Girls finalists hoping for different outcome than boys
The feeling was all too familiar for Karl Hodgson.
The veteran boys swim coach of Bloomfield Hills CranbrookKingwood had to deliver a painful message to his team less than 24 hours before the start of the state finals last March.
The MHSAA postponed, and ultimately had to cancel, the boys swimming & diving state finals due to COVID-19.
Last Sunday, Hodgson had to deliver a similar message to his Birmingham Seaholm girls swimming & diving team when the MHSAA was once again forced to stop the season just before the state finals.
“Yeah, that hurt. My immediate feelings were of extreme anger and frustration,” Hodgson said. “It was always in the back of our heads that we may not make the finish line, but we were so close. I felt like they did it to the boys, so they couldn’t do it to the girls, too. I went through it with the boys not getting their chance. That was really difficult. We were less than 24 hours away
when it got pulled away.”
For finals qualifiers around the state, they now await a chance to compete for a state championship.
Following last Sunday’s threeweek epidemic order by the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, the MHSAA released a revised schedule for the remaining fall sports.
In that schedule, swim teams could resume practice on Dec. 9 and the state finals would be held around the state on Dec. 23. Diving finals would take place Dec. 22.
While coaches around the state want a finals to be held,
the entire swim season is about preparing the athletes to peak for that state finals date. Having to take weeks off and then attempt to re-train for another finals date is not ideal for the athletes.
“If they are going to go with their set schedule of the finals being (Dec. 23), then we would have to be in the pool ( last Thursday) to have any kind of