"I've been getting phone calls, messages, you name it. Our youth are young, active, and for the most part, healthy," Cambensy said. "I just think that other states have found a way to do this without major outbreaks. Why can't Michigan?"

"If students, and parents, and coaches, and school boards, feel as thought it's safe to resume sports, then I certainly don't understand why Lansing, and, particularly Governor Whitmer, should be able to tell them no," LaFave said. "We have elected school boards for a reason."

"This situation is just another natural outcome of suspending the normal, democratic process to make our decisions," McBroom said. "Opinions and facts on this issue are not all on one side, and that we are not in an emergency situation such that debate and voting should be suspended any longer."

Gov. Whitmer said Monday that she's concerned about the virus "variant" spreading amongst athletes, and then to the community as a whole. But Cambensy isn't convinced.

"You can be cautious and make decisions around 'what if' scenarios all day long," Cambensy said. "But to what extent are we not affording our youth, and others, to live? I really think we can monitor this as we go. I'm very supportive of allowing our youth to get back in and play the sports, and compete, and get a little bit of their youth and their life back."

"Shutting down some sports, and not other sports, is nonsense," LaFave said. "The unintended consquences of these actions have led to an increase in student suicide nationwide that has eclipsed the number of students that have died of COVID. So we cannot continue destroying the mental health of our students to save the physcial health of a smaller proportion of people."

McBroom says he also does not want to see kids have to submit to COVID testing.

"It is critical that we not simply receive a non-solution that includes an unaffordable and overwhleming testing regimen," McBroom said. "This is the current mandate for our colleges that has forced them to compete out of statem which, if the risks are actually as serious as warrants the policy, is completely counter-productive and idiotic. Not to mention an incredible expense for the schools."

LaFave says that there's no evidence that student-athletes are spreading the virus to anyone, and that it is "vitally important" for kids' mental health to have the social connections.

"Shutting that down over a virus that kids weren't spreading in the first place, statistically speaking, to their parents, to other students, or to their teachers, is wildly inappropriate and it needs to be ended immediately," LaFave added.

The state health department said on Monday that there were 42 outbreaks between various levels of athletics, from young kids all the way to college and adult sports, and that it was still investigating some of the outbreaks. The department did not have a breakdown of how much of the outbreak was tied to high school sports, and an "outbreak" is defined as as little as two positive tests linked t0 one single source.

A testing program that was implemented to allow high school football and volleyball to finish its seasons in Michigan yielded less than one percent positve test results statewide.

Earlier on Wednesday, the Michigan High School Athletic Association Representative Council said it remained committed to having a winter sports season "as soon as the MDHHS allows it". MHSAA Director Mark Uyl added that he's concerned that some students are going out of Michigan and competing on travel teams. He says that is wrong.

“Each week, we see hundreds of examples of children and families competing in non-school competition, both in-state and out-of-state,” Uyl said. “This not only is in violation of current MDHHS orders, but sending all of these families into different states will only become an impediment to getting students back in school fulltime. 

A Michigan Senate committee will hold a hearing on Thursday to take testimony on the continued ban on youth and high school contact sports.

The Senate Education and Career Readiness Committee will meet at 9 a.m. on Thursday, and among those scheduled to testify are Jayme McElvany, the leader of the group "Let Them Play", which is pushing hard for the immediate lifting of the ban on basketball, hockey, wrestling, and competitive cheer.

Also scheduled to testify are the superintendent of schools for the Britton-Macon School District, Stacy Johnson. A similar hearing is scheduled Thursday at 10:30 in the Michigan House, in the Oversight Committee.

State Sen. Dale Zorn (R-Ida) called Thursday's Senate hearing, and has introduced a resolution urging Whitmer and the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services to lift the suspension on winter high school contact sports and allow play to resume immediately.

“This is about standing up for our student athletes and the positive physical and mental health benefits that participating in sports provides our children,” said Zorn,. “Michigan schools and athletes have taken preventive steps to stay safe and worked hard to prepare for a shortened season — only to see their seasons delayed another 20 days with little evidence that they are major drivers in spreading COVID-19.