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Anderson provides update on IHSA spring sports

In an email Wednesday to member school administrators and coaches, Illinois High School Association Executive Director Craig Anderson continued to stress his hope for a spring sports season in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

"Our hope at this time is for a state series and crowning champions, but all of this is so fluid, as we know," he said in an interview with the Daily Herald.

As Daily Herald sports writer Kevin Schmit reported March 19, via an interview Anderson did with WMIX radio in Mount Vernon, it's possible seasons could extend deeper into the summer.

March 31 had been the planned date for spring sports to resume, but on March 20 Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker mandated elementary and high school closings through at least April 7. Chicago Public Schools are dismissed until April 20.

Asked how late is too late for resuming sports seasons, Anderson said: "I feel like if we get very far into May - that's the timeline at which our schools are now starting to possibly be able to organize and practice (to go) into competition - I think that we'll likely move beyond the potential for completing all of our state series, championships, but could possibly open up and expand opportunities for teams to organize and at least compete in some format, whether it be a modified conference schedule to have conference championships or senior night, those kind of things.

"In my personal opinion, I think at some point - and I'm not going to say May 1 or designate a particular day in May - if we get too far into May then the timeline really restricts us. In my opinion we want to provide all our spring championships and not be required to pick and choose a few spring championships that we might conduct while others we don't," he said.

There's one thing that is concrete.

"It's just so unprecedented, and I think everybody is aware of that," Anderson said. "There's not a map for us that kind of guides us in these circumstances, so we're really trying to fully be aware of the safety concerns that we have globally."

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