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Fall sports are ‘a go’ in Michigan

Some clarity for high school sports in Michigan this fall was shared a week ago by officials with the Michigan High School Athletic Association when they approved starting the fall sports season on schedule.

Their announcement ended speculation on what the fall sports season might look like in Michigan given the uncertainty of schools even starting with Covid-19 concerns. A few weeks ago Gov. Gretchen Whitmer had suggested perhaps flip-flogging the spring and fall sports seasons since generally speaking, more spring sports were geared toward individual competitions rather than team sports.

While the idea was contemplated, in the end officials agreed to stay with the status-quo of the way things always have been.

And, we understand that thinking. There is a comfort associated with familiarity. So long as the safety of the players can be maintained by strict new policies, procedures and tests, then the plan would be the right one.

As with anything these days, however, officials also allowed themselves “wiggle” room should COVID cases increase or the safety procedures don’t work as intended. Should fall sports need suspended, then the season could resume elsewhere in the school year.

While on paper that looks nice, the reality of it would be problematic especially at smaller schools, where many students do multiple sports in all the different seasons. If fall sports were rescheduled, then potentially a student could be forced to choose between sports at another time of the year.

We will remain optimistic the fall sports season will begin on schedule and the lights of fields everywhere will be lit again come August, September and October.

— The Alpena News

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