In wake of Maine South flap, sidelines take center stage
Being close to the action at sporting events is something everyone wants.
And in high school sports there's nothing better than having a coveted sideline pass to a state playoff football game or a courtside position at a state basketball tournament.
While overcrowded sidelines with unauthorized fans have been an issue for years at every high school football game (just ask any reporter, photographer or videographer jostling for position), Maine South High School's actions last Saturday in Champaign have kicked the issue to center stage with allegations of counterfeit passes, rude behavior, and unruly fans.
The Illinois High School Association, the governing body that oversees athletic contests in the state, on Monday asked Maine South to respond to the complaints at a Dec. 13 board meeting in Bloomington.
Each participating school in classes 5A-8A is allowed 29 sideline passes for coaches, administrators, team managers, etc., for the football finals in Champaign. Reports vary on how many passes Maine South supporters actually had legit and not but IHSA Executive Director Marty Hickman said at least 10 counterfeit passes were seized, and that some Maine South coaches were not wearing their passes, leading the IHSA to assume those were used by unauthorized parties.
“The school has the responsibility to know who the passes are going to and then, at the event, who is actually using them,” Hickman said Wednesday. “We don't want to put the security people at Memorial Stadium or anywhere else in charge of knowing if a pass is legit or not.
“We had some passes that looked like our passes and someone went to considerable effort to duplicate our passes.”
Abuse of passes by unauthorized individuals also has been an issue for the IHSA's News Media Advisory Committee, coming up in at least seven annual meetings in the last decade.
In the 1970s when the state boys basketball tournament was held in Champaign, the IHSA didn't scrutinize media passes as it does now. Fans would try to offer money or dinner for any passes that would not be used.
At the girls state basketball tournament in Normal, some media passes were used by moms and grandmothers to come down to press row to take pictures of their daughter or granddaughter playing at Redbird Arena.
“We've cleaned up the sidelines at football and the media areas at other sports tremendously the last few years,” Hickman said. “We want legitimate members of the media and coaching staffs to be down there, but we can't have alumni and dads and moms on the sidelines.”
Bruce Kay, the retiring Cary-Grove football coach and athletic director, has administered many playoff games during his career, and he has coached on the big stage in Champaign twice. As a program gets more successful, he says, it manifests the desire to get closer to the action. Administrators have to be firm, he says.
“You have to say no,” said Kay, whose program auctions sideline passes for regular-season games as a fundraiser. “When you've been downstate as much as Maine South has, some of that (entitlement by fans) becomes expected. But when it comes to downstate the simple answer is no.”
Ultimately, Hickman said he's most concerned about the message sent by any school that would condone the blatant disregard of the IHSA's rules. He says the IHSA will now take a closer look at its procedures as well.
“It boggles my mind,” said Hickman, who has asked Maine South to conduct its own investigation into the matter, which also includes allegations of unruly behavior by the student body during its state semifinal game at Loyola the previous week. “We don't want to overreact because there's one bad apple, but it does have us thinking about other things we can do.
“For me, the most disappointing thing is it's a horrible lesson for the young people involved that if you don't like the policies and procedures involved you go out and do something like this. They're telling kids that this is OK, that they don't have to follow the rules. And that's very disturbing.”