By By Adam Robinson
Sports Editor
The Alabama High School Athletic Association has postponed all state high school sport events due to probable cases of swine flu.
Steve Savarese, executive director of the Alabama High School Athletic Association, said Wednesday night that all AHSAA athletic events would be shut down immediately due to probable cases of swine flu that have shut down three school systems in the Huntsville area.
That means the AHSAA state track and field championships scheduled for May 1-2 at Gulf Shores and Troy will be rescheduled. All other post-season activities scheduled through Monday May 4 are also being postponed until further notice including baseball, soccer, softball and golf.
Saverese said this is not something officials want to do, but as of right now, they want to be cautious.
In the Brewton area, both W.S. Neal and T.R. Miller was set to be in the softball and track playoffs.
The AHSAA said teams could practice but it would be up to individual schools and Haney said his team would practice today and take Friday off.
Although Haney is the softball coach, he had concern about the track meet finals.
Haney said the tournament ruling of if they got rained out those two days at the area tournament, drawing names from a hat would possibly come into effect.
Haney said he was not sure what to believe Thursday morning.
W.S. Neal head track coach Chris Davis thought it was a joke also Thursday morning.
Davis said his team has Jeremy Nicholson returning as a state champion in the hurdles and he is battling a hamstring problem right now, but as of yesterday he looked really, really good.
T.R. Miller softball coach Greg White said it’s unfortunate, but understands why they are doing it.
T.R. Miller Tiger head football coach and athletic director Jamie Riggs said the only thing that he knew is that the track meet is postponed until next week, but they can’t run in Troy.
As for softball?
One other thing going on is spring training football. While T.R. Miller and W.S. Neal have already completed theirs this season, others have theirs now.
Little League teams and Jefferson Davis sports, as of Thursday, were still set to be played as scheduled.
W.S. Neal’s athletic director Blaine Hathcock was not in town Thursday.