LANSING — For the past couple months, it looked like thousands of athletes in traditional winter sports were going to watch the calendar pages go by without having a chance to compete.
But things suddenly changed Thursday, Feb. 4, when the latest guidelines from the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services permitted “contact” sports — including basketball, competitive cheerleading, ice hockey and wrestling — to be played, provided the participants adhere to protocols limiting further spread of the coronavirus.
As a result, Catholic League athletes were quick to embrace the good news, and competition schedules came together quickly, with the first games scheduled to take place on Monday, Feb. 8 — the date when the latest order goes into effect.
“Everybody’s excited to get winter sports started,” Catholic League athletic director Vic Michaels said. “We’re happy for the kids. Don’t forget, they didn’t get to finish their seasons last year when the tournaments were suspended. These kids have felt a lot of heartache for that, and they’ve been delayed this season.”
Michigan High School Athletic Association executive director Mark Uyl gave a teleconference Feb. 4, just hours after Gov. Gretchen Whitmer announced many of the prior restrictions on indoor contact sports were lifted with the latest order.
“Our kids in those winter contact sports have really been in limbo and on pause for the last two and a half months, and we have said consistently that when we were ready to play, we would play, so we’re excited about those sports beginning early next week,” Uyl said.
Some winter sports — namely boys and girls bowling, girls gymnastics, boys and girls skiing, and boys swimming — were classified as low-risk and were able to continue without delay this winter. The approval to allow the others to begin competing struck a positive note with the MHSAA, which was successful in seeing the fall season championships through to their conclusions, albeit in late January.
“We’re incredibly excited, and we’re ready to go,” Uyl said. “As excited as we were to get fall started and to be able to finish, we’re probably more excited for these winter teams. It’s really been hard on kids and coaches and communities and families, and we’re incredibly grateful for (the opportunity to start) next week.”
Each sport still has protocols in place regarding spectator limits — generally, a maximum of two fans per participant — and masking requirements.
Basketball and ice hockey players and coaches must wear masks at all times, except for a brief period allowed for re-hydrating. Competitive cheerleaders must wear masks at practices and on the sidelines while watching other teams perform, but they can be unmasked during their routines, since they do not come into direct contact with their opponents.
Wrestling faces some additional challenges and is being treated differently, as participants are subject to rapid COVID-19 testing each day they are slated to compete. One positive test will result in a 10-day quarantine period for an entire team.
“Wrestling, out of all the winter sports, had some very unique challenges when it came to COVID and keeping everybody as safe as possible,” Uyl said.
Likewise, the Catholic League wrestling finals will be split into two competitions at separate sites, crowning a Bishop Division and Cardinal Division team champion in each case. Michaels said that would make it easier to conform to the state health department’s limitations concerning the number of people allowed to gather at an indoor event.
The basketball season includes five weeks of regular-season play, followed by the one-week Catholic League championship tournament on March 15, 17 and 20. State district playoffs would begin the following week.
Until then, Michaels said, the schedule has been set to have schools play a division opponent on Saturday afternoons and play the same school again in a “non-league” game the following Wednesday. This would enable each team to complete its division schedule and also minimize the number of teams a given team would come into contact with.
Catholic League hockey did not require any re-scheduling, as championship dates were set after the first pause encompassing winter sports went into effect Nov. 15.
At the state level, the MHSAA’s post-season dates previously established will remain in effect. They are later than the typical winter sports season.
State championships in competitive cheer take place March 26-27. Wrestling team championships will be decided March 30, and individual finals take place April 2 and 3. The hockey finals will be held April 3, girls basketball championships will be decided April 9, and the boys basketball tournament concludes the following day.
Spring sports will follow, and there are a number of reasons Uyl is optimistic those will be able to be held this year: they are all played outdoors, all but two (boys lacrosse and girls soccer) are non-contact, and spectator levels are generally lower.
The MHSAA has often stated its objective is to see each of its three seasons (encompassing fall, winter and spring sports) to their logical conclusions in a safe manner.
“The first part of our goal has been completed,” Uyl said. “We now have the full go-ahead to get season No. 2 started with those finish line dates in the horizon, and then we’ll finish strong here with spring.”
