The rumors were true.
Columbus High softball coach Eric Thornton had heard whispers that the state of Mississippi was planning to do away with slow-pitch softball as an official sport. So had Caledonia volleyball coach Samantha Brooks. So had New Hope volleyball coach Allison Woolbright.
“We’ve been hearing for the past two or three years that slow-pitch is going,” Woolbright said.
Only around 75 schools in the Mississippi High School Activities Association — including Columbus, Caledonia and New Hope — fielded slow-pitch teams this fall, down from the 160 that signed up six years ago.
So Thursday, when the MHSAA officially discontinued slow-pitch softball as a sanctioned sport effective with the recently completed 2019 season, Thornton, who coached both the slow-pitch and fast-pitch teams at Columbus this year, was far from surprised.
“It was a long time coming,” he said.
Seeing the popularity of fast-pitch softball — 214 schools are currently set to field a team in 2020 — the MHSAA Executive Committee made its decision to discontinue slow-pitch softball this month.
“Fast-pitch softball has continued to grow and has become one of our largest sports in terms of participation for our schools,” MHSAA Executive Director Don Hinton said in a news release from the organization. “More and more girls and young ladies are focusing exclusively on fast-pitch, which is played on the college level. Those changes are reflected in many schools discontinuing slow-pitch even before the state association reached this point.”
The change bodes well for other fall sports, particularly volleyball.
Both Brooks and Woolbright were happy to hear the official word Thursday, as volleyball coaches around the state expect to see an influx of athletes who would otherwise be playing slow-pitch softball.
“That’s gonna be awesome all across the board, across the state,” Brooks said. “As a volleyball coach, that’s great news.”
Woolbright said she knew of a few students who might have migrated to volleyball had slow-pitch not been an option.
“A lot of those girls are athletes, and they enjoy being part of a team, and I believe that they would have definitely played if slow-pitch had been done away with,” Woolbright said.
She’s cognizant of how much the MHSAA’s decision can grow her team despite its cost to New Hope’s slow-pitch players.
“For some of the girls that love slow-pitch, I’m sure it’s disappointing,” Woolbright said. “But for my program, it will definitely benefit us because we’ll get a lot of those athletes that come to our program.”
Theo DeRosa reports on Mississippi State sports for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter at @Theo_DeRosa.
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