Due to the worldwide pandemic of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), Michigan High School Athletic Association (MHSAA) canceled the remaining games and matches of the winter sports tournaments and the spring sports season.
The original intention was for sports to resume on April 13 when the school year was postponed back in March. But the decision to cancel came when Governor Gretchen Whitmer announced all schools were to remain closed for the rest of the school year on April 2.
“We understand as much as anyone how much school sports mean to athletes and their communities,” MHSAA Executive Director Mark Uyl said in a press release on April 3. “We had ideas and hopes for finishing winter and spring and helping bring some sort of normalcy after this long break. But [canceling these events] is the correct decision.”
The cancellation of the season was not the news athletes were hoping for after months of anticipation leading up to the spring.
“I am very disappointed. I was looking forward to my first high school soccer season,” freshman JV soccer player Tori Witke said. “It’s kind of an ‘Oh well what can you do?’ situation.”
While this isn’t the outcome she wished for, Witke chose to spin it in a positive way and to look forward to her sophomore season.
“I’m looking forward to just playing in general, I love soccer,” Witke said. “I was thinking that I should take this extra time to get in better shape and work on my skills.”
Sophomore varsity soccer player Cara Eastman was ready to get into her first varsity season before MHSAA issued their original statement of the season being postponed.
“I was excited to better my skills as well as make tons of new friends on the team,” Eastman said.
Although Eastman wishes she could be on the field rather than stuck in her house, she believes MHSAA made the right decision.
“Even though I’m sad that I’m not going to play, it’s in everyone’s best interests that the season doesn’t happen just in case someone is sick,” Eastman said.
While this season for seniors was already expected to be bittersweet, canceling it came with more bitter than sweet.
“It’s gut-wrenching to have something that we have been working for and building up to all of high school, [just to have it] get taken away from you,” senior varsity baseball player Austin Vander Weg said.
Every year, the varsity baseball and softball teams take a trip to Florida over spring break, but due to the outbreak of the virus, this year’s trip also got canceled.
“It sucks, but I also realize that I would rather stay home than spread the virus to someone else’s loved one,” Vander Weg said.
Even though the news is a hard pill to swallow, Vander Weg found a new way to look at the current state in which the community is in.
“I’ve come to terms that we just have to take it day by day,” Vander Weg said. “This virus is out of our hands and I realize it sucks, but it sucks for everyone. I appreciate the efforts of everyone to be more proactive rather than reactive.”
While these athletes have come to terms with the cancellation of the season, senior baseball player Dima Machovec from Huron Valley Lutheran High School in Westland, Michigan took the matter into his own hands by starting a petition on Change.org. The goal of the petition is to have spring sports compete in the summer, if the outbreak of COVID-19 is more under control. As of April 15, the petition has well over 34,000 signatures.
“I feel that all student-athletes in Michigan really want an opportunity to play their spring sport,” Machovec said. “Especially seniors who have gotten everything they’ve dreamed of taken away from them by something they can’t control.”
Machovec believes that it’s important for student-athletes as well as their parents to sign the petition.
“[The petition] will show the MHSAA how much this [season] really means to the student-athletes and how many people want an opportunity to take the field,” Machovec said. “The MHSAA says they’ve considered every option, but I do not believe they really have.”
Many students at Northview have signed and shared the petition to other student-athletes to help Machovec reach the current goal of 35,000 signatures.
Sophomore varsity baseball player Isiah Stoy is among the students who have signed it.
“[I signed it] because I love baseball and playing with the seniors would be fun. [The seniors] would teach me more about the game,” Stoy said.
Machovec, Stoy, Witke and other student-athletes alike hope that MHSAA will take a different course of action with the amount of support from communities around the state.
“As long as the cases [of COVID-19] go down and public gatherings are not so much of a health concern, I think we should be able to play,” Witke said.
You know COVID-19 is here and it is just sad. But that does not mean we can be sad forever. Let step it up and Be positive.