Michigan high school football still a go, despite shutdowns in college conferences

The Michigan High School Athletic Association’s football season is still on — for now.

While multiple conferences in college have halted its football for the fall, including the Mid-American Conference on Saturday, the Big Ten and Pac-12 on Tuesday, and the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference on Wednesday, the MHSAA is still planning on having football with a hopeful start to competition later this month.

MHSAA Executive Director Mark Uyl said last month his staff was going to keep a close eye on neighboring states of Ohio and Indiana. Illinois already has pushed its football season to spring.

Ohio has cut its regular season to six games with all teams then competing in the playoffs. Indiana's plans are the same as Michigan so far, with Indiana hoping to have a full schedule of games with the season kicking off next week.

“Right now, everything is going the way it’s supposed to, but even then things are a little topsy-turvy with people rescheduling,” MHSAA spokesman Geoff Kimmerly said Wednesday. “We’re still on as of this morning. We’ve had two days so far (first days of practice) without reported incident. We’ve said all along that we’re going to make a decision on competition by Aug. 20.

“Obviously, what happened at the college level is part of the conversation, but we’ve said all along that we’re different than the college level in terms of the fact that our competition is so local, but at the same time there’s similarities too just looking at the sport, so what’s happening at the college level is part of the conversation, it’s not necessarily going to change the conversation, but it’s going to be part of the things that we discuss. Right now we’re moving forward, and as of right now the first day of practice with pads is Monday.”

Still, schools are finding out things won’t be easy, such as Mishawaka Penn in Indiana — a team which played Orchard Lake St. Mary’s each season from 2015 to 2018 — had to shut down operations when a football player tested positive Thursday, canceling a scrimmage for Friday, then practice on Monday. Penn was back to practice, according to the South Bend Tribune, on Tuesday and hoping to open the season against Valparaiso in nine days.

Orchard Lake St. Mary’s was scheduled to open Aug. 28 at Oak Park, with a Week 2 matchup at home against Angola, Indiana. However, St. Mary's head coach George Porritt said the game with Angola has been canceled.

“We cancelled our Week 2 game with Angola, just because of the distance and with what’s going on,” Porritt said. “Angola told me that they’ve had some postponements within their area. We want to stay as close to home as possible. We’re not rescheduling the game.”

And, while one less game on the schedule could hurt St. Mary's chances of making the playoffs, Porritt says he feels every team in the state will be making the postseason.

“I think everybody’s going to be in the playoffs," he said. "(I) just think some other teams could opt out like Lansing (school district) has already opted out,” Porritt said. “Right now, with the way the format is, there’s not that many teams that don’t make it because of 8-man football, so I think they will be all right. I don’t know how they’ll (MHSAA) do it; they’ll have to figure that out, but we’ve been told by our league, Vic (Catholic League director Vic Michaels) said that all the teams will be in the playoffs.”

Kimmerly said that format has been discussed.

“One of the things that we’re trying to figure out is what’s going to happen with the schools that were slated to play out-of-state opponents,” Kimmerly said. “I think the eight games and everybody into the playoffs is more something that we were at least having in the back of our minds if we had a lot of schools opt out, and so far we’ve only had the three Lansing public schools in 11-player and (St. Joseph) Lake Michigan Catholic in 8-player opt out, so that wouldn’t be enough for us, I don’t think, to have to cut back the schedule a week and put everybody in the playoffs.

"That’s going to cause a few forfeit wins here or there, but not enough to cause a few hundred, but a lot can change here in the next week too, so I don’t want to say that any options are off the table.”

Detroit Cass Tech played a team out of Chicago in Week 1 and a team out of Ohio in Week 2 last season. This year, veteran coach Thomas Wilcher has stayed with an in-state schedule, which kicks off with home games against Grandville in the opener and state power Muskegon in Week 2.

Wilcher was surprised when 73 players showed up for practice, down nearly 25% from a year ago.

“We were down 25 players from a year ago,” said Wilcher. “I didn’t expect that to happen. It has to be because of COVID. We were counting on big things from a few of them, too.”

Wilcher said three-star tackle Charlie Sims, who had offers from Arkansas, Kentucky, Missouri, Iowa State and Mississippi, didn’t come out, nor did running back Karriem Sharrieff who has an offer from Central Michigan.

david.goricki@detroitnews.com