The Prep Kickoff Classic, scheduled to take place the opening week of the high school football season at Wayne State, was canceled Thursday due to COVID-19.
The event, organized through the Detroit and Xenith Sports Commission, took place August 27-29 with six games, two a day.
Detroit Cass Tech planned to play in Grandville on August 29, but now Cass would like to receive the Bulldogs on August 28.
“I think it would be cancelled,” Cass Tech coach Thomas Wilcher told the Detroit News. “I just couldn’t have so many groups in Wayne State in this scenario with COVID. We still plan to play the game, but we can’t use this site.”
“I just spoke to (Grandville). We have a contract to play them. We’re going to play them at Cass Tech and we’re going to have this game on Friday.”
However, Wilcher’s efforts are approved by MHSAA to start the football season on August 27. The resolution will be announced on 20 August.
Dearborn Fordson will play in Canton on August 27, confirmed Fordson’s head coach Walker Zaban.
Corey Parker guided River Rouge to the Division 3 state championship with a victory over Muskegon last November at Ford Field. River Rouge intended to play Division 2 State Champion Muskegon Mona Shores in the Launch Classic.
Now this confrontation is in doubt. Parker says the game will have to be played in the eastern side of the state, as River Rouge plays the 4th State Champion, Grand Rapids Catholic Central, at the time of the week.
“We don’t know if we’re going to play them (Mona Shores); there are a lot of gray spaces with everything that’s happened in the last 24 hours,” Parker said. “We don’t know how things are going to look like as we’re playing at Grand Rapids Catholic Central in Week 2. We had planned to have an impartial game on the site or a house game in Week 1.”
“I had a verbal exchange with the coach and athletic director of Mona Shores and had no plans to come to us through Wayne County and his coronavirus number. So we need to find out what our next steps will be.”
“Right now, with so many other states that impede football or adapt in the spring, we’re pleased to be able to say that football is starting as planned. We’re in the most productive scenario available, but who knows what things will be like.” over the next week.”
Michigan football groups can start organizing the education and conditioning apparatus on August 10 and can begin the padded exercises on August 17.
Here are the Prep Kickoff Classic games scheduled for Wayne State:
August 27: Canton vs. Dearborn Fordson, Chippewa Valley vs. Detroit Catholic Central.
August 28: Birmingham Groves vs. Birmingham Groves Southfield A-T, Lake Orion vs. Lake Macomb Dakota.
Aug. 29: Detroit Cass Tech vs. Grandville, Muskegon Mona Shores vs. River Rouge.