In and order put into place by the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services on March 19; beginning on April 2, practice and competition for sports involving people ages 13-19 will be prohibited unless all such people participate in a weekly antigen testing.

The first test must be completed between April 2-8, the second test between April 9-15, the third between April 16-22 and so on throughout the duration of the athletic season.

“What that means to us is that our athletic department, and the army of volunteers that it’s going to take to pull this off, will have to test 900 student-athletes every week,” said Ben Kirby, Superintendent of Lake Orion Community Schools. “With the test, it’s then data entry that goes into the systems. The tests do not cost us any money but all the man-hours behind it, there’s a cost to that.”

This order applies to all high school and middle school teams with participants between the ages of 13-19. Those 12 and under can participate but are not required to complete testing.

Additionally, individuals participating in contact sports such as boys and girls lacrosse will be required to wear face masks at all times during competition.

Non-contact sports like baseball, softball, golf, tennis and Track & Field are not required to wear face masks during active competition participation. Coaches and all other team personnel are required to wear face masks at all times, this includes participants on the bench, in the dugout and between individual events. — Megan Kelley