MHSAA Director Says ‘Hundreds’ of Kids Playing Out of State Sports

The Michigan High School Athletic Association (MHSAA) released a statement this week reaffirming its commitment to play winter sports once the current restrictions are lifted by the state’s department of health.

At the moment, all winter contact sports are on pause — both competition and practices — until after February 21.

mhsaa
Photo: Wesley Sykes / Great American Media Services

In addition to reaffirming the organization’s commitment to resuming winter sports, executive director Mark Uyl pointed to the number of student-athletes opting to play out-of-state in travel leagues.

“Each week, we see hundreds of examples of children and families competing in non-school competition, both in-state and out-of-state,” Uyl said in the statement. “This not only is in violation of current MDHHS orders but sending all of these families into different states will only become an impediment to getting students back in school full-time.

“But we can contribute to students returning to in-person learning by allowing MHSAA member schools to begin full activities, participating locally and against more local competition, and under the guidance of trained, professional educators.”

The MHSAA defined contact winter sports as boys and girls basketball, competitive cheerleading, ice hockey, and wrestling. Non-contact winter sports, like boys and girls bowling, girls gymnastics, boys and girls alpine skiing, and boys and girls swimming, are fully able to participate and compete.

The release continued by noting of the 5,376 individuals (student-athletes, coaches, team personnel, cheerleaders, etc.) that were tested, one percent tested positive while 99.8 percent of nearly 30,000 rapid antigen tests administered were negative.

As of January 25, 38 other states had begun winter contact sports, including states that border Michigan, like Indiana, Ohio, and Wisconsin.

To read the full press release from the MHSAA on when winter sports can resume, click here.