Lansing School District officially cancels all fall sports, including football

GOW: Lansing Eastern vs. Waverly

Lansing Eastern warms up before their game against Waverly at J.W. Sexton High School in Lansing Thursday, September 3, 2015. (Danielle Duval | MLive.com) Danielle DuvalDanielle Duval

The Lansing School District announced Thursday evening that it will be canceling all fall sports, as well as any extracurricular activities. The district held a board meeting, which was open to the public via Zoom, and cited player health and safety as the primary concern that forced the difficult decision.

The district had already announced earlier in July that it would be implementing a 100-percent virtual return to school, which is scheduled for Aug. 31.

“Along with formally submitting our plan for Lansing, we are also announcing the cancellation of all fall extracurricular school activities until further notice, and that includes all sports, band, and cheerleading,” said district superintendent Sam Sinicropi. “I know how disappointing the cancellation of sports and extra-curricular activities may be for students, coaches and parents, but the school district must make decisions moving forward that makes safety our top priority.

“Unlike college and professional sports where decisions are driven by money, our decisions about sports and extracurricular activities must be made with safety as our defining factor. We initially were optimistic and had a timetable and protocols ready for the safe return to school including sports and extracurricular activities, but at this moment we made the tough decision to cancel until further notice to be safe.”

Schools within the Lansing district include Lansing Eastern, Lansing Everett and Lansing Sexton.

“It’s certainly disappointing to hear because all three of those schools are in various divisions in our Capital Area Activities Conference,” said Lansing Waverly Athletic Director Scott Casteele. “Lansing Sexton is actually our Week 2 opponent for football this year and Lansing Everett was our regular-season finale. I understand where the district is coming from, but I wish it was a little more deliberate and a little more of a phased-in process.

“Both the MHSAA and the (Michigan Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association) have been on the forefront of these issues and we feel like the leadership needs to come from them first before any other decisions are made. I still think it’s the right thing to do in the grand scheme of things because we all want our kids to be safe, but I thought for sure we would be able to get in all of our lower to moderate risk sports like cross country, golf, tennis, and swim.

“To see those sports get killed off by fellow Capital Area schools is pretty disheartening.”

The Michigan High School Athletic Association is currently implementing a phased-in return to fall sports with contingency plans in place for higher-risk sports like football, volleyball and soccer. Football is scheduled to begin a modified practice on Aug. 10, with all other sports beginning on Aug. 12.

The MHSAA ruled that all football practices during the opening week of Aug. 10-14 must take place without shoulder pads or lower body pads and teams may not hold singular practices for more than three hours or five hours total in one day.

The MHSAA plans to make a decision on regular-season competition for football, girls volleyball and boys soccer by Aug. 20.

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