In a new announcement made over the weekend, the long-awaited decision was made. MSAHA member organizations are now allowed to compete with the public schools in Mississippi.
This groundbreaking announcement came after months of speculation about the possible rule change. Robert Pickering, board member of the MSAHA and head coach of the Hattiesburg Forerunners Cross Country program, headed up the effort in bringing it before the Mississippi High School Association of Athletics (MHSAA). The MHSAA is the largest high school sports association in the state, featuring all of the Mississippi public schools and the Catholic schools.
Rickey Neaves, the head of the MHSAA told TSJW Network in March that they would have a committee meeting to vote before moving into a NFHS vote in July to have a ruling on the measure. The NFHS is the National Federation of High School Sports which generally governs the vast majority of school athletics in the nation.
The MHSAA voted to sponsor the MSAHA’s joining of the NFHS. The MHSAA had done this years before with the MAIS, the association for Mississippi’s private schools. The MHSAA decided to sponsor and then sent it to an NFHS ruling, which passed last week.
“The biggest caveat that needs to be said is that they made it clear that they are not forcing the schools to compete with us. They are allowing their member schools to compete with us.” Pickering noted.
This new ruling means that the MSAHA member organizations can now compete against public schools as long as both sides agree. This will make the biggest impact in Cross Country, which is Pickering’s sport of choice.
“This is huge for the Cross Country programs…..You don’t want to be running in a small group where no one is around you to compete with, that’s not as much fun…..If we are able to compete in some of these bigger meets, that would be a great opportunity….I am very excited about the season.”
The ultimate impact is yet to be seen, but there seems to be exciting times ahead in the MIssissippi homeschool sports world.
