High school, college and professional sports aren’t the only ones seeing a delay in action due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Area youth sports leagues that were set to begin their seasons are all postponed until further notice. Larry Gill, president of the Meridian Youth Baseball Association, received a notification on his phone Tuesday that read “opening day.” It was a frustrating reminder of how sports at every level have ground to a halt because of public health concerns.

“It broke my heart, honestly,” Gill said. “I hope we can get up and going soon.”

The Meridian Youth Baseball Association’s season typically runs from mid-March until around Memorial Day. Games were first scheduled to begin March 16 but were delayed a week due to heavy rainfall totals in the last couple of months. Now, games are on hold altogether, and if the league eventually does resume, the season will have to be shortened, Gill said.

“We won’t be able to play until probably May at the earliest, and I’m sure it’ll have to be condensed down to a month if that’s even a possibility,” Gill said. “Right now we’re just waiting it out. My thoughts are not to cancel the league, and we’ll do whatever we can do to play. If it goes down to three to four weeks, we’re going to do it.”

The league serves approximately 220 children, and Gill said the halt in sports has left a void in physical activity for its participants.

“It’s tough on the parents and especially the kids because they don’t have anything to do right now,” Gill said. “For the last 10 years, I’ve been on a baseball field every Tuesday and Thursday from March through June, so it’s different. We have a lot of families looking for us to make decisions, and all types of questions about refunds. It’s tough.”

Justin Smith, who heads the Northeast Recreational Baseball League, said practices were suspended March 17, and the season was scheduled to begin March 31 before everything was put on hold.

“We’re kind of playing this day-by-day, week-by-week,” Smith said. “We’ll make a call (on how to proceed) within the next two weeks.”

The hope is to start the Northeast Recreational season at the end of April or beginning of May, and Smith said the league would continue to pay attention to city and school board officials, as well as healthcare professionals, before making a decision.

“I hate it for the kids and families, but one positive you can take from this is it affords families a little more time to be at the house with kids instead of going through the daily hustle and bustle,” Smith said.

Still, that doesn’t stop Smith from wanting to be around youth sports as it’s a yearly routine for him.

“I love youth sports,” Smith said. “I’m very involved with youth soccer, and I love baseball and am ready to get back out there.”

Like Gill, Smith said he’s been getting questions from parents about whether or not there will be a season, and the most he can offer them is hope that it’s not canceled, just suspended.

“I’m very optimistic we can play baseball at the end of April,” Smith said. “No one is really frustrated. I think everyone understands this is out of our control. It’s just crazy times we’re in.”

Registration for the North Meridian Youth Softball Organization is currently ongoing through April 20, and the hope is the COVID-19 pandemic will have calmed down by Memorial Day so the league can begin games that Tuesday, May 26. The league normally runs from mid-May though the end of June, but the plan this year was to begin May 1. Once the seriousness of the pandemic became clear, the start date was moved to May 26.

“We’re kind of not far off from our regular schedule by pushing it back out,” said Sonja Rowell, registrar and treasurer of the league.

While some might be hesitant to register their child for softball due to the uncertainty of sports resuming by May, Rowell encouraged parents to go ahead and sign up their kids.

“The main thing we want to reassure everyone of is, we plan to play summer softball,” Rowell said. “In the absolute worst-case scenario where we cancel the season, we have a 100% refund policy. … We’re trying to be positive and say we plan to play unless things just really take a turn for the worse.”

Unlike area baseball and softball leagues, the Meridian Youth Soccer Organization’s season was underway before games had to be postponed due to the pandemic. The league had one rainout date in February and otherwise completed all but two regularly scheduled dates in its season before practices and games were halted. MYSO is part of the Mississippi Soccer Association, and MYSO President Matthew Castleberry said he and other central district presidents were on a conference call with the MSA president Tuesday to determine a future course of action for all MSA leagues.

“Obviously we would love to finish the season,” Castleberry said. “We haven’t had a huge uproar or anything from parents wanting a refund or asking questions; however, we want to continue to provide the best experience we can and give our customers all we can.”

MYSO is in a wait-and-see mode, and Castleberry said he should know more in a week as to how long games will remain suspended.

“Obviously the longer school is out the harder the situation is for us,” Castleberry said. “We’re in a unique situation where we can play up until July 31 if we wanted to. Obviously, that’s not ideal, but it is an option.”

July 31 is the day insurance through MSA expires, Castleberry explained, and he hopes play can resume well before that cutoff. Right now, Castleberry said he hopes the bigger picture takes a turn for the better.

“The uncertainty makes it more anxious than it is frustrating,” Castleberry said. “For me it seems like this is the beginning and not the end, unfortunately.”