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These kids haven't played since 2019
Letter from the Editor Dear Reader, It was March 13, 2020, nearly a year ago, when my daughter and her high school tennis teammates were last together.
Gov. Whitmer had announced the night before that schools would close for a couple of weeks in the wake of the first announced cases of COVID in Michigan.
At the end of practice that day, the tennis players gathered in a circle and laughed as they bumped elbows – which at the time seemed silly and new.
That was the last bit of “normal” for my daughter and the rest of high schoolers in Michigan. The spring 2020 sports season was a wipeout.
But in the same way we talk about spring flowers, the seasonal change is bringing renewed hope.
Scott DeCamp, MLive sportswriter in Muskegon, said the learnings from a stop-and-start fall sports season helped pave the way for a smoother winter season, which is underway after a bit of a controversial delayed start of its own.
“I think people around here are feeling confident about spring sports,” DeCamp said on this week’s Behind the Headlines podcast, where he was joined by Jared Purcell, MLive sportswriter for the Detroit area.
They talked about the wrenching interruptions to the fall sports season, especially football; what it took to get the winter season launched; and that most elusive of conditions: “normal.”
Along the way, “winning” also has taken on new meanings: That sports and other extracurriculars have more value than a trophy or community pride. That we can learn from our setbacks and better appreciate the opportunities we have.
“This is really reminding everybody the positive impact that sports can have on kids – it's a huge reality check for us,” Purcell said.
“And hopefully moving forward, we'll all be better from having gone through this. We'll have more respect for coaches and teachers and officials, everything they have to deal with, and especially more respect for the kids.”
We’re not out of the woods yet, as illustrated by recent halts in sports and quarantines at some schools in Michigan.
“You hope that everyone is still remembering what we're in the middle of, and not to get too lax,” DeCamp said. “You may be seeing the season end abruptly.”
But there are hopeful signs everywhere: the increase in vaccinations; a steady drop in COVID transmission rates; and that spring sports are played outdoors and entail less physical contact.
Purcell wrote last week that the Michigan High School Athletic Association is pushing the start of the spring season back a week, to March 22, to allow for a smoother transition from winter sports. However, it is not extending the planned end dates of sports seasons.
In a normal year, there would be “outrage” over a delay like this, Purcell said. But had this been the situation facing my daughter and her teammates a year ago, it would have seemed like a blessing. As spring 2020 slipped away, she told me she’d have given anything for one more practice, one more match, one more season of any kind with her teammates.
“I think everyone's willing to live with that (delay), just to get a chance to compete,” Purcell said. “These spring sports kids have not competed since 2019, which is crazy to think about.”
One optimistic moment in the podcast came when DeCamp joked that the biggest obstacle to spring sports this year might be what it always has been: Michigan weather. That’s the kind of normal we all could live with.
🎧 To hear this week's episode of John Hiner's Behind the Headlines podcast, click here. To hear all the stories behind the stories, click here and subscribe to our Behind the Headlines podcast.
Editor's note: I value your feedback to my columns, story tips and your suggestions on how to improve our coverage. Let me know how MLive helps you, and how we can do better. Please feel free to reach out by emailing me at editor@mlive.com.
John Hiner Executive Editor Vice President of Content Mlive Media Group
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