Genesee News

COVID-19 will determine what high school sports in Michigan will look like this fall, said Mark Uyl, executive director of the Michigan High School Athletic Association.

A range of scenarios -- even playing football in the spring instead of fall -- are possible depending on what happens with the virus.

“We’d love to be able to start on time, the week of Aug. 10, with all sports,” Uyl told "The Frank Beckmann Show." “If we can’t do that, maybe only our low-risk sports can start: golf, tennis, cross country."

Possibly, other sports could start later in the fall such as girls' swimming, volleyball and football, he added.

“There might even be a scenario to where some or maybe even all of our fall sports can’t start on time, given negative trends of the numbers here over the next few weeks,” Uyl said on the radio program.

Sports not played this fall could potentially be played in the spring.

“Starting next March, we would really try and go from March until June to try and give all those unplayed fall sports and our traditional spring sports a season,” he said. “Because we’re committed to giving our kids three seasons if at all possible.”

The association will try to be “as safely aggressive as we can,” Uyl said. The group regularly consults health officials and the governor’s office.

Unless schools reopen for in-person classes, though, there will be no athletics.

“We’re just asking that everybody continues to do their part,” Uyl told the radio program. “Where we get into a sweet spot is if we could get ourselves as a state into Phase 5. Certainly still have to do some precautions, but we really have a lot more latitude in Phase 5. Our hope is here over the next two and a half to three weeks, our state can get to Phase 5 from coast to coast, border to border, and that would give us a shot at getting kids back in school and back to school sports.”