This past week, Governor Gretchen Whitmer made the announcement that winter sports are officially back. This is huge news for high school athletes as their struggle to try and get a season is finally over, and they can begin to prepare for their first contests. 

Kyle Carhart, a history teacher at FHC, is the coach of the varsity basketball team here at Forest Hills Central. His message to the entire Rangerball program throughout the continuous pushback of the season was “Win The Wait!” It was meant to keep all players working hard and being smart throughout the pushback, and now that we have finally got the season we have all so desperately needed, we can all say that we have “Won the Wait.”

Looking forward into the winter season and some of the guidelines put into place by the governor and MHSAA, teams that are able to compete with a face covering must do so. If a school is able to have some kind of rapid testing system to test all athletes regularly, those schools will be able to compete with no mask or face covering.

The actual guideline set in by the MHSAA for boys and girls basketball is “All participants must wear face coverings at all times – during all practices and non-game activities, and during games. A testing requirement may allow participants to remove masks while in active participation on the floor if they test negative that game day; more details will be provided to schools when confirmed.” This goes for hockey as well.

However, cheer, wrestling, and swim will look a little bit different. For those three sports, masks will not be required while in competition, but anytime an athlete is not in physical competition a mask must be worn. 

Some of this news is the most important thing this year’s seniors have heard yet; that they will have one more time to go out and compete with their respective teams, even through everything that is going on. The next few weeks will be tough for a lot of teams that may have lost some time to prepare due to COVID. A lot of teams are a few players short due to being quarantined as a result of COVID-19. As weeks go on, I’m sure we will continue to see this happening and, depending on the impact it is having on athletes and coaches, other guidelines may have to be put in place.

Next week, hopefully, there will be more good news on how the season is going and that COVID isn’t affecting too many teams as the season continues.