Winter Contact Sports to Resume in Full
February 4, 2021
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
Per an announcement today by the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS), Michigan High School Athletic Association member schools may begin full practice activities in the Winter contact sports of girls and boys basketball, competitive cheer, ice hockey and wrestling on Monday, Feb. 8, with some precautions to continue limiting the spread of COVID-19.
Competition in those four sports also will begin next week, with basketball and hockey able to play Feb. 8 and cheer and wrestling able to compete starting Feb. 12.
Those four Winter contact sports have been able to practice since Jan. 16, but only with non-contact activities. MHSAA Tournament dates for all four sports previously were rescheduled into late March and early April to accommodate a later start to the regular season, and those dates appear below. All four Winter contact sports also must participate with some level of masking and/or rapid testing, also detailed sport-by-sport below.
All testing will be coordinated between schools and MDHHS or their local health departments. Following are specific precautions and key dates for those contact sports at the high school level. Participants are defined as athletes, coaches and other team personnel active in practice and competition. For the sports detailed below, regular-season contests may be played up until the date of the MHSAA Finals in that sport.
Girls Basketball
Masking/testing: 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.
Competition limit: Teams may play up to three games per week, Monday through Sunday.
First contest: Feb. 8
Districts: March 22, 24, 26
Regionals: March 29, 31
Quarterfinals: April 5
Semifinals: April 7
Finals: April 9
Boys Basketball
Masking/testing: 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.
Competition limit: Teams may play up to three games per week, Monday through Sunday.
First contest: Feb. 8
Districts: March 23, 25, 27
Regionals: March 30, April 1
Quarterfinals: April 6
Semifinals: April 8
Finals: April 10
Competitive Cheer
Masking/testing: Teams may compete without testing or face coverings, but must wear masks at all times outside of active competition or stunting/tumbling practice.
Competition limit: Teams may participate in 12 days of competition, not counting MHSAA Tournament events.
First contest: Feb. 12
Districts: March 17-20
Regionals: March 23-24
Finals: March 26-27
Ice Hockey
Masking/testing: 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 ice if they test negative that game day; more details will be provided to schools when confirmed.
Competition limit: Teams may play up to three games per week, Monday through Sunday. Teams also may play two games on one non-school day twice; during those two weeks, teams are allowed up to four games Monday through Sunday.
First contest: Feb. 8
Regionals: March 15-20
Quarterfinals: March 23-24
Semifinals: March 25-26
Finals: March 27
Wrestling
Masking/testing: Testing is required for wrestling, but competitors will not be required to wear face coverings.
Competition limit: Teams may compete two days per week, Monday through Sunday, with no more than four teams at a site (with each individual competing in up to three matches per day.)
First contest: Feb. 12
Team Districts: March 17-18
Individual Districts: March 20
Team Regionals: March 24
Individual Regionals: March 27
Team Finals: March 30
Individual Finals: April 2-3
The same masking and testing requirements will be in place for all junior high/middle school teams wishing to participate in the four Winter contact sports.
MHSAA Tournament Attendance Rebounds to Top 1.3 Million Spectators in 2021-22
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
September 19, 2022
After two school years requiring limited tournament attendance due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2021-22 school year saw a total of 1,327,633 fans attend Michigan High School Athletic Association postseason competitions for which attendance is recorded.
That total is 4.2 percent less than attendance during 2018-19 – the last school year before COVID-19 resulted in either the cancelation of championship events or lower spectator numbers due to restrictions in place to limit the spread of the coronavirus. Still, the 2021-22 spectator totals showed higher turnouts than their most recent restriction-free postseason in four sports, including records at two levels and overall for the MHSAA Baseball Tournament.
The MHSAA annually tracks attendance for all sports except golf, skiing and tennis – for which admission typically is not charged. The 2021-22 attendance totals included 889,155 fans for boys tournament events and 438,478 for girls postseasons. The girls spectatorship nearly reached its pre-COVID total, coming up just 2.3 percent short of 2018-19, while boys spectatorship was down 5.1 percent from that most recent restriction-free school year.
Baseball set a District attendance record this past spring with 35,649 fans, besting the record set just the season before, in 2021, of 34,484 spectators. Baseball also set a Quarterfinals record of 7,203 fans, with the previous record set during the 2013 season. The spectator total for the entire baseball postseason was 59,941 fans, which also bested a record set in 2021, this one by 5.3 percent.
Three more boys sports drew larger overall postseason crowds during 2021-22 than in their most recent restriction-free postseason. Ice Hockey drew 47,293 fans across its three playoff rounds, an increase of 12 percent from the 2019 playoffs, the most recent to be played to their completion before COVID-19. The hockey total was the highest since the 2017 postseason.
Boys soccer set a District record of 18,024 fans in Fall 2021, besting the previous record for that round set during the 1999 season. Soccer’s overall postseason attendance of 40,546 was its highest since setting a record of nearly 43,000 during the 2005 season.
The Individual Wrestling Tournament also saw an improvement from its most recent restriction-free postseason, drawing a total of 41,925 across its three tournament weekends – an increase of 2.7 percent from the 2020 season before crowd restrictions were put in place for 2021.
Football drew the most fans of any MHSAA postseason with 297,425. Boys basketball was the next most-attended sport with 279,255 fans at postseason games. Basketball was the most attended girls sport for postseason play with 141,448 spectators, with volleyball also reaching six figures at 113,572.
Joining baseball, four more spring tournaments returned from COVID-canceled 2020 to set overall attendance records in 2021 – girls soccer, girls lacrosse, boys lacrosse and girls and boys track & field (which is competed simultaneously). During the 2022 season, girls soccer was only 294 fans off its previous year’s record pace with 35,143 spectators. Girls and boys track & field drew 37,810 spectators this past spring – 4.8 percent off its 2021 record pace, but still its second-highest attendance since the MHSAA began tracking spectators with the 1990-91 school year. This spring’s boys lacrosse attendance of 15,743 was the second-highest since that sport began with MHSAA sponsorship in 2004-05.
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 1.3 million spectators each year.