So far so good for the three fall sports that got the OK to start last week across Michigan.
The Michigan High School Athletic Association is now determined to make sure those athletes finish what they started.
While the football season has been postponed and men’s soccer, volleyball and girls swimming and diving remain dormant for now, student-athletes participating in cross country, women’s golf and men’s tennis have been given the green light. to start on August 19th.
However, these sports have restrictions, which would seem to make postseason in any of them difficult to host.
Currently, no more than 70 runners are allowed to compete in a cross country event and golf tournaments must not exceed 72 players for an 18 hole tournament. Tennis tournaments are limited to a maximum of four teams per event.
So what’s the plan for regional and state tournaments, which attract athletes across the state? Geoff Kimmerly, MHSAA content and media developer, said to stay tuned.
“I can’t tell you what it’s going to look like right now, but I can tell you we’re talking about it right now,” Kimmerly told MLive.com. “Of course, everyone wonders. But we absolutely intend to go ahead with regional and state tournaments. “
“It was really important that the regular season was up and running. With golf, tennis and cross-country skiing, we can look at what our postseason will be like. We will do everything possible to limit the large groups that come together. It is certainly one of the conversations right now. “
The men’s and women’s cross country finals are scheduled for November 7 at Michigan State University. Tennis championships are scheduled for October 16-17 at locations to be defined, while golfers are scheduled for October 16-17, with Division 1 and 4 scheduled for Michigan State University, Division 2 at Grand Valley State University and Division 3 in Battle Creek.
“For cross country, we may have to really distance some of the divisions so those big groups aren’t together,” Kimmerly said. “We will look at some things for golf and we will look at things for tennis. We had the most questions about tennis and how we can have our normal MHSAA finals if you can only have up to four teams during the regular season. We will get creative, but we are definitely working on it.
“Once we get full OK for the other three sports, we will start to understand those things too. There is certainly some discussion on what we can do to make tournaments work to guarantee tournaments for the top three sports. “
The return of fall sports marks the MHSAA’s first action since mid-March, when schools were closed, forcing the cancellation of state tournaments in four winter sports. The entire spring sports season has also been canceled.
Football is the only autumn sport that has been postponed. The start of men’s soccer, volleyball and swimming has been delayed for now as the MHSAA awaits approval from the governor’s office to open gyms and swimming pools.
“Even though football may not be one of the sports that can be practiced right now, people keep in mind that there are many other athletes, thousands of other athletes who have a chance to play and have a chance to have some normality, ”Kimmerly said. “It’s exciting. It’s a good step. We would all like to take giant steps and get completely back to normal, but this is a good step and the feedback has been very positive.”
