The Michigan High School Athletic Association announced Thursday that it would not be postponing boys soccer, girls volleyball and girls swimming and diving to the spring of 2021 and is officially giving the green light to girls golf, boys tennis and boys and girls cross country for the fall sports season.

All fall sports except football will continue as scheduled in Region 6 (northern Lower Peninsula) and Region 8 (Upper Peninsula), which are currently in Phase 5 of Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s MI Safe Start Plan Roadmap. However, volleyball, soccer and swimming teams in Regions 1-5 and 7, which are still in Phase 4 of the plan, will have to continue practicing outdoors until given the OK by the governor’s office.

MHSAA executive director Mark Uyl joined Bill Simonson’s sports talk radio program, The Huge Show, earlier this afternoon to try and clean up any confusion on the announcement and give some clarity to the situation.

“Our (Representative Council) is ready to move forward,” Uyl said. “It’s time to compete. Our teams have been practicing for the last few weeks and we believe there’s a way to make this work. In Regions 6 and 8, soccer and volleyball and swimming and diving can go ahead and begin competition tomorrow, following all of the guidelines and requirements for schools in those Phase 5 areas.

“For the remainder of our schools and those moderate risk sports, we’re still waiting on more direction from the governor’s office, and we’ve been in communication with them for the last two weeks. The communication continues to be respectful and professional, but currently, based on the executive order language, our school gyms and pools cannot be opened yet for practice or competitions. We understand that that is going to be addressed within the week by the governor’s office and once that gets addressed, we’ll be able to compete in those sports.

“We decided that instead of shutting everything down and waiting for further executive orders, let’s continue to practice for the sake of the mental health of everybody involved. We wanted to have those kids continue to get together and get work in. I just think for all of those social and emotional issues, it’s best to have our kids with their school coach and that’s what we’re doing.”

Uyl voiced some frustration during the interview with his organization’s reputation being smeared during a tumultuous time.

“What our board grew a little tired of today is us kind of being the windshield for all of the blame and the criticism,” he said. “Our patience was running thin due to the fact that we continued to be the windshield and take all the criticism for something that appeared to be our delay or our indecisiveness. The fact of the matter is that we’ve had a pretty clear plan all along and as we move forward with that plan, you’ve got to be able to work with others to make sure that we’re doing the best here for everybody.

“We have complied with every executive order, and I think we’re about the only level of high school-aged sports and below that has been following most of the rules. We followed every executive order and we’re going to continue to comply with all future orders because we’re going to do the right thing here but, during a pandemic, you just can’t make decisions in a vacuum and say well this is what we’re going to do.

“There has to be coordination here, so I think what folks who actually take the time and read the release today will understand is that in the areas that we can control, we are ready to move forward. And hopefully, some government action here will follow soon that will allow all of our kids across the state to compete in soccer swimming in volleyball in addition to cross country golf and tennis, which have been green-lighted to go.”

One sticking point the press release caused with most observers was the ability for volleyball, soccer and swimming teams in Phase 4 regions (1-5, 7) to travel to and compete in Regions 6 and 8. According to Uyl, that ruling was meant to allow nearby schools to travel a short distance to compete and not allow a mass exodus Up North.

“The number of schools that can be at an invite or a tournament is still limited under the current guidelines,” he said. “I think a more reasonable example would be a school just outside Traverse City traveling to that area for a 3-4 team weekend tournament or a dual soccer match.

“I think the challenge is to find schools that are willing right now to rent indoor facilities when we’re trying to get back to activity as safely as we can. Obviously, if schools from outside Regions 6 and 8 want to schedule matches and events in those areas, that’s outside of our control. We have one set of rules in one part of the state and another set of rules in another, so we’re just trying to create opportunities for the kids to compete. We’ve talked about that return to activity and that return to normalcy, and we’re simply doing that, making sure that we comply with all current laws.”

The MHSAA press release also stated that starting Monday, Aug. 24, all football teams are allowed 16 voluntary coach-player contact days with helmets only until Oct. 31. No competition or practice with students from other schools is allowed.

