Quitman athletic director and boys basketball coach Chris Coleman spoke to South Jones women’s basketball coach Sharon Murray at 9:18 Monday morning when Murray was confirming whether their scheduled basketball game Friday was still taking place.

“It’s a running joke with coaches: ‘As of right now, we’re still playing,’” Coleman said.

That’s what he told Murray Monday morning, though Coleman included the caveat that things could change. Sure enough, they did, as the Quitman School District’s official Twitter handle sent out a press release from Coleman later Monday morning announcing the suspension of all athletic activities until Jan. 4.

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused numerous postponements and cancelations among Mississippi schools since the 2020-21 school year began in August. Quitman’s decision Monday came following a “rapid increase in cases within the Quitman School District and throughout the state of Mississippi,” according to the press release. Practices will still be allowed in a limited capacity, but Quitman athletic teams won’t resume games until after the new year. The decision coincided with all schools in the QSD moving to distance learning Tuesday through the end of the current semester.

Coleman said the original plan was to reduce seating capacity at Quitman athletic functions from 25% to 15 or 20%, but the increases in COVID-19 cases both within the district and statewide made QSD administrators feel moving to distance learning and canceling all athletic competitions until Jan. 4 was the right move. While he obviously wants his school’s athletes to be able to keep playing, Coleman said the bigger picture is more important.

“COVID-19 is real; it’s an eye-opener, and I understand and just go with the flow,” Coleman said. “I’m not mad or frustrated. I understand and support every decision.”

At the same time, he understands the athletes’ frustrations.

“I can only speak for my basketball players,” Coleman said. “You have a Dandy Dozen like Chris Keys Jr. who is on pace to be the school’s all-time leading scorer, and he’s missing out on 10 games. We haven’t played in a while, and I can sense a little bit of agitation and frustration (among the players), but I had a talk with them this week and the week before explaining that this is what we’re going to do if this happens.”

The cancelation of games also puts the status of the Sam Dale Tournament — scheduled for the week of Dec. 28 at Quitman — in question.

“It’s the longest-running tournament in the state of Mississippi,” Coleman said. “Unless we do it in January, it could break the streak, but you also have to look at it like, yeah, it’s a tradition and a legacy, but at the end of the day if we force it we could possibly be putting people’s lives in danger, so is it worth it?”

One rumor going around was that the Mississippi High School Activities Association would suspend all athletic events within its member school until January following the completion of the state championship games in football, which took place this past weekend. While that hasn’t happened yet, Coleman said there will likely be far fewer games in December than originally planned.

“Right now we have so many other (schools) canceling games through the Christmas break, these other teams (still playing) don’t have anyone to play,” Coleman said. “It’s one of those trying times, and when I say it’s tough, it’s tough, but we know going into every day that something can change instantly.”