Q&A: Rapid virus tests, the fate of sports amid the pandemic and other issues facing high school sports in Michigan

Michigan High School Athletic Association executive director Mark Uyl knows the questions are out there.

With the state still in the throes of a pandemic, why are fall athletes being required to take rapid tests for the coronavirus in order to finish their seasons but winter and spring athletes are not?

Why so many starts and stops to the seasons?

Is there a plan?

Uyl hears the frustration from parents, players, coaches and athletic directors, but he said the MHSAA is balancing demands from state officials while trying to give student-athletes an opportunity to play.

In an interview with MLive Wednesday night, Uyl addressed several hot-button topics.

Why no rapid virus tests for winter and spring athletes?

The MHSAA’s plans for winter sports beginning practice and competition, as well as an outline of dates for the various state tournaments, don’t require the same coronavirus tests that fall athletes are being required to take for the planned restart.

Uyl sad the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services made that a requirement for fall sports but not the rest.

Will winter sports start next month?

“Right now, by the current emergency order, the absolute first day that winter sports can start practice is the 16th (of January). It doesn’t mean they will,” said Uyl, who noted that Michigan’s COVID-19 numbers continued to trend in an “encouraging direction.”

“And then the governor has even said earlier this week that, yeah, the order goes until the 16th, but there’s a possibility that things could open up earlier. We’re planning on the 16th. If things would open earlier, we would want to return to activity as soon as we were allowed to by the orders.”

Uyl’s ultimate mission, which he said has gone unchanged since June, is seeing all three sports seasons lead to a conclusion. He acknowledged “some really tough days” the last six months, but he said the MHSAA’s mantra has remained the same and it’s kept his staff going every day: Seeing state champions crowned in all three sports seasons.

Uyl said spring sports will be the first season protected because those athletes, coaches and programs lost everything last spring.

“I have been incredibly confident that we’ll be able to do spring and do it well because of our experience this fall,” Uyl said. “All of our spring sports are outdoors, all of our spring sports are the smallest in terms of crowds and gatherings of any of the three seasons, so we have high confidence that spring is going to be able to be done and be done well.

“The only challenge is that if anything gets delayed and pushed back further, then that could create some new dynamics of, ‘How do we thread the needle to make sure that winter and spring both get a quality experience, but yet with probably a little extra consideration for spring, which got nothing last year?’”

Another goal for the MHSAA is seeing that each season’s sports conclude in as “normal” of a way as possible. In other words, that means completing the football playoffs at Ford Field and the basketball finals at the Breslin Center. Uyl said conversations are ongoing to make those things happen.

Does the MHSAA know how frustrated people are?

Ebbs and flows of the MHSAA sports seasons have resulted in a range of emotions for athletes, coaches, administrators, parents and general fans, particularly those of confusion, frustration, anger and angst.

It’s led to these questions: Does anybody outside of the MHSAA, the MDHHS or governor’s office have a voice in this? And has the MHSAA asked what athletes, coaches, athletic administrators and school districts want?

Uyl said it’s been difficult to utilize feedback with things constantly in flux amid the pandemic.

“Folks will perceive a survey saying, ‘Well, they must have some inside information,’” Uyl said. “We have had little to no inside information. We learn things the same time that most other people have, and so of course when you survey, yeah, you’re getting preferences but of course none of these plans can be firm because the nature of COVD that everything is just so uncertain. It’s been hard to do any formal surveying.

“I can tell you that we get calls, emails and feedback from our schools every day. Our staff members do try and connect with representatives and leadership from (the respective) coaches associations. … Certainly, everybody wants a season that looks as normal as it normally would and that’s what makes decisions tough is because you’re having to make decisions for kids over the three seasons to where that might be a different priority than for somebody who is just looking at the world worrying about only basketball or only worrying about ice hockey or only worrying about baseball in the spring.”

Uyl said he communicates via Zoom with the other state associations on a weekly basis, but it should be noted that governor’s orders and rules are different depending upon the state and climate plays a big factor as well in what type of flexibility an organization such as the MHSAA has.

“Another lesson of COVID is nobody wants to be the first at anything,” Uyl said, referencing comparisons with other state associations and how they’re doing things. “When stores and restaurants re-opened this summer, nobody wanted to be first – let somebody else kind of learn some of the challenges with re-engaging. Well, sports have been no different.”

Will winter sports work?

On the topic of winter sports, Uyl addressed two areas: How to pull off a sport like wrestling, which has such close physical contact, and creating two state semifinal sites for both boys and girls basketball.

For wrestling, Uyl said the MHSAA has tried to learn from other states that have started in the sport. In terms of face-covering requirements, he said that is yet to be determined by the MDHHS – it’s not the call of the MHSAA.

One proactive change the MHSAA has made is limiting regular-season wrestling events to a maximum of four teams, similar to volleyball, to aid contact-tracing efforts. He said that wrestling is perhaps the easiest sport to contact-trace, however – much different from a sport such as football.

“(A player getting tackled in football) could be in a pile making physical contact with eight or nine random, different opponents on every single play. In wrestling, a wrestler knows exactly who are the three other individuals that I was in close contact with during a meet. So the random contact that occurs in some other sports, that is not the issue with wrestling,” Uyl said.

“I think in wrestling, (concerns are) just because of the close contact. And I think the other thing, there’s not a lot of research out there, is can the virus live on a wrestling mat? Everything we’re learning now is that it’s a respiratory virus, it really doesn’t live on surfaces, but again with it being so new there just isn’t a lot of research out there. Those are just some of the little logistical issues that our wrestling community continues to work through.”

Will basketball get a championship tournament this year?

The MHSAA established an outline for boys and girls basketball state tournament dates. Both tourneys will be held concurrently, or in the same weeks, as opposed to the staggered nature of seasons past.

One big change for basketball in 2021 would be two different semifinal sites for both boys and girls state tournaments.

Uyl said the MHSAA aims to condense those respective tournaments given the current delay that likely will last until mid-January with the goal to afford teams as much regular season as possible.

“And then the other thing is, I don’t think anybody can assume that come March, that we’re going to have 15,000 people at the Breslin. I just don’t see that happening. Because of that, what we can now do is you can move your semifinals into smaller venues,” Uyl said. “We’re streaming and broadcasting everything this year, and if we’re at a point where it’s no spectators, your semifinals could go to virtually any gym in the state of Michigan.”

Uyl added that even if by that point the MHSAA is back to allowing two spectators per participant, the plan frees up possibilities.

“We just think it would be a fitting end to a long, unique season if our championship games can still finish on the Breslin floor. And even if that means with no spectators or a few spectators,” he said. “It’s really no different than what we’re looking at for football here in the next few weeks if that finishes at Ford Field with no spectators.

“In a year that is unlike any other, it still means something to finish in your normal place, which (some) fall kids got to have. For example, cross country still finished at MIS. It looked a lot different this year, but I think some of those benchmarks are just important, too.”

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