Written Friday December 18th at 3:00 PM
Updated Tuesday December 29th at 7:20 PM
Well most Winter Sports are still paused for now.
Governor Gretchen Whitmer, Michigan Department of Health and
Human Services Medical Executive Joniah Khaldun, and Director Robert Gordon
announced that indoor contact sports are still banned for now in a new epidemic order
that is effective until January 15th.
That could change if trends improve which they have been lately.
Gordon mentioned that fall sports like football, volleyball, and swimming and diving can end their seasons. Excluding them from the order.
However due to testing protocols not being in yet from the MDHHS all practices were halted by the MHSAA until December 28th.
Football will have non contact practices until each player tests negative in the first round of testing before they can begin contact practicing. The regional finals are set to start on January 9th while the State Semifinals will take place on January 16th while the State Finals will take place on January 22nd and 23rd.
The MHSAA announced on Tuesday afternoon that Volleyball and Girls Swimming and Diving will start practicing on January 4th with State quarterfinal play starting on January 12th for volleyball and State semifinals and finals for both sports on January 15th and 16th.
Both sports like football are also required to do the antigen testing by the MDHHS.
Volleyball quarterfinals will be at host sites while the semifinals and finals will be played at the Kellogg Center in Battle Creek.
Girls Swimming and Diving finals will be held at the three host sites.
There will be no spectators and all safety protocols will be in place.
The OAA currently has North Farmington, Oak Park, and West Bloomfield still playing in football while Clarkston is the only school left in volleyball. North Farmington heads to Traverse City Central, Oak Park goes to Livonia Churchill, while West Bloomfield hosts Romeo. Clarkston volleyball will play Grand Blanc at Lapeer in the State Quarterfinals.
The new order is not good for the indoor winter sports except for skiing which is outdoors. It’s possible they could go to the spring. It is possible that the MHSAA could extend the seasons past June.
Gordon announced a new antigen testing program that can be implemented for fall sports. Wonder if it could be addressed for winter and spring sports???
“With respect to sports, outdoor and non-contact sports are reopening. We will also be offering a new pilot program for fall sports, including contact sports that use antigen tests in order to ensure safety as students complete high school fall championships. This is a very limited number of schools that had seasons interrupted and this will be a chance to do two things, it will let students complete a season that is, of course very important to them. And it will allow schools and the State of Michigan to work together to learn how these antigen tests to encourage safe reopening in January” said Gordon.
This has clearly been a failure on part of the MDHHS and the MHSAA for the lack of communication. These kids are clearly getting shafted again which is not right.
It will be very interesting to see what happens with winter sports. It will be something to keep an eye on.
Stay tuned to OAA Now for the latest on this developing story.
Here is the MHSAA's Statement.
Updated Press Release
Here is the Tweet from State Champs from MHSAA Executive Director Mark Uyl
https://twitter.com/statechampsmich/status/1340041028125020164
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