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High school sports in Alabama will follow the lead of college and professional sports and take a hiatus beginning next Thursday as Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey announced Friday evening that public schools in the state would close March 19–April 6.

Limestone County Schools Interim Superintendent Mike Owens said all extracurricular activities, including sporting events, will be canceled during this time.

The first confirmed case of the new coronavirus in Alabama was reported Friday morning in Montgomery County, with a second case in Jefferson County confirmed Friday afternoon.

The Alabama High School Athletic Association released a statement Friday recommending any sporting events be limited to 500 people or fewer. The AHSAA said playoffs for spring sports, which begin in mid-to-late April, are still on as scheduled, and decisions to cancel regular-season games would be left up to the individual schools.

The AHSAA did recommend schools play area games as soon as possible to determine playoff positions in case a portion of the season is suspended or canceled.

Coaches scrambled to shuffle their schedule to try and finish playing as many area games as they could before Wednesday. Athens baseball coach Chuck Smith worked the phones most of the day Friday to reschedule area games against Columbia and Muscle Shoals.

“They said they wanted us to play the area games by Tuesday, so we’ve scheduled two games with Columbia Monday and two games with Muscle Shoals Tuesday,” Smith said. “It’s been a heck of a day trying to get this all done.”

Smith said the hope is the season can resume after the break and playoffs can be played.

Athens Bible School baseball coach Bill Murrell said the only other time he can remember postponing games for a viral outbreak was in 2009, when the swine flu caused a playoff series between ABS and Shoals Christian to be postponed for five days.

“I don’t remember what round it was, but I do remember we were playing Shoals Christian and we could not play on Friday and Saturday,” Murrell said. “They came back and let us play mid-week of the next week.”

Lindsay Lane Christian Academy Head of Schools Steve Murr said LLCA will have online-only classes for a week and a half beginning Thursday, and school sports would most likely be suspended during that time.

“Most of the schools we play are public schools, so we really wouldn’t have anybody to play,” Murr said. “We just want to do what’s best for our kids during this situation.”

Youth sports in Athens are also suspended temporarily, Athens Mayor Ronnie Marks said in a press release Friday night. Marks said all organized recreational activities at Athens facilities are canceled through at least March 20. The Athens Recreation Center will also be closed to the public during that timeframe, Marks said

Marks said he made the decision after the the Alabama Department of Public Health announced the closing of Alabama public schools for a two and a half week break.