BY SAMANTHA ELLIOTT
High school sports in Michigan have been shut down — like most of the state — since mid-March. But, with the stay-at-home order lifted by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, which allows groups of 100 to gather, while still practicing social distancing, the Michigan High School Athletic Association has given the go-ahead to resume play. Given a few rules are kept.
On June 9, the MHSAA released its most recent statement regarding policies and procedures for resuming athletics in various areas of the state, including the local region.
The local region is permitted outdoor sports conditioning only, with two key rules from the local level. In order to begin summer conditioning, the school district involved must have announced the school facilities open to students and staff and the district must have completed its last official day of the 2019-2020 academic school year.
Outside of those two big requirements, the MHSAA said that all “out-of-season summer coaching regulations continue to apply,” meaning that each day of conditioning is voluntary for athletes and cannot be factors into team selection. For the time being, all sports have been divided into three categories; low, moderate and high risk.
Low-risk sports include cross country, golf, sideline cheer, skiing, swimming and diving, tennis and track and field. At this level, equipment must be cleaned during practices, no physical contact is allowed in sideline cheer, divers must social distance on the pool decks and runners must keep distance when running.
The moderate-risk sports include baseball, basketball, bowling, girls lacrosse, gymnastics, hockey, soccer and volleyball. There is again no sharing of equipment, specifically lacrosse sticks and drills are only allowed if social distance can be kept.
Boys lacrosse, competitive cheer, wrestling and football take up the high-risk spots. Individual technique and choreography work can be done with competitive cheer teams; wrestlers can practice drills as long as spacing is followed.
For football teams, no weight rooms are currently allowed as the current order in the area does not allow for inside conditioning. Teams are not yet allowed to have a 7-on-7 with another team and within their own team, still have to stay spaced apart.
Every team no matter the sport is upping the cleaning of equipment, especially anything shared (football, soccer ball, etc.) and encouraging athletes to go home and shower and wash their clothes as soon as conditioning is over.
Athletes must come to conditioning in their gear, as locker room use is not currently permitted. All athletes are screened daily and anyone with a temperature above 100.3 is not allowed to attend.
The MHSAA is encouraging coaches and spectators to wear face coverings and said that all physical contact such as high-fives, fist-bumps, handshakes and others should not be allowed.
For the Downriver area, all eyes are on the local football teams, which were allowed to begin pre-season conditioning on June 15.
Grosse Ile football Coach John Bodner is no stranger to how high school football works; but this has not been an easy start.
Weight room work was shut down with the schools back in March, but the Red Devils still kept pushing through.
“We were allowed to do virtual stuff so we did a lot of virtual stuff online with the team,” Bodner said.
That lasted until June 11, when with just a few days notice, teams all across the state were given the go-ahead to start the following Monday. But it has been anything but a normal start.
“It’s just kind of a whole new world and we don’t really have any idea if we’re going to have a season or not,” Bodner said. “It’s in limbo (and) we’re doing what we can right now. Every day it’s thinking about what’s next and how we’re going to handle it.”
With no trainer yet to start the season, which is not unusual for many teams this time of year, it falls to Bodner to check the athlete’s temperatures each day.
With the new regulations, players fill out a form and get their temperature taken each day. Bodner and his staff have cones set up to ensure athletes are kept six feet apart, as well as special areas where the team can keep their personal belongings.
While the team is excited to get started, so much is still up in the air.
“We haven’t even started lifting yet,” Bodner said. “There’s a lot of questions. We’re not allowed in the building, so it’s if and when we can use the weight room and there’s a lot of protocols we have to follow.”
For now, the team is focused on agility drills and sprinting; doing what they can to best prepare for the hopeful season.
“We’re just kind of working our way through it,” Bodner said.
So far, the Red Devils’ numbers have been good at each day of conditioning and Bodner said the seniors are optimistic about the season, which, numbers depending, could potentially be cancelled.
“Kids are pretty resilient,” he said. “Right now, we’re just getting our toes in the water as far as getting kids back. But, we’ve got about a month. We need to know by the end of July or early August what’s going on.”
A positive on the gridiron this fall is a new five-quarter rule introduced by the MHSAA.
Under the new rule, any athlete can play five quarters each week, which allows for JV players to play in their game and still be pulled up to play part of a varsity game.
For now, Bodner and his team are focusing on what they can, and that is preparing as normally as possible for a season they plan on having. The Red Devils are slated to open their season against Gabriel Richard on Aug. 28.