Q&A: Current state of high school sports addressed by IHSA's Anderson
Last week, the Illinois High School Association's Phase 4 Return to Play plan was amended by Gov. J.B. Pritzker's office to, among other things, not allow contact in drills and practices.
IHSA executive director Craig Anderson addressed that issue as well as several other questions about the current state of high school sports in an interview with the Daily Herald Wednesday.
DH: Can you expound on Tuesday's announcement that the IHSA is now going to defer to state agencies for the Return to Play guidelines? What led to that decision? Did the lawsuit filed downstate play into that decision?
CA: It's a number of things. We tried to work in good concert with the governor's office, ISBE (Illinois State Board of Education) and the IDPH (Illinois Department of Public Health) but when things happened last week, when we were set back a little, the pushback was on us. These weren't decisions we made. They were made by the governor's office and the IDPH. I just felt it necessary to let the public know that we have been and continue to rely on the governor's office and the IDPH. With the current restrictions we have it's going to make it difficult for us to plan for fall sports, especially those that require contact. They're the experts on the medical side.
The lawsuit did play into the decision. The last thing we need is for us to defend ourselves when financially were in a difficult spot. We lost our spring season, we lost our basketball tournaments and we lost sponsorships. We have to give money back or credit those sponsors and for us to have to defend ourselves for actions that we were pressed into is an additional challenge for us to get into.
DH: If there is high school sports in any form, be that football, soccer, volleyball, or just golf and tennis, and if a student-athlete opts for e-learning as opposed to in-person learning, but then still intends to play a sport, will that be allowed and how will that work?
CA: In that situation it will be a local decision. Our bylaws would not prevent a kid who chooses to do virtual learning from being involved in activities. All virtual learning would meet our eligibility requirements.
DH: How concerned are you that it appears now the IHSA has little say in the Return to Play guidelines?
CA: I'm really concerned. We're good at providing opportunities for kids and we're successful in running events. Medically, we resourced the guidance we were providing for our membership. It came from our medical experts on (the Sports Medicine Advisory Committee). They provided us good feedback for how we do a number of things. This is something we've never had to deal with. Our SMAC understands education-based athletics. I'm concerned about what happens next for providing opportunities for our member schools. Without us having a hand in that, we're concerned, our parents and our educators are concerned. It doesn't mean we're no longer advocating for our schools and our students. We will continue to do that. We know kids need opportunities outside the classroom and we will continue to advocate for that until the last day we're allowed to.
DH: We're aware of some schools that have sent you a plan for starting sports later in the fall or early winter and running the high school sports year into July. Is that even feasible, considering the myriad obstacles that would have to be overcome to do that?
CA: I don't know if it's feasible to think that we can flop everything. A variety of models are being tossed around that have different start dates, including to play all three seasons with a modified season limitation and not overlap entire seasons. What I hesitate with is just to flop football and baseball. If we flop football to spring there's a huge number of track and field athletes, for example, that would have to make a choice and I don't want to do that. If we get delayed to early winter or even January, there are some models being presented to us that would still try to get all our seasons in.
DH: At one time you said a decision would need to be made by July 15 on starting fall sports on time, if at all. There is an IHSA board meeting July 22. Do you expect there to be some decisions made by then, or at that meeting?
CA: We are running out of time. Working together with our board, the intention would be we could share something with our membership. We need to know between now and that meeting what are our restrictions are going to be, otherwise we're shooting in the dark without any direction. Ultimately that decision is going to be made at the governor's office level and we need direction from them for planning. If there's no guidance, the board decision will have to be if they want to move forward or delay it longer until we get guidance. My recommendation would be to wait until we do have some guidance.
DH: In your heart of hearts, given all the information you currently have, do you truly expect fall sports of any kind to be played?
CA: Knowing what we know today, it's going to be difficult to conduct all of our fall sports under the restrictions we are under right now. Until we get some restrictions lifted that would permit physical contact it's going to be difficult. There's a possibility that some fall sports can be played. But even with a sport like cross country, it gets very difficult because the gatherings exceed 50 real quickly. It would be tough to race at a social distance. There's packs of runners who run in proximity to each other.
DH: Would you allow your son, Mac, a senior at downstate Morton High School, to play high school football in four weeks?
CA: Yes I would. He's a three-sport athlete and he's been involved with all of his teams this summer. My wife and I have had no hesitation in allowing him to compete.