The Poplarville Athletic Association is in the midst of its football season, but is already laying plans and completing registration for two more programs to take place this fall.

Fall Baseball

This will be the PAA’s first time to host a fall ball season, according to PAA Secretary Martin Walker.

Fall baseball registration has closed and Walker said the hope is to have games start this week with the season lasting until Christmas.

Normally there would be numerous age groups of athletes that would form their own teams. However, whether it is because of COVID-19 or other factors, Walker said this year’s numbers are down.

The PAA has instead formed just two age groups, a secondary group that’ll consist of players up to the age of 9, along with a primary age group of 10-year-olds, 11-year-olds and 12-year-olds. Walker said about 30 athletes have signed up for the 10-12 age group while only 13 have signed up for the secondary group, so the PAA is pushing for more youngsters to sign up in order to fill out the squad.

Fall Soccer

The PAA is also offering a fall soccer program this year to interested athletes.

Younger athletes starting at 4-years-old all the way up to 12-year-olds will be able to participate.

The first age group of 4, 5 and 6-year-olds will meet every Saturday where the youngsters will go through basic drills and learn the rules of the game. There are also two older age groups, one filled with 7, 8, and 9-year-olds and the other made up of 10, 11 and 12-year olds.

The two older groups will also meet every Saturday, and in addition to the Saturday session will meet one night during the week.

“The whole program is about teaching them fundamentals and techniques,” Walker said.

Walker said the player count for the soccer program is essentially the opposite of that for fall ball in that the younger group has a higher number of participants.

The youngest age range has had about 15 athletes sign up, where as the older two groups each have only eight or nine athletes participating.

Walker said the program will start this weekend and run for six weeks, which means an end point of late November or early December for the athletes involved.