Just as the fall high school sports teams enter their final month of the regular season, the ball has stopped bouncing at Lejeune High School.

Located on base at Camp Lejeune, the school’s athletics programs are “paused” during the government shutdown following the failure of a budget agreement in the U.S. Congress.

On the Department of Defense’s education activity website, the contingency plan states that schools “will remain in session” and “all school-level employees are excepted and will continue their regular schedules and operations.” However, it clarifies that “this does not include sports (including practices) and extracurricular activities” adding that they “are paused during a shutdown.”

Collegiate service academies like Army, Navy, and Air Force have moved their athletics departments into nonprofit entities in recent years, so none of them are affected.

Lejeune High has no such luck.

The pause went into effect on Wednesday, Oct. 1.

Lejeune is the only Department of Defense high school in North Carolina, and some of its best sports are in the fall.

The boys soccer team, undefeated at 8-0-1 and currently ranked in the 910 area code top 15 rankings, is currently scheduled to open conference play on Monday, Oct. 6. The Devilpups were 1A East regional finalists in 2018. The soccer regular season ends on Oct. 30.

The boys cross country team is currently projected as the 2A champion. The Devilpups — a mascot name derived from the Marines’ “Devildogs” moniker — are back-to-back state champions. Their regular season ends on Oct. 18.

Other regular seasons end this month are Oct. 9 for girls tennis, Oct. 15 for volleyball, and Oct. 31 for football.

The girls tennis team is 0-4.

The volleyball team is projected to make the playoffs and currently sits at 6-7 overall.

Lejeune’s football team is now 0-6 after moving up its previously-scheduled Friday game to Tuesday with Northside High in Beaufort County to ensure it got to play its Week Seven game. It has four games left on the schedule.

There have been previous shutdowns, most recently in late 2018-19. However, that one occured across December and January and posed little threat to Lejeune’s postseason hopes.

The 2013 shutdown, which also started on Oct. 1, lasted 16 days but an update on Oct. 7 allowed some employees to return to work and keep Lejeune athletics running. Lejeune’s football team, which was then in downstretch of a magical 13-2 season that ended in the 1A East regional final, didn’t miss a game as the shutdown affected only one Friday: a previously-scheduled bye week.