BAY CITY, MI – Logan Beyer is a boy with a ball and a game.

He is happy again. He is whole again.

The Bay City Central tennis player stepped on the court Wednesday, taking part in the first high school sports event in Michigan since March 11. And for Beyer and athletes across the state, life is good again.

“After five months, I don’t know if I could function any more without sports,” Beyer said. “I’m a teenage boy, that’s all I care about.”

Bay City Central hosted a boys tennis quad with Bay City Western, Flint Kearsley and Alpena at Jopke Courts, finally ending a 160-day hiatus for high school sports in Michigan. Many things were different in this age of coronavirus, but the competition on the courts provided a sense of normal.

“It’s like they’re being released into the wild,” Western coach Mike Rohde said. “They’re remembering what it’s like to be out with their friends. For a lot of them, they’ve been isolated with their families and they’re finally getting a chance to mingle – and it’s good for them.”

The high school sports scene has remained dormant since that fateful day in mid-March. The threat of the coronavirus brought the winter sports season to a halt and completely wiped the spring season off the calendar.

Many of the athletes who competed at the tennis quad lost a full season of the high school experience – and are thrilled they aren’t missing out on more.

“We’ve been waiting all spring and summer with nothing to play,” said Andrew Holman, a No. 3 doubles player for Western who was deprived of the lacrosse season in the spring.

“All winter we were working on speed and agility and doing a ton of running. We were working really hard to get ready for the season – then it got canceled after one day.”

Beyer, the senior who plays No. 1 singles for Central, was planning to play golf in the spring when all plans were changed.

“I was shocked when it happened,” he said. “I thought about all those seniors who didn’t get to play, it was awful. If this (season) got cancelled, I would be so sad.

“Sports are so important. I had done nothing for five months and I was going insane.”

Athletes throughout the state returned to action the week of Aug. 10 for preseason training. Even then there was no guarantee that the season was forthcoming. A harsh reminder of that surfaced Friday when the Michigan High School Athletic Association announced there would be no football this fall.

Tennis teams – like their counterparts in cross country and girls golf – weren’t certain until Wednesday if their sport was heading for a similar fate. When no announcement came from the MHSAA to say otherwise, the game was on.

“I was very suspicious of it, I figured it was 50/50,” Beyer said. “I would have random thoughts about it before I’d go to sleep at night, wondering if the MHSAA was going to let us play.”

Kearsley’s No. 1 singles player Trenton Griffith missed out on baseball season in the spring and didn’t want to think about the prospect of missing tennis as well.

“I was definitely nervous we wouldn’t have the season,” he said. “That would be as tough as you could imagine. I’m very happy we were able to do it.

“It keeps me motivated to do well in school. Playing sports gets you in better shape physically and mentally.”

Like every sport this fall, tennis comes with a whole new set of health precautions and guidelines. Players and coaches wear masks when they’re not on the court. They don’t shake hands or even cross paths with the opponent and each team serves with its own tennis balls, never touching the other’s with their hands.

“They’re excited to be playing, but they know they have to take this seriously or it could be gone tomorrow,” said Rohde. “If we’re not careful, if we’re not diligent, we won’t be able to play. It’s something we talk about every day now.

“We’re always mindful about all the guidelines and hurdles we’ve got to go over, but once you get out here and it’s 75 degrees and beautiful, you remember this is great.”