The Illinois Elementary School Association planned to allow member schools to begin boys’ basketball practice on Jan. 4, but received word on Dec. 29 that the state of Illinois remains in Tier 3 mitigations.
IESA Executive Director Steve Endsley wrote in a press release that he believes “ it is safe to assume that girls volleyball should be paused as well when it is scheduled to start January 11.”
While the update was not completely unexpected as Tier 3 mitigations were put into place until at least Jan. 7, Endsley wrote that that IESA will no longer establish new season dates for boys basketball and girls volleyball.
“As we have seen since mid-July, these sports which are considered medium risk and high risk are not going to be allowed to be held until they are moved to low risk and/or Illinois moves into Phase 5 of Restore Illinois,” Endsley wrote. “It would an effort in futility to once again set up arbitrary dates for these sports only to once again be told by the Governor’s Office and IDPH that they cannot start on the dates IESA established.
“Rather than set new dates, which then requires the athletic director to re-schedule contests, find new officials, etc., we will await word from the Governor’s Office and IDPH when activities will be allowed to resume. When that word is given, we will then convene a meeting of the IESA Board of Directors to decide our plan moving forward and immediately notify the IESA membership of the new schedule.”
Other activities, like girls’ basketball, which is scheduled to begin on March 5, will continue to go unchanged at this point in time.
Endsley said that the IESA hopes to conduct all sports for its athletes in 2021.
“Our hope is that we will still be able to conduct some type of season for all but one of our sports and activities. The only activity which has been officially cancelled is the chess competition. Nothing else has been cancelled,” he wrote.
“Keep in mind that depending on when the Governor’s Office and/or the IDPH gives us the green light to return to play, we could be facing an almost impossible challenge of trying to conduct a season in all activities with very little time left in the 2020-21 school year. Should we get the green light in April to return to play, think of the challenges for the schools, the students, the coaches, availability of contest officials, etc. if girls basketball, boys basketball, girls volleyball, boys wrestling, and girls and boys track and field are attempted to be held in April and May. Throw in the activities of scholastic bowl, music, bowling, and perhaps cheerleading and the task to do everything in two months becomes even more difficult. These will be the issues the IESA Board of Directors must tackle when they convene to determine a plan moving forward if/when we are allowed to return to play.”
The IESA has already decided to not try and hold IESA activities anytime in June.
