Westlee Honeycutt sat on his front porch, waiting.
It was Tuesday afternoon, and the Caledonia High School senior baseball player was watching Gov. Tate Reeves deliver an update on public schools in Mississippi in the midst of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic. Honeycutt listened, hoping not to hear what he knew was coming.
Reeves said it anyway: Schools were closed for the rest of the 2019-20 academic year. Honeycutt, aware of the Mississippi High School Activities Association’s policy that no practice or competition could take place while its member schools were closed, knew what the announcement meant: His baseball career was over.
Shortly after noon Wednesday, MHSAA confirmed what Honeycutt and baseball and softball coaches around the area already knew. The organization suspended all sports and activities among the state’s public schools through June 1 and until further notice, officially wiping spring sports off the calendar for the rest of the year — and leaving Honeycutt with a message stuck in his mind.
“Experience life as it comes,” he told The Dispatch on Wednesday. “Don’t take it for granted. Enjoy the moment. You never know when it can be taken away.”
For Honeycutt and seniors around the area, the decision hit the hardest, as players who spent four or even more years investing in a program never got to see it through in their final seasons.
“The seniors took it really hard,” Caledonia softball coach Andy Finch said. “For it to be taken away without any control, it’s heartbreaking for them.”
Finch said that while his four seniors — Carlee Dale, Maddy Suggs, Tori Brooks and Olivia Boykin — will never forget the games they played, they’ll be unable to make more lasting memories outside of competition.
“They’ll remember the bus trips,” said Finch, whose team was 6-2 when the season shut down. “They’ll remember stopping and eating with teammates.” That’s something you can never get back.”
Make no mistake, though: Area players and coaches understand the MHSAA’s decision to prioritize the safety of its athletes. Columbus High School softball coach Eric Thornton praised the league’s incremental measures: On March 16, the MHSAA paused competition for two weeks, and Reeves’ order March 20 that schools would be closed through April 17 extended the suspension. Thornton said the MHSAA had a plan in place if schools restarted this coming Monday and another for a May 4 resumption.
Ultimately, the contingencies weren’t needed, but Thornton said he is “really proud of how they’ve handled all of it.”
He’s still aware of the unfortunate circumstances for his team, of course. Columbus was 4-1 before play was suspended, and Thornton said the Falcons were better set up than they had been in the past five or six years. After a move down to Class 5A competition, the coach thought his team had a shot.
“We did feel like we had a chance to compete and get in the playoffs,” Thornton said.
So did Honeycutt, whose Caledonia team was 8-3 and unaware of what was to come when the ‘Feds traveled to Gordo (Alabama) for a March 12 game.
During the contest, which Caledonia lost 8-0, the visitors’ dugout grew loud with chatter and thick with tension. After the game, coach Travis Garner addressed his team about the possible consequences of the virus’s outbreak.
“‘This pandemic is getting real,'” Honeycutt thought to himself.
Around the same time that day, after the West Point baseball team suffered a 2-1 walk-off loss to Water Valley at the Northeast Mississippi Community College Classic in Booneville, Green Wave senior Baker Watson had to come to grips with the same realization.
“I was really hoping that that wouldn’t be our last game,” he told The Dispatch.
Before Reeves’ statement Tuesday, Watson and his mother Stephany struck up a conversation about the possible implications of the virus. When Stephany, a chemistry and physics teacher at her son’s high school, admitted that a return to in-person classes was improbable, Baker had one question: Was his final baseball season about to be over?
“‘Most likely,'” his mother told him.
Baker said that while Wednesday’s official announcement from the MHSAA was no surprise, “(i)t was kind of sad that the senior season got cut short.”
Neither he nor Honeycutt has been able to earn a college scholarship to play baseball, and both are well aware that will be even harder now. Watson said he’s signing up for as many recruiting showcases and tryouts as he can, but Honeycutt has had to come to terms with the fact that he’s played his last competitive baseball game. He’ll head to Itawamba Community College in the fall, not 100 percent sure of what major he’ll pursue.
And despite the early end to their final year, Honeycutt and his teammates are staying positive. After Reeves’ press conference, the ‘Feds’ 12th graders comforted each other in their senior class group chat. Honeycutt, disappointed but remaining optimistic, broke the news to his father.
“‘It’s been fun,'” Honeycutt told him. “‘I don’t regret anything that ever happened.'”
2020 records for area spring teams
Starkville softball: 2-0
New Hope softball: 8-2
Columbus softball: 4-1
Caledonia softball: 6-2
Caledonia baseball: 9-4
Starkville baseball: 8-4
New Hope baseball: 5-3
West Point softball: 0-0
West Lowndes baseball: 0-0
West Point baseball: 2-7
West Lowndes softball: 0-2
Noxubee County softball: 0-2
Noxubee County baseball: 0-3
Columbus baseball: 0-7
Theo DeRosa reports on Mississippi State sports for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter at @Theo_DeRosa.
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