Uyl: Push for contact sports resonating around the state
Uyl: Push for contact sports beginning to resonate around the state
Mark Uyl is hoping the tides are beginning to shift for winter contact sports.
The executive director of the MHSAA sounded frustrated on Friday when the epidemic order banning indoor contact sports was extended to Feb. 21.
On Wednesday, during a radio appearance on “The Huge Show,” Uyl sound much more optimistic that the movement to get basketball, hockey, wrestling and competitive cheer back in competition was gaining steam.
“We feel like our message is really resonating right now,” Uyl said. “We are seeing more and more people talking about this. I finally believe that we have got people realizing now that we have been ready to go since November. As soon as Health and Human Services says that it’s time to move forward and we can begin contact practices and competition for the four sports that are currently in a holding pattern, we are going to be ready to do so.”
Part of the reason for Uyl’s optimism starts with the change atop the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services.
Shortly after Friday’s press conference from the MDHHS and Gov. Gretchen Whitmer announcing the extension of the ban, MDHHS director Robert Gordon stepped down from his position.
Elizabeth Hertel was named as Gordon’s replacement and Uyl indicates that the communication between the MHSAA and MDHHS has improved dramatically since the change.
“I can say that, with the change in leadership going back to last Friday, that already we have noticed a drastic change in the communication and openness to dialogue,” he said. “Our communication has been as good in the last three days that it’s been in the last three months.”
Uyl maintains that the MHSAA has provided the “science and data” to support their cause for contact sports to resume.
Over the month-long pilot testing program of fall postseason athletes, nearly 30,000 tests were administered and registered just 57 positives. That is a 99.8-percent negative test rate.
“The thing we have only wanted since Day 1 is, okay we are not able to play so simply tell us what the numbers are that will stop us from playing, or if the numbers reach a certain level this is what would pause (sports). Probably more important, especially for our winter community right now, is if we are not able to fully go right now, please just tell us what the numbers have to be in order to return to activity,” Uyl said.
Uyl also noted the number of surrounding states that are currently participating in indoor contact sports and have seen their state’s COVID-19 numbers improve as competitions have been taking place.
“There are 38 other states around the country who are (playing indoor contact sports),” he said. “Our three bordering states, that have a direct border with us in Indiana, Ohio and Wisconsin, they have been practicing and competing in winter sports going all the way back to Dec. 1. You just look at those three states, as well as Michigan, you look at where our COVID data was say Nov. 15, you look at what the COVID data was in those states now a little bit more than two months later, and in all four states the COVID data thankfully is in a much better position than what it was in mid-November.”
Shortly after Uyl’s appearance, the Illinois High School Association announced it will begin its basketball season immediately.
On Thursday, the Michigan House of Representatives and Senate will be holding committee hearings where they will hear further arguments on the matter for various athletic administrators, coaches and athletes from around the state.
“I know dozens of coaches and kids and parents and families are going to be able to talk about their experiences and their frustrations,” Uyl said of the committee hear
ings. “It’s just a matter of us continuing to push the information, to push the data, and trying to get that in the hands of those who are making the decisions right now.”
All of these factors contribute to the MHSAA pushing to get the ban lifted before Feb. 21 and Uyl says the MHSAA’s focus is squarely on achieving that goal.
“For us just to say, ‘well,
the new order is pushed back to Feb. 21 and that’s just what we are going to wait around for,’ that is not our approach right now. We are trying to get the data, the information to those decision-makers along with an ask that the timetable (be moved up),” he said.
“We asked for a lot of shared sacrifice from our state to get those numbers back in control, to ‘flatten the curve,’ to get those numbers trending in the other direction, and I certainly think we’ve done so. The data suggests that.”