hold for at least eight weeks following an announcement by MSHSAA on Monday, March 16.
The speculation was the spring season was over before it would officially start but that wasn’t the case.
MSHSAA kept the hope alive for most athletic events, but canceled districts and state competitions for speech and debate, theater and musical festivals this spring.
Scholar bowl competitors are in a holding pattern for now.
“The CDC has recommended that for the next eight weeks organizers cancel or postpone in-person events that consist of 50 people or more throughout the U.S.,” Dr. Kerwin Urhahn, MSHSAA Executive Director, said in a press release issued Monday, March 16. “Many of the host venues and facilities for our events are connected with colleges and universities that are closing their campuses. These issues directly and wholly affect MSHSAA districts and state series events.”
Urhahn noted that only two of 20 district festivals had been completed by the time MSHSAA made their decisions. Scholar bowls districts aren’t until April 18, which means the district and state may be completed and a final call will be made later.
The athletic events — baseball, boys tennis, boys golf, girls soccer, boys and girls track and field and girls softball — have an outside shot of holding postseason tournaments.
“The MSHSAA office will stay in communication with state and local officials to help determine the possibility of holding the championships either as scheduled or rescheduling them as long as schools are still in session,” Urhahn said. “If we are able to maintain locations for hosting the championship series, and schools are wishing to participate in the post season, we will conduct the championships.
“We are not canceling any spring sports at this time.”
Another sport — this one not sanctioned by MSHSAA — came to an end on Monday as well.
The Missouri Department of Conservation announced it would call off the Missouri National Archery in Schools virtual state tournament.
The state tournament was slated for March 13-14 in Branson but was called off late last week. The next plan was to host a virtual meet with schools competing at their local schools and submitting scores, but after updates from the Center for Disease Control about crowds, hosting at schools was not an option anymore.
Platte County had five teams, from elementary to high school, set to compete in the state tournament.
With an increasing number of school closures throughout Missouri in response to the coronavirus (COVID-19), MDC is announcing that it must now also cancel the MoNASP virtual state-tournament.
“We have reports that most MoNASP-participating schools are closed or closing for the next several weeks or more,” said MDC MoNASP Coordinator Eric Edwards. “With the inability for many schools to compete in the MoNASP State Virtual Tournament, we must also cancel the MoNASP state competition for this year.”
He noted that trying to determine a fair system of a virtual state tournament with so many schools and competitors unable to compete at this time was simply impossible.
“I know this is very disappointing news to the student archers, schools, families, and other supporters,” Edwards said. “Please know this was not an easy decision nor was it made lightly.”
Edwards added that all teams and student archers who competed in a state-qualifying event will be eligible to pre-register for the National Archery in the Schools (NASP) national championship and will be placed in their tier based on their highest score in a state-qualifying tournament that took place this season. The National Archery in the Schools Program (NASP) national tournament is scheduled for May 7-9 in Louisville, Ky.