High school winter sports returned to competition this week after weeks of waiting for the go ahead from the state.
But with the return to play comes certain protocols and limits on attendance.
Winter high school sports have started competition across the state. It’s a long awaited return, but the stands will be noticeably emptier this year.
Traverse City West is allowing four tickets per student athlete. The maximum attendance depends on the venue size, for Traverse City West that means basketball games are capped at 250 people, not including players and coaches.
“Right now we’re family based, we really want parents to see their kids play, we want grandma and grandpa to see their kids play, siblings, we’re stressing family, we don’t have student sections, we haven’t opened it up to our general population people,” said Athletic Director Jason Carmien.
Frankfort High School opted for just two tickets per student athlete, but says that number may soon go up.
“Our conference decided we would start off slow, and with a minimal number of people, and we knew the number would be different, and be changing moving forward and we just said we’ll adapt as we needed to, but we started off slow on purpose figuring it’s easier to enlarge than cut back,” said Athletic Director David Jackson.
The hope is while challenging, the restrictions on attendance keep sports and school moving.
“I think it’s frustrating to families who just can’t have everyone come to the games like normal, I know that our student governor is frustrated because students want to attend events and have fun and do some things they normally would do, but at the same token, I think people are just glad we’re playing,” said Carmien.
