WALNUT--The 93rd Tippah County Tournament has been rescheduled, after icy conditions canceled the original dates of Jan. 7-9.

The opening round will begin Saturday, Jan. 30, with second round action to be played Monday Feb.1. The championship games will be played the following Saturday, Feb. 6. The tournament will be hosted by Walnut High School. Tournament brackets and seeding remain the same.

Last Thursday’s snow and ice caused the tournament’s opening round to be pushed back until Friday Jan. 8. School officials and coaches decided the safety of the students and fans was the top priority, when road conditions forced North and South Tippah schools to close for the day.

Road conditions didn’t improve, and Friday, school was canceled. A cancellation of the annual countywide clash scheduled for the weekend soon followed.

The following Monday, Jan. 11, county coaches gathered at McDonald’s at 8 a.m. to decide if and when the tournament could be played. After an hour of examining schedules and talking through scheduling conflicts, the dates were set.

Blue Mountain Lady Cougar Head Coach Jeff Lollar was one of the 10 coaches at the meeting and said it was very important to get the tournament in for the good of the county--a thought shared by all members of the group.

"It’s important because it’s a county rivalry. It’s everybody bringing out the best in their teams," said Lollar, whose nine years at Blue Mountain makes him the longest tenured coach in the county. "When you play the county tournament it brings out the best in your team because all the kids know each other, and all the families are around."

Lollar added that the financial impact was also something that couldn’t be overlooked.

"Plus, it’s the economic situation for the schools. The money made at the tournament is divided between the schools. It’s an economic boost for them and in these times everything helps," the coach said.

Mike Lewis, the first-year coach of the Walnut boys, was concerned that the tournament wouldn’t be played but glad to see the issued resolved. He said he has never been involved in a county tournament that had been canceled.

"After we didn’t get to play on Saturday, I was really concerned that we weren’t going to be able to do it, and I sure didn’t want it to happen in my first year over here," said Lewis, who coached the Alcorn Central boys to a state title in 1988. " I’ve never been involved in a county tournament--even as a player--that got canceled. We’ve had some postponed, but I was really concerned about this one. Talking to the coaches on the telephone individually, we were afraid if we didn’t get to play on Saturday, we wouldn’t get to play at all."

Lewis added that county tournaments are an important tradition and not playing the tournament would be an injustice to seniors playing at the various schools.

"It would be bad for the seniors if they didn’t get a chance to play in their county tournament their last year in school, and I’ve always felt like county tournaments are important," said Lewis. "It’s really important--obviously not as important as division because that’s what takes you down the line --in trying to build tradition and competitiveness between the schools and the interest of the fans. I think a county tournament is a good way of doing that."