Like 67 other high school football teams in Michigan still alive in the playoffs, Forest Hills Eastern was hoping it could resume practice this week.
"We have all been very optimistic, I had a lot of hope that we could start up practice Wednesday," FHE senior wide receiver Grant Lancaster said. "Unfortunately we got the news that we couldn't, but they didn't say we can not play football in the future so we just got to keep getting better, keep doing these little zooms, keep working hard as much as we can do at home."
The Hawks, who won a division four district championship back on November 13th, are supposed to play at Cadillac in a regional final, now they are not sure when that will be.
"Do you just sit and lament or do you just keep working?" FHE 2nd year head coach Joe Schwander asked. "You want to be real and human about it, Grant (Lancaster) and our seniors, you want those guys to have the opportunity to compete and finish their season but at the same time, there is not a whole lot we can do, the things that we can do we try to do."
East Grand Rapids was preparing to play Muskegon in a division three regional.
The Pioneers coaching staff will now search for a formula moving forward to keep the kids engaged both mentally and physically.
"The kids are smart, they knew it was a possibility before they knew that this was a possibility," EGR head coach Casey Longo said. "Now it's going to be how we balance that, how much do we want to do over these 12 days as far as preparing for Muskegon again. We don't want to burn them out obviously and they understand what's going on and this could be extended again."
The players and coaches wanted to get back on the field this week but do see some positives in the current situation.
"When you are in the flow of the season you are going so fast sometimes you don't process as much as you would like to," Schwander said. "So when you have some time off just watching film at a slower pace you learn a lot."
"In August, we possibly weren't going to play a single game," Longo said. "Everyone got a playoff game or two and we crowned district and conference champions. My glass half full, the alternative is we may not have got a single game in."
The MHSAA says its representative council will meet Wednesday to formulate a new plan for resuming fall and beginning winter sports.