Darren Kinnard
Section618.com
Just a day after Illinois Governor JB Pritzker announced that winter sports such as basketball and wrestling were on hold, the Illinois High School Association announced they are not, having decided to move forward with the basketball seasons as planned and moving wrestling to April.
The announcement came after a special meeting of the IHSA Board of Directors. The board said in a release that the health and mental well-being of the student athletes is front and center of a decision to play, and that the IHSA’s Sports Medicine Advisory Committee (SMAC) had put together a plan full of mitigations to make playing safe as possible. “After diligent discussion, the Board has made the decision today to follow the recommendation of the IHSA SMAC as it relates to basketball. The Board remains considerate of rising COVID-19 cases in Illinois and understand the importance of adhering to safety guidelines for the good of all citizens. However, the Board has not been presented any causal evidence that rising COVID-19 cases make basketball more dangerous to play by the IDPH or any other health organization nationally or internationally. On the contrary, the IHSA has been looking to bordering states who have sponsored both medium risk and high risk sports in the fall that have noted a low incident rate of COVID-19 spread.
Instead, we will require all IHSA basketball teams to adhere to those SMAC mitigations, and allow local school officials to make decisions related to participation.”
When asked about the IHSA’s decision, Pritzker said, “We’ve told school districts what the rules are, and I think they all know. The IHSA may have their views, but school districts know what the rules are. It’s unfortunate that they would be taking on legal liability if they went beyond what the state has set as the mitigation standard.”
The IHSA board also approved guidance for Low Risk winter sports Boys Swimming & Diving, Cheerleading, Dance, Boys & Girls Bowling, and Girls Gymnastics. Practices for these sports, along with Boys & Girls Basketball, are scheduled to begin November 16 with games starting November 30.
Among the mitigations to be put in place for basketball is that everyone, including the players, will be required to wear a mask. IHSA Executive Director Craig Anderson said a full list of mitigations will be released Thursday. He did say at this point the plan was to go with total attendance limited to 50, which is an IDPH directive. He noted there would be further discussions at next month’s board meeting.
On Tuesday, the Illinois Department of Public Health moved basketball from the Medium Risk to Higher Risk category, meaning that under current guidelines teams could only hold non-contact practices. The IHSA noted that the National Federation of State High School Associations still had basketball in the Medium Risk category.
Saying they understood the importance of sports in the lives of students, State Superintendent of Education Dr. Carmen Ayala sent a letter to schools urging principals and superintendents to “prioritize health and safety.”
“Defying the state’s public health guidance opens schools up to liability and other ramifications that may negatively impact school communities,” Ayala wrote in the letter.
It appears now the onus will be put on local school boards and administration to make the decision about whether or not to play.