NATCHEZ — Several Catholic schools, including Cathedral in Natchez, plan to appeal a recent ruling banning out-of-state students from participating in sports.

Representatives of the four Catholic schools in the Diocese of Jackson, along with Diocese Superintendent of Catholic Education Catherine Cook, will meet with the Mississippi High School Athletic Association and its Executive Director Don Hinton at 10 a.m. Monday at the MHSAA office in Clinton.

On June 11, the MHSAA executive committee unexpectedly voted to ban all out-of-state residents from participating in Mississippi high school athletics.

That means, students who live in Vidalia or Concordia Parish and attend Cathedral cannot compete on any school athletic team.

“It was important to get this meeting as quickly as possible and start this process,” said Maureen Smith, communications director for the Diocese of Jackson. “All four of our schools will be present.”

Cathedral High School Chief Administrator Pat Sanguinetti said he wants the MHSAA to work with the four schools — Cathedral, St. Aloysius of Vicksburg, Greenville St. Joseph and Madison St. Joseph — concerning the matter.

“At this point, we are hoping they work with us in some form or fashion,” Sanguinetti said. “The short notice is detrimental to everyone.”

Sanguinetti said he expects a swift response to the appeal of the MHSAA decision. Should the appeal not be successful, Sanguinetti said he’s not sure what will happen next.

“We’ll sit at the table and decide on what to do next,” he said. “I’m sure after we leave the meeting, we’ll have a conference call or meet and decide. Do I believe we will have to go into legal action? Probably. Will we win? I don’t know, I’m not a lawyer.”

Sanguinetti said students who plan to attend Cathedral next year and have paid their tuition, but aren’t sure if they will be able to play sports, have no worries.

“If their children aren’t allowed to play sports and they have to make a decision to go somewhere else, we will give them all of their money back. We won’t hold a dime from them,” Sanguinetti said.

Cathedral is not the only school that has a number of students who reside in nearby neighboring states.

For Greenville St. Joseph, the ruling could cause a major cut in enrollment.

Greenville St. Joseph High School is a next stop for students from St. Mary’s School, which is across the state line in in Lake Village, Ark.

“The unique story about the school in Arkansas is they just announced they will be closing,” Sanguinetti said. “I know Greenville St. Joseph was expecting to pick up extra students because of it, but now this will be a complete setback.”

Greenville St. Joseph and St. Mary’s are located just 20 miles apart.

At the end of the 2014 football season, the MHSAA received a complaint concerning Cathedral senior starting quarterback Wyatt Boothe, who lives in Concordia Parish. At that time, MHSAA’s Hinton said Boothe was eligible to play. Boothe also played basketball for Cathedral.

This past season, Cathedral captured its first state championship in football and fourth state championship in baseball.

Three players who reside in Louisiana were on the state championship football team and two Louisiana residents were on the state championship baseball team.

Sanguinetti said he is not certain if Cathedral’s recent success prompted the complaint or the subsequent ruling.

“It may be brought up in the meeting, and they will probably blatantly deny it,” he said.

MHSAA’s Hinton did not return repeated phone messages left for him Friday and Saturday seeking comment.