Darren Kinnard
Section618.com
The old saying goes “No news is good news.” Those hoping to get at least a timeline from the Illinois High School Association about potential sports schedules for the next five and a half months likely would disagree.
The IHSA Board of Directors met Wednesday, but with sports still paused at the direction of Governor JB Pritzker and the Illinois Department of Public Health, they did not make any final decisions about the upcoming seasons.
“We realize there is a desire for finality on a sports schedule for 2020-21,” said IHSA Executive Director Craig Anderson. “However, we did not believe it would be prudent to lock ourselves into a schedule at a time when IHSA schools are unable to conduct any sports. Per Governor Pritzker, we have hope that low-risk sports may be permitted in certain regions of the state as early as this Friday (January 15).”
“With that in mind, February seems like a realistic timeline to have sports resume statewide. We expect that the events of the next two weeks will go a long way toward informing our opinion on which scheduling option we decide to proceed with,” said Anderson.
A release from the IHSA states the board reviewed several options for possible schedules the rest of the school year. They will hold a special meeting January 27.
“We recognize that if no sports have resumed by February, season lengths could be impacted in certain sports, and that we may need to take a longer look at the likelihood of true seasons being conducted in high-risk sports this year,” said Anderson. “Our overall goal remains unchanged, as we hope to conduct all IHSA sports during the remainder of the school year calendar. Please know that we see and read many of the comments and messages from student-athletes, coaches, and parents, and that we are doing everything we can to try and bring IHSA sports back within the current parameters we are working in.”
The Board announced that once state leadership allows for low-risk winter sports (Boys & Girls Bowling, Cheerleading, Dance, Girls Gymnastics, Boys Swimming & Diving) to begin participation, those teams will be allowed to begin practice immediately and then continue their season through the season calendar established by the Board later this month. All sports not in their official IHSA season calendar may begin to conduct contact days as soon as they are allowable under IDPH mitigations and local school guidance.
“The IHSA acknowledges the immense mental, emotional, and physical strain that a lack of contact with school programs is causing Illinois high school student-athletes,” said Anderson. “It is our intention that these contact days provide sport-specific training under the leadership of high school coaches. This is an effort to provide a viable sports option to high school athletes given the growing number of student-athletes opting for higher risk opportunities within the state and across state lines.”
Following last month’s meeting, the IHSA Board said they hoped to meet with representatives from the Governor’s office and the IDPH to get a timeline for the coming months. That meeting finally happened virtually last Wednesday. In a note sent to athletic directors and school administrators, Anderson was not optimistic saying “the return of any low-risk high school sports is dependent on positivity rates declining, which would obviously vary from region to region across the state. The prospect of playing any medium or high risk sports this school year remains unknown.”
“We remain collaborative in our efforts with IDPH and the Governor’s office,” said Anderson. “We are trying to do our part to fight the pandemic, while simultaneously seeking safe participation opportunities for our student-athletes. We understand the real mental toll this pause in athletics is having on Illinois high school student-athletes. We believe that school-based athletic participation is better regulated, making it the safest participation option for our students, and more data continues to emerge supporting that stance. We will continue to share that information with state leadership in hopes that we can work together to provide participation opportunities for young people in our state.”
Back in late October, a day after Pritzker announced changes to the state’s All-Sports Policy during the pandemic that included moving basketball into the “Higher Risk” category, the IHSA gave schools the green light to play basketball. Given the potential insurance issues of playing and going against IDPH guidance, very few schools across the state were willing to play, and to date, no IHSA basketball games have been played.
Practices for the new spring season which includes football, volleyball, and boys soccer are scheduled to start February 15.
Currently all high school and junior high sports are paused in Illinois due to the state being in Tier 3 mitigations. Those mitigations will last at least until Friday. Any regions that can move forward to Tier 2 mitigations after January 15 will be able to resume activities. To move to Tier 2, regions must have less than 12 percent test positivity for three consecutive days, have more than 20 percent of ICU and hospital beds available, and COVID-19 hospitalizations must also have declined in seven of the last 10 days. As of Wednesday afternoon, Region 5 has met the criteria to move forward. Region 4 has not.