By K.D. Norris
High school baseball and softball games in March routinely get rained, or snowed, out in West Michigan. But this year, even if delayed, they stand a chance to played — unlike last season, which was canceled as COVID-19 hit the scene.
So even before the announcement last week from the Michigan High School Athletic Association that spring sports practices and competitions would be delayed by a week, which is expected to have little impact on the Wyoming High School’s ball teams, the Wolves are mostly simply eager for their first live action in more than a year.
“With the delayed start being only one week, as well as the MHSAA allowing us to continue both four man workouts and conditioning workouts, I see no real impact,” Travis Stricklin, Wyoming head baseball coach, said to WKTV. Stricklin is entering his first year leading the Wolves onto the field. “If anything, it gives us an extra week with the kids to prepare and get ready for the start of our season.”
Kaitlin Failing, Wyoming head softball coach, agrees — but includes an additional reason the delay isn’t so bad.
“I think that the later start date is good considering basketball got pushed back,” Failing said to WKTV. “We share a lot of athletes with basketball and it would become pretty difficult to field teams if they are overlapping. We never really get games in the first couple of weeks anyways, so it doesn’t really matter to us that we are starting later.”
Both coaches, however, see last year’s hiatus from high school competition as being the real obstacle to be overcome by their 2021 teams and their entire programs.
“I think (losing) the entire season really affected our program and other programs in similar economic situations,” Failing said. “We tend to run a lot of opportunities for the girls within Wyoming to participate in softball through the school system, for 5th grade up. With the season being cancelled, our girls lost out on their only opportunity to participate in softball. … (Also) without being allowed to run clubs and clinics for all of our younger students, we are not able to get new students interested in playing or give our younger girls the opportunity to get better.”
Failing also pointed out that some high school programs had a high level of travel participation, with their athletes able to play throughout the summer and fall despite Michigan restrictions, “while a lot of our athletes haven’t played in over a year now … our athletes missed out on their only opportunities to play if they do not play travel” ball.
And, she pointed out, with the missing season, many student-athletes are choosing not to play this season “for a number of other reasons because of COVID.”
Much the same is true for the Wolves baseball program.
“Not having a season last year took a toll on our program for sure,” Stricklin said. “We feel that we are beginning to progress as a program, so losing a year due to the pandemic was definitely not easy.
“That being said, I am beyond proud of the way our kids handled it. Rather than getting upset and letting it keep them down, they simply asked when we could begin working out together again to try and get better for whenever we do actually get to play.”
Delay aside, a 2021 season is expected
The MHSAA announced Feb. 22 that its Representative Council had approved an “adjustment to the Spring 2021 schedule delaying the start of practices in those sports one week to March 22 and competition to March 26 “to accommodate a later end to Winter sports this season,” according to the statement.
“The calendar change should alleviate pressures on indoor facility usage and athletes changing seasons with Winter sports concluding up to two weeks later this school year after a delayed start due to COVID-19,” according to the MHSAA statement.
The MHSAA said it based its decision in part on feedback from a survey of MHSAA member high schools, which saw 74 percent favoring a delay in spring sports activity of at least one week. State coaches associations for spring sports also were consulted, and, according to the MHSAA statement “the great majority of Michigan schools are unable to begin consistent spring sports outdoor activity and competition until early April.”
All spring sports tournament dates remain as originally scheduled, however, with MHSAA finals in baseball, softball and girls soccer concluding the 2020-21 postseason June 19.
Previously, the MHSAA council approved an allowance for spring teams to meet for voluntary practices over 16 contact days in September and October, 2020. General conditioning with an unlimited number of students was allowed, with other out-of-season training (four-player workouts, open gyms/facilities) allowed to continue through March 21, with council having eliminated the preseason downtime restriction for Spring sports this year.
But those allowances did not necessarily benefit all schools, or programs, equally.
“We couldn’t really do much with the 16 days because we do not have enough athletes to scrimmage ourselves or run practices because our athletes all play other sports in the fall,” Failing said. “We held open fields but we knew we wouldn’t have a ton of participation because they were not available. I know other schools were able to get their teams together and scrimmage themselves.”
