Fourteen St. Al students affected by association’s ‘affirmation’ of rule

More than a dozen students at St. Aloysius will be barred from participating in most extracurricular activities following a decision by the Mississippi High School Activities Association.

The MHSAA’s executive committee this week “affirmed” a rule that would ban students who live outside of Mississippi from participating in its sports and activities, MHSAA Executive Director Don Hinton said.

The rule applies only to participation in extracurricular activities that are governed by the MHSAA, and not school attendance. State law prohibits out-of-state students from attending Mississippi’s public schools, but private and parochial schools are permitted to let them in.

“We didn’t really pass a ruling. It’s been a rule for a while,” Hinton said. “Our board has reaffirmed that rule. We’re going to be enforcing the rule.”

Mike Jones, the dean of students and athletic director at St. Al, said 14 of the school’s students fall into that category. He called the move “unfortunate,” and said the Diocese of Jackson’s superintendent’s office hopes to speak with MHSAA officials about it soon.

The Diocese oversees Mississippi’s Catholic schools, including St. Al, Cathedral, Greenville-St. Joseph and Madison-St. Joseph.

“It’s an unfortunate thing, because these are people who have supported our school for years,” Jones said. “This includes band, cheer, sports, everything. You hate to tell a kid that’s in elementary school, that down the road they’re not going to be able to do something.”

Hinton said the ban on out-of-state players has been on the books for years, but several recent situations around the state put an increased focus on it.

In 2013, a group of Northeast Mississippi schools submitted a proposal that would have expelled 14 private and parochial schools from the MHSAA, saying that the private schools enjoyed a recruiting advantage their public rivals don’t.

The proposal was never put into motion and dismissed without a vote at an October 2013 meeting of the MHSAA’s executive and legislative councils.

In 2014, Cathedral’s Class 1A football and baseball championships caused a stir around the state when it was revealed that one of its star players, Wyatt Boothe, lives in Louisiana. In all, three members of the football team and two from the baseball team reside on the other side of the Mississippi River.

After several hearings in the days leading up to the football championship game in December, Boothe was ruled eligible to play. The senior quarterback led Cathedral to a 49-14 win over St. Al.

Two Cathedral parents and Louisiana residents with children still in the school, Christi Rabb and Brent Smith, said they planned to fight the ruling. Rabb’s son, Pate Shirley, is a rising senior and Smith has two daughters who attend Cathedral.

“I’ll fight it until the bitter end,” Smith said. “To affect us like this, I don’t understand it. It is a shame we win a state championship and everyone makes a big fuss.”

Hinton denied that Cathedral’s success was the catalyst for this week’s decision. He said there have been discussions about the issue for two years, and the Cathedral situation was one of many around the state that led to this week’s ruling.

“We had situations in Desoto County, with students from Memphis and from Arkansas. We had a student from Alabama who was trying to go to Meridian, and some from Louisiana at schools down on the coast,” Hinton said.

The MHSAA gives its private and parochial members a 20-mile radius around campus from which to draw students. Schools along the state’s borders, like St. Al, Cathedral and Greenville-St. Joseph, all draw students from towns across the Mississippi River in Louisiana and Arkansas.

In the past, St. Al has also had in-state students from Utica, Port Gibson and Rolling Fork.

“We have a 20-mile circle, but with the river it’s really a semicircle,” Jones said.

Jones admitted that St. Al had — and has — students from Louisiana who participate in athletics. Some have been enrolled there since elementary school. He also said the MHSAA has been made aware of their presence, but never indicated St. Al was not in compliance.

“We’re not breaking the rules. They’ve always asked for students’ information and seen the Louisiana addresses. I’ve always provided it,” Jones said. “It’s unfortunate they didn’t enforce it 25 or 30 years ago. We’ve always had students from Tallulah.”

Jones said the matter would be taken up by the superintendent’s office, and he was hopeful a grandfather clause would be instituted that would allow students already in the system to participate in activities until they graduate.

“We hope that reasonable minds can come to a decision,” he said. “I wish that we can enforce it through a grandfather rule. That’s a workable situation. But the bottom line is, we’re going to do whatever they say.”

MHSAA associate director Ricky Neaves said, however, that the board had already looked at a potential grandfathering option and decided against it.

“The only grandfathering that was discussed was this coming year’s seniors, but we decided to go with the rule,” Neaves said. “That is for all schools associated with us, public, private and parochial.”

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The Natchez Democrat contributed to this report.