The Michigan High School Athletics Association has issued contradictory mask rules ahead of the state allowing school winter sports to return.
The new rules require most athletes to wear masks even while playing. The mandate includes mask-wearing for basketball players, cheerleaders, hockey players, football players, and others, OutKick reported.
However, wrestlers won’t be required to wear masks, even though wrestlers are required to get closer to their opponents than nearly any other athlete.
In the latter case, wrestlers will not have to wear masks if they test negative for the coronavirus ahead of every match.
Still, other athletes will be required to wear masks whether they test negative or not.
Basketball players, for one, must wear masks at all times, even on the court. And they will have to wear masks even if they test negative fr the virus. The state will also require disabled athletes to have a doctor’s note to excuse them from wearing a mask and will also be required to take repeated coronavirus tests throughout the season.
Ice hockey players will be held to the same rules, Outkick reported.
Michigan is the last state still banning school sports due to the coronavirus, but many parents and school officials have had enough of it all.
Thousands of Michigan parents and students rallied on Jan. 30 in Lansing, Michigan, as Democrat Gov. Gretchen Whitmer once again postponed the state’s school sports programs.
The rally came on the heels of Gov. Whitmer’s decision to scotch the Feb. 1 start date for winter sports, pushing it off yet another. This is the second time the state has pushed school sports off due to the virus.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Facebook at: facebook.com/Warner.Todd.Huston.
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