Hensley looking to provide “meaningful experiences” in a world of unpredictability

The unpredictability of summer 2020 has left nothing untouched. 

Even pastimes, such as childhood sports, have been canceled or modified to curb the spread of COVID-19. 

In the last two months, high school coaches, athletes and athletic directors in Illinois have taken what they can get. They have spent time working on agility, strength and fundamentals, sometimes just to spend time together and other times preparing for a season which is certain to be filled with unpredictability. 

IHSA officials are expected to meet with the Illinois State Board of Education and the Illinois Department of Public Health on Friday. The IHSA board was supposed to meet this week, but postponed the meeting in order to consult with public health officials first.

“The special board of directors’ meeting scheduled for (Wednesday) has been postponed until July 29, 2020,” an email to Illinois Athletic Directors from Illinois High School Association executive director Craig Anderson said. “The reason for the postponement is two-fold. First, to date we continue to have incomplete information from IDPH and the Governor’s office on what plans/limitations will exist for the fall sports time period. Second, two members of our board of directors will join me in a virtual roundtable with representatives of IDPH and ISBE on Friday, July 24 to help us gain more information on the circumstances surrounding a return to activities.”

The email also said the IHSA is  prepared to delay the start of the 2020-21 high school sports season. 

“If we remain limited in our ability to offer all of our fall sports this fall, we are considering a schedule that would permit all three seasons of sport activity to be conducted during the 2020-21 school year,” Anderson said in the email. “We have received numerous emails from school administrators requesting this model to play out. This idea remains a priority for our staff and board. We are considering virtual competitions for many of our activities.”

Earlier this month, Phase 4 of the IHSA’s Return to Play plan was rolled out, allowing sport specific practices and competitions to resume. 

Mahomet-Seymour Athletic Director Matt Hensley reported to the Mahomet-Seymour School Board that the Bulldog football team was ready to take the field in 7-on-7 competitions, and the volleyball team would host a summer league event at Mahomet-Seymour. 

St. Joseph-Ogden was ready to take a controlled approach to competition, inviting nearby schools, such as Oakwood and Tuscola to a 7-on-7 game on July 22. Spartan Athletic Director Justin Franzen said that conversations about inviting nearby teams for a volleyball league were also in the works. 

Keeping things close to home was important for St. Joseph-Ogden. But all of the talk and planning for a semblance of regular summer athletic activity came to an end within a few days when IDPH said contact was no longer allowed.

Oakwood Principal Tim Lee said the mid-morning email from IHSA stating the updated guidelines changed what Comet teams had planned that day.

“We were all ready to go,” Lee said. “We have a couple coaches that were ready to have scrimmages and drills and more close contact stuff ready to go, and then you know, you get the email mid-morning. We started getting messages out that this is effective immediately. Coaches had to change plans; I think one or two coaches might have even canceled.”

As area high school coaches, athletes and athletic directors have taken mandates, such as health screenings, fewer contact days or a summer without competition in stride, there is a bit of frustration for some coaches, Lee said.

“The coaches they feel like the administrators are holding them back, the administrator is trying to follow the IHSA guidelines,” Lee said. “They’re raring to go. They enjoy seeing their kids. They want to get out there and do the things that they love to do, the things they’ve always wanted to do and it’s just difficult right now.”

Lee said that just like the coaches, athletes are ready to go. 

“The kids are pretty positive and ready to get back at it,” he said.

Franzen said, at this point in time, SJ-O is going to continue to move forward, following IDPH and IHSA guidelines, as if fall, winter and spring sports will continue until they are told differently.

“We’re going to react to whatever those adjustments are, and follow whatever guidelines are necessary,” Franzen said. “I guess just what we see for the future is we’re going to play eventually and no matter how we do that, we’re going to just adjust whatever we need to adjust in the rest of July and August and September and who knows, it might even be first semester into second semester, we just don’t know those answers yet.”

Hensley and Franzen said that they work with others within their conferences, the Apollo Conference and Illini Prairie Conference, respectively, to problem solve and come up with solutions on what works to get student-athletes on the field. 

“We want to do what’s best for our kids,” Franzen said. 

“I know a lot of athletic directors feel the same way I do: whatever it takes. If we flip seasons, if we have to postpone seasons to a different date and find officials and sign other contracts and stuff like that, I’ll do whatever it takes. I just want our kids to play, and I owe that to our kids.”

Hensley added that working with other athletic directors and weekly meetings with the IHSA helps to make decisions that positively impact athletic teams. 

“Either Craig Anderson or someone from the administrative staff is part of those meetings,” Hensley said. “They’re not sharing with us anything that is top secret behind-the-scenes information by any stretch of the imagination. Our Athletic Directors Association has a pretty active tab on our website that has a lot of different resources that ADs across the state have shared from their plan or their projections in terms of how they’re managing their programs at the building or at the district level, whichever is most applicable.”

Hensley said that the way athletic directors are communicating isn’t much different than how they communicated before COVID-19. 

“The questions are a little bit different and the frustration level looks a little bit higher because as athletic directors, for the majority of us, it is our life’s avocation to give kids the opportunity to participate in interscholastic activities. So when you can’t do that, it’s frustrating.”

Whatever the fate of 2020 fall sports should be, Hensley is preparing for Bulldog athletics to operate within the guidelines. 

He believes that golf, tennis and swimming could be some activities that start on time. 

“I think there’s going to be some things that are probably going to be a fairly seamless moving forward, all things being equal,” Hensley said.  And then there are going to be some programs that are going to be more challenging.”

For example, where big invitationals are scheduled in cross-country, competitions may be modified to duals. Hensley said if one school hosts the girls and the other school hosts the boys’ teams, he believes that total participants could be under 50 people.

“If I’m given the choice where kids can compete against 25 kids versus a cross-country meet where they’re running against 250 kids, and my other option is not giving them the opportunity to participate, then we’re going to do whatever we can do to give them the opportunity to participate.”

Lee believes that there may be ways for volleyball and soccer to compete, too, but with the current guidelines that are in place, he believes it will be difficult for football. 

“I’m all for sports,” Lee said. “I’m a longtime coach and I think it’s an important part of our schools, but if we can’t get school off the ground, then, I’m not sure what athletics look like. It’s probably not a popular opinion, but that’s kind of where we’re at.”

“We’d love to play. We want to see the kids play. We think that’s a big part of our culture here at (Oakwood) high school is the involvement in the school spirit and we know that athletics is a huge part of that. So I hope we get to that end soon, but there’s a lot of hurdles between here and there that we’re going to have to work out.”

Hensley added that while the end goal is to get kids in school and back on the field or court, the first priority is the health and welfare of students, teachers and coaches.

“How can we continue to engage our students at a high level, to give them meaningful experiences that they can grow and mature and be part of something special? If that involves not flipping on the lights on a Friday night, what does that look like as a possible scenario?”