For 20 years the Governor’s Cup has been firmly entrenched on the Vicksburg sports calendar in late July, serving as both an early harbinger of autumn and a midsummer baseball celebration.

From now on, the party will start a month later.

The Vicksburg-Warren Athletic Association has moved the tournament back a month to late August as part of a sanctioning agreement with the United States Specialty Sports Association. Even-numbered age groups will play at Halls Ferry Park on the weekend of Aug. 21-23, and odd-numbered age groups Aug. 28-30.

VWAA president Josh Fairley said the move was made to generate more interest in the Governor’s Cup after several years of declining participation. The Governor’s Cup had previously been an unsanctioned tournament, meaning any team could play. Participating teams must now be registered through USSSA, one of youth baseball’s largest governing bodies, and as part of the sanctioning agreement the Governor’s Cup took a later spot on the calendar.

“The participation in the Governor’s Cup has been going down in recent years. USSSA baseball is dominating the state and the region. In an effort to raise participation in this historical event, we decided to go with USSSA,” Fairley said. “The official season for the USSSA season starts Aug. 1. It gives teams time to register with USSSA and purchase insurance.”

The Governor’s Cup has had a few major shifts during its history.

The tournament started in the early 1990s as part of a youth fitness initiative by then-Governor Kirk Fordice. After three unremarkable years in Madison, it moved to Vicksburg in 1995. Its affiliation with the Governor’s office ended soon after, but the name stuck and the tournament became the biggest fundraiser every summer for first the Vicksburg Baseball Association and then its successor the VWAA.

The Governor’s Cup expanded from one weekend to two in 2001, but was still played in either late July or early August. Part of its appeal was its status as a sort of baseball free-for-all, where hardened travel teams played alongside slapped-together league all-star teams, new formats were experimented with, and teams enjoyed a loose weekend at the end of one tournament season and the start of another.

At its peak, the Governor’s Cup had just over 100 teams participating across its two weekends. That number had dwindled to about 70 over the past few years, with some teams playing in different age groups during both weekends.

Fairley said breaking from that tradition was a difficult decision, but one he and the VWAA board felt needed to be made to ensure the Cup would have continued long-term success.

“Any time you have change, there is concern. Right now we’ll have to wait until after the event to see if the decision was the correct one. But right now, indicators are it was the right thing to do,” Fairley said. “It might take three to five years to build the tournament back up to what it used to be. We’re in the unknown, but we believe it’s the right call.”

Fairley said early response to the move has been extremely positive. With a month left before the tournament there were no firm registration numbers yet, but Fairley said he’s received inquiries from teams in Mississippi, Louisiana, Tennessee and Arkansas. As many as “25 percent” of those have come from out-of-state teams, he said.

Surprisingly, a large number of teams in the 14-, 15- and 16-year-olds’ age groups have also expressed early interest. In previous years, those were often the last divisions to fill up and were occasionally scuttled for lack of interest. Schedule conflicts with the start of high school football and school were usually blamed for the low turnout.

So far, Fairley said, nearly three dozen coaches in those three age groups have called him asking for information about the tournament.

“I’m kind of stunned. I wouldn’t have expected that many,” he said. “We haven’t really started registration yet, so they’ve all called wanting to gather information, but I’ve probably received calls from 35 different teams through those three age groups.”

While the competition will be on the fields at Halls Ferry Park, the Governor’s Cup will also face some off of it. Its move instantly made the weekend of Aug. 21-23 one of the busiest of the year on the Warren County sports calendar, as four major events will take place almost simultaneously.

Friday, Aug. 21, is opening night of the high school football season. Porters Chapel Academy and St. Aloysius are both on the road, but Vicksburg and Warren Central will play in the Red Carpet Bowl at Warren Central beginning at 6 p.m.

On Saturday, Aug. 22, the Gator Bait Triathlon will take place at Eagle Lake in the morning and the Warren County Cup golf matches in the afternoon at Clear Creek Golf Course in Bovina.

The following weekend, the Governor’s Cup will go head-to-head with three high school football games on Friday night.

Besides potentially drawing fans away from the ballpark, the busy schedule could sap the county’s reserves of volunteer workers. The Governor’s Cup, Gator Bait and Red Carpet Bowl all rely heavily on them for various organizational tasks.

Fairley, though, wasn’t worried. He said the VWAA plans to speak with the local high schools to recruit students needing to fulfill community service hours, and he encouraged fans to support the event.

“Not only does it support VWAA, it has an economic impact on the city,” Fairley said. “Your contributions at the gate will go to support the VWAA and you’ll get to see some great baseball.”