For many students, summer is a time to take a break and relax, but for student athletes it is a time for preparation and training-- even in the era of COVID-19.
As student athletes get ready for the fall season, practices won’t look the same as in previous years. Even with sports, social distancing rules still apply.
John Johnson is with the Michigan High School Athletic Association. The organization has been releasing and updating guidelines as state restrictions change, most recently it has allowed schools in district 6 and 8 to hold indoor practices of 50 or less, but even they still have other rules to follow.
“As long as social distancing is still a part of all of this, then things that would occur during the natural course of a practice can’t take place yet, you still can’t have contact, so you have to work more on individual drills,” says Johnson.
He says passing the ball around is still allowed, but teams that plan to do so need to be sanitizing the ball or any other equipment that is shared between players regularly. He says things like lacross sticks or pads shouldn't be shared, it's more things like balls and workout equipment.
Other guidelines include temperature checks for all involved students and coaches at the beginning of practice, not using locker rooms in order to avoid confined spaces, and asking athletes to bring their own water bottles.
Johnson said a lot is still undecided and in some ways out of the control of the MHSAA, he says some equipment standards, like the proposal of adding clear visors to football helmets are up to national organizations. Also there's the question of when competitions can begin again, he says that's another thing out of their control.
“Well the first thing we have to remember is that schools and the associations don’t hold all the cards here, we’ll follow the path that’s set for us by the state government, that’ll dictate what schools are able to do," said Johnson.
He says at this point they can only speculate what the fall season will look like.