TAWAS CITY, MI – With high school sports no longer benched, one northeast Michigan administrator is taking a stand.

Matt Unke announced his resignation Wednesday as athletic director at Tawas Area High School after his recommendation for the school to cancel fall sports was denied.

“With the Board of Education deciding to move forward with fall sports I can not, in good conscience, be the person who is responsible for facilitating large gatherings,” Unke wrote in a resignation letter emailed to Tawas staff and media outlets. “I have come to this decision as no scientific data has been presented to show we should be moving forward with these types of events.

“To the contrary, the governor discussed on Wednesday at a press conference how the parts of the state that have been opened up (Phase 5 for Regions 6 and 8) show increases in cases. The very next day she allowed all parts of the state to move forward.

“This was unexpected as every action, up to this point, had placed restrictions on our ability to play and even went as far as postponing the sport of football till the spring. I ask, ‘What changed overnight?’

“Absolutely nothing that is based on scientific data.”

When Gov. Gretchen Whitmer relaxed coronavirus safety standards regarding organized sports on Thursday, the Michigan High School Athletic Association gave the go-ahead for all fall sports – including football – to proceed.

Unke, however, made the recommendation to cancel fall sports – with the exception of cross country — at Tawas for 2020.

“He met with me at the end of last week and shared some very legitimate concerns over discrepancies between what we were hearing from the MHSAA and the (Michigan Department of Health and Human Services),” said John Klinger, superintendent of Tawas Area Schools. “Based on the information in front of him, he was not recommending we move forward with fall sports.

“He’s a data-driven person and he doesn’t see where the numbers indicate going in this direction.”

Klinger said he spent Tuesday gathering input from numerous sources and discussing the matter with the district’s attorneys before deciding the district should indeed offer sports programs this fall.

“After meeting with the district’s legal counsel and looking over the MHSAA guidelines, we felt we needed to provide programming and opportunities for our students,” said Klinger, himself a former athlete as a 1994 Tawas graduate.

Klinger said Unke notified him of his resignation at about 3:45 p.m. Wednesday.

“There are absolutely no hard feelings at all,” Klinger said. “Matt and I have known each other for a long time. We grew up playing sports together. We’ve always been able to have open and honest conversations.

“Matt has personal beliefs that make him uncomfortable going forward in this situation and I respect and understand that.”

Klinger said the district is currently building a plan for the administrative team to share the athletic director’s responsibilities until a new hire is made. Unke had served in the part-time position the past three years at Tawas.

Unke wrote in his resignation letter that he has offered to stay on and assist with the transition. He did not respond to requests to further discuss his resignation.

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