Changes in MSHSAA

Missouri State High School Activities Association (MSHSAA), being the overseer of all regulations for high school activities in Missouri, has made new changes to the off-season practice official handbook.

The new rule states that if a student is actively involved in an in-season sport, then they are not allowed to participate in an off-season sport practice. This means, for example, if an athlete is currently playing basketball, then they cannot participate in baseball off-season. 

The new rule also states that in order to participate in off-season activities, athletes must currently be enrolled in high school; effectively making it so that 8th grade athletes are no longer permitted to participate in high school sport off-season activities. Students and coaches have said that this will be disappointing to some of the 8th graders who will be coming into high school next year and cannot receive practice and coaching early to try to improve themselves and their skills. 

The changes to the MSHSAA handbook might seem like something of little significance to non-athletes, but many students have expressed that the added opportunity of participating in off-season activities in 8th grade was monumental to the growth of not only their skill in the sport, but also their overall love and passion of the sport.

Jaelah Mcdannald (11), stated, “My freshman and sophomore year I played both basketball and softball. My practice schedule during basketball season would be I would go to basketball practice, then after basketball I would go to softball off-season practice. I got practice for both sports at once and I know it helped improve my overall skills. Now that that is no longer allowed, I know people are struggling with playing their sports and worrying about keeping their off-season sport skills.” 

Lauren Thomlinson (11) expressed, “It’s a super unfair rule when it comes to it. I participate in cross country, basketball, and track, but I’m not allowed to improve myself in another sport when I’m in one. During cross country I wasn’t allowed to practice for basketball when other students were. How am I supposed to be as good as everyone who got the off-season practice? I just had to train on my own to ensure I am at the same if not better skill level as everyone else.”

As these athletes have stated, the rule change is being met with an abundance of backlash. Unfortunately, until the rule changes, there is little that Fair Grove’s athletes can do to combat it.