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Click for Hot Weather and Hydration Resources
July 24, 2012
The extreme temperatures this Summer in advance of the start of another season of high school sports give cause for concern about physical activity in such conditions, and the Michigan High School Athletic Association continues its role in providing its member schools educational information to assist them in minimizing the possibility of heat-related catastrophic injuries to student-athletes.
The topic of heat-related injuries receives a lot of attention at this time of year, especially when deaths at the professional, collegiate and interscholastic levels of sport occur, and especially since they are preventable in most cases with the proper precautions. In football, data from the National Federation of State High School Associations shows that 35 high school players have died from heat stroke between 1995 and 2010.
Each year, the MHSAA provides information to its member schools to help them prepare for hot weather practice and game conditions in the late Summer and early Fall. Football practice can begin at MHSAA member schools on August 6, followed by all other Fall sports on August 8.
Even before the days of the Internet, the MHSAA was providing resources each Spring to assist schools in their preparation for hot preseason practices. That same information is now available online for all interested parties to utilize, including a link to a free online course, A Guide to Heat Acclimatization and Heat Illness Prevention, produced by the National Federation of State High School Associations. The Health & Safety Resources page of the MHSAA Website has a set of Frequently Asked Questions about dehydration and a page dedicated to hydration and heat illness where preventative steps are outlined, as well as the signs and symptoms of heat illness and action steps to take when it is observed.
Visit MHSAA.com, click on Schools, and then on Health & Safety Resources to find the information.
“Heat stroke is almost always preventable,” said John E. “Jack” Roberts, executive director of the MHSAA. “We know now more than we ever have about when the risk is high and who is most at risk, and we’re fortunate to be able to communicate that information better than ever before to administrators, coaches, athletes and parents. We encourage everyone to avail themselves of the information on our website and through other sources, and to take the online course through the National Federation.”
Roberts added that the first days of formal practices in hot weather should be more for heat acclimatization than the conditioning of athletes, and that practices in such conditions need planning to become longer and more strenuous over a gradual progression of time.
“Then, schools need to be vigilant about providing water during practices, making sure that youngsters are partaking of water and educating their teams about the need for good hydration practices away from the practice and competition fields,” Roberts said.
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MHSAA Provides Reopening Guidelines
May 29, 2020
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
The Michigan High School Athletic Association today submitted to its member schools a series of updated timelines and recommendations to guide the return of sports, which have been suspended since mid-March to alleviate the potential spread of COVID-19.
The state’s current “Safer-at-Home” order runs through Friday, June 12. There can be no use of any school facilities (indoor and outdoor) and there can be no organized on-site athletic activity, including conditioning or competition, until the current stay-at-home order expires or is lifted by Governor Gretchen Whitmer. When the “Safer-at-Home” order expires or is lifted, the return-to-activity recommendations may be implemented locally by school district leadership, provided the district declares its facilities open to students and staff and the 2019-20 school year has ended for that district (based on its last originally-scheduled school day).
The “MHSAA/NFHS Guidance for Re-Opening School Sports” is based primarily on direction provided by the MHSAA and National Federation of State High School Associations’ (NFHS) Sports Medicine Advisory Committees, in addition to reopening plans provided by the Michigan and federal governments and recommendations from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Concepts from the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee also were consulted.
The MHSAA/NFHS plan recommends a three-step process to returning to full athletic participation, and for each step outlines actions to be taken in five major areas: pre-workout/contest screening of athletes and coaches for sickness, limitations of the number of participants who may be involved in a gathering, proper cleaning for facilities, the use of equipment during activity and best practices for keeping participants safely hydrated. The plan also places sports into categories based on risk for transmitting the virus (low/moderate/high), with adjusted return-to-activity steps based on that level of risk.
The MHSAA serves more than 1,500 public and private schools, including 750 high schools.
“The MHSAA and its Representative Council believe restarting school sports is essential to the physical and mental well-being of students, and the guidelines outlined for schools today provide the ‘How’ for schools to return to athletics when they’ve received the go-ahead from state and county health officials,” MHSAA Executive Director Mark Uyl said. “We are thankful for our state government, state education and health departments, our medical partners and the NFHS for their guidance these last few months, and we will continue to follow and pass on their recommendations as we prepare our schools to bring back this part of student life that’s been sorely missed.”
At the present time, the only activity allowed continues to be individual, outdoor recreational activity including walking, hiking, running, etc. (as announced in Executive Order 2020-96). If this type of conditioning activity takes place with more than one person present, it must be in groups of fewer than 10 people with social distancing followed, and the activity cannot involve school coaches, be school sponsored or occur at any school facility (indoor or outdoor) until at least June 13.
Voluntary virtual (not in-person) communication and instruction from coaches to any number of students is permitted under MHSAA rules in all sports during the summer.
“The concept is that students can continue to individually condition themselves (by walking, hiking, running), but there should be no organized, group activity by any person until at least June 13. We must all continue do our part to flatten the curve in hopes of increased activity over the coming weeks,” Uyl said. “Again, it is important to note that this document addresses ‘How’ schools can return to activity; the decision on ‘When’ schools can return to activity will be done under the direction of state government and health department officials. As government actions impact this timeline, the MHSAA will continue to update all involved.”
The return-to-activity guidelines are aimed to provide direction for schools as they continue to limit potential exposure to respiratory droplets, the primary avenue for transferring COVID-19. Specifically, the MHSAA/NFHS plan addresses social distancing, use of cloth and other face coverings, event scheduling and transportation, and the possibility that schools may have to break from or completely discontinue activity including competition during the fall or winter because of recurrent outbreaks of the coronavirus.
School district administrators will determine at which step in the MHSAA/NFHS plan their schools are operating based on the number of people allowed to gather by state medical officials.
The document in full is available from the MHSAA Website. Further guidance will be provided over the weeks ahead as new information is available and the prevalence of COVID-19 changes. Updates to the MHSAA/NFHS guidelines will continue to be in accordance with those published by the Governor’s office.
The MHSAA has remained in regular contact with the Governor’s office, Michigan Department of Health & Human Services and Michigan Department of Education throughout the pandemic, in addition to leadership from the state’s superintendents, school principals, athletic administrators and school boards associations.
The MHSAA is a private, not-for-profit corporation of voluntary membership by more than 1,500 public and private senior high schools and junior high/middle schools which exists to develop common rules for athletic eligibility and competition. No government funds or tax dollars support the MHSAA, which was the first such association nationally to not accept membership dues or tournament entry fees from schools. Member schools which enforce these rules are permitted to participate in MHSAA tournaments, which attract more than 1.4 million spectators each year.