All other spring sports are allowed 16 voluntary, offseason coach-player contact days consisting of more than four players and that period runs from Sept. 8 through Oct. 31. As with football, no competition or practice with students from other schools is allowed. The four-player rule will also continue for all winter sports.

“Starting on Monday through the end of October, you now get 16 contact days where coaches can be working with kids,” said Uyl. “There’s no contact, obviously no shoulder pads, but what they’re able to now do is continue to get their kids together and continue just to make sure that our kids have access to our school coaches and not just some of the other non-school affiliated programs that are getting ready to pounce.

“Our board thought that this was certainly the right move to make. Our spring sports athletes didn’t get a chance to practice much or certainly compete at all last spring, so they’re going to get 16 contact days in September and October. Coaches can have some practices and you can actually get out on the baseball field with your school kids and be able to work on things. We thought that by the end of the 16 days when you really spread those over two months, it’s going to allow your multi-sport athletes to prepare for the challenges of the upcoming winter and spring seasons.

“So, if you’re a football player in the fall and you also play baseball in the spring, you’ll get a chance to work with two coaches during this time period and get ready for both seasons simultaneously. The issues of competition in soccer, swimming, and volleyball are getting most of the attention today but what I also think is critical is what our council did for our football kids and coaches, as well as our spring sports kids in giving them kind of a framework where they can get some work done this fall.”

Youth sports were also addressed in the release, as junior high and middle school regulations will allow fall sports practices to begin Monday, Aug. 24, at school facilities if the school permits with all stated safety protocols being followed. Schools may proceed in all middle school sports except for football this fall based on decisions of leagues and/or individual schools.

“There should be more some information about football activities, in general, coming in the next few weeks,” said Uyl. “Whether it deals with youth or whether it deals with middle-school-aged kids and then if it even deals with some of the non-school football, we’ll see how next week goes with that information that we get from our state government leaders on middle school regulations.”

The MHSAA press release also addressed concerns about high school football players transferring out of state for fall football and attempting to play spring football in Michigan. The release stated that a student-athlete is only permitted one season of football within a school year and would be ineligible for spring football in Michigan if they participated in fall football in another state.

“That’s not a new rule,” said Uyl. “That has been our rule for a long time. You only get one football season per school year, so kids can’t suddenly decide to live out of state for a few months and play football somewhere else and then try and come back here to play in the spring. That also applies to kids from other states, who might try and move here in the spring and play a second football season.

“We believed that was just a question that needed to be answered before folks inquired about it. It’s not new, but something we felt was an important clarification for everybody.”

The same rule applies to any student-athletes who might attempt to move to Regions 6 or 8 to play fall sports this academic year and then move back to Regions 1-5 or 7 in the spring.

“That would be really tough to pull off given the current transfer rules in place,” said Uyl. “In order for that to work, the entire family unit would have to move out and their former residency and would need to be disposed of or sold or rented to other persons and not family members. It has to be a full and complete family move and then you won’t have any ability to come back and be eligible later on so some real challenges there.”

The MHSAA and the Michigan High School Football Coaches Association will meet in the coming weeks to discuss plans to put together a successful spring football season in 2021.

“Our next step is we’re going to put together a small group of our staff and the leadership of our Michigan High School Football Coaches Association,” said Uyl. “We have a great relationship overall with that group and their leadership will be at the table as these discussions take place. Our plan is to get a small group together and come up with plans for the spring season within the next two weeks.

“We want to have two separate plans in place so we have different ways of attacking the problem. Our next step after that would be to take that plan out to our schools and get their feedback, so you figure two weeks for our small group to start on that and then another week of feedback from schools and, hopefully, we’d be ready with a plan in place by the middle or end of September at the very latest because I think it’s important for people to know the plan.

“We’re trying to thread that needle of trying to find the right window where football can give kids that great experience that it needs to with the number of games and also be able to have some kind of a culminating postseason event. We also want to do that without really impacting winter and spring sports. On paper, there certainly is going to be some impact, but I do think there’s a way we can do this and be able to keep all three of those seasons as happy as we can just based on our weather and the geography that we have to play.”

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