The news shouldn’t have been a surprise to any of us.

But the arrival of the inevitable doesn’t make the cancellation of the fall high school football season any less devastating for players, coaches and parents.

It’s also a foreshadowing of what we can expect as our children return to school, or remote learning, or whatever combination of the two school leaders choose.

High school football seemed doomed from the start as our state and nation continue to take substantial precautions to combat the spread of COVID-19. At a moment when school board trustees and many administrators still don’t conduct meetings in person for fear of spreading the pandemic illness, it’s no surprise officials would throw in the towel on a dozen weeks of a sport predicated on physical contact.

It’s also probably the right choice — no school district has the resources to implement precautions that would properly prevent and detect the spread of the coronavirus within teams that, by the nature of the sport, are prone to swapping germs freely.

Nonetheless, we’re disappointed.

We’re disappointed for the student athletes who needed an outlet, a reprieve and camaraderie.

Most of us probably have enjoyed the somewhat normal summer we’ve had in comparison to the widespread disruption COVID-19 poured over us during March, April and May.

We’ve missed some of the festivals, backyard barbecues and beach days with friends. But overall our favorite summer pastimes, with a few exceptions, have plodded along in normal-ish fashion.

The decision to postpone high school football at least until spring, coupled with continuing uncertainty over what the fall return to school will entail, delivered some difficult-to-swallow reality to us all during the past week.

Our quasi-normal summer will end, and fall promises to bring with it at least a partial return to the disruption that dominated our lives during the spring.

We still are in the midst of a pandemic, there still is no vaccine, and no decisions our leaders face are simple yes or no, stop or go.

Students, parents, teachers and administrators find themselves dangling in a sort of limbo, waiting to the last moment to choose the path forward as numbers and conditions evolve daily. The Michigan High School Athletics Association’s announcement Friday is a prime example. Many coaches spent the past few weeks pulling together their teams for workouts, but full-contact practice hadn’t yet begun.

We should expect a similar process as the return to school nears.

There is a chance any in-person classroom time could be disrupted in short order by an infection or two. Cancellation of the fall football season won’t be the last disappointment or disruption our families and children will face.

The lingering is frustrating, requiring collective patience we burned through months ago. Yet, that’s what we need at this moment of upheaval and uncertainty — a little more patience.

Patience with one another. Patience with decision makers. And, most important, patience with our children.