Northwoods League’s Northern Michigan Pod Restarting in Traverse City

The Northwoods League’s Northern Michigan Pod will resume play this Sunday after players on two of the pod’s three teams tested positive for COVID-19 during the July 4 weekend.

When the league restarts, only the Traverse City Pit Spitters and the Great Lakes Resorters will be playing out the remainder of the 2020 schedule. With the Northern Michigan Dune Bears not participating in the restart, rosters for both the Pit Spitters and Resorters will expand.

“We take this restart extremely seriously. All of the Pit Spitters players have completed and passed multiple COVID-19 tests,” said Pit Spitters General Manager Mickey Graham in a statement. “Any new players joining either team will be tested at home, and again upon arrival, and will be isolated until their results come back and they will then be placed with their team.”

The revised league schedule will see the two teams play from July 19 through Sept. 2, with a three-game playoff series commencing on Thursday, Sept. 3.

“We’re starting back up with just two teams and expanded rosters. The Dune Bears are not gone completely, I think we will continue to have fun with both the Resorters and Dune Bears branding elements throughout the summer,” Graham said. “As our coaches were reworking the rosters, they wanted to create increased competition, playing time and player development opportunities and resuming with one less team helps achieve those goals. Only having two rosters in the mix also allows us to better manage potential exposure to the virus as we ramp back up. We feel really good about the socially distanced fan experience we have created, and we are excited to safely return to play next week Sunday.”

To view the revised schedule, visit . Fans who purchased tickets for games from July 5-18 can exchange those tickets for any game on the revised schedule.