Nothing could be more unclear: will IHSA basketball be played in the winter or in the spring.
During Thursday’s press conference, Gov. JB Pritzker said that winter high school sports, including basketball, would be “moved into spring” after the IHSA announced the previous day it would defy the IDPH guidelines set forth on Tuesday by beginning basketball practices on Nov. 16 and games on Nov. 30.
“We aren’t saying these sports won’t be played,” Pritzker said. “We are delaying the play of these sports. We are saying do training, do conditioning. Even the high-risk sports there are things they can do. It’s not like we are shutting the sports down. But these are all being moved into the spring with the hope that we will be seeing vaccines and treatments that will be effective.”
According to the Chicago Sun Times, Jordan Abudayyeh, Pritzker’s press secretary, confirmed that Pritzker means basketball will be postponed until spring.
“The Governor did not misspeak,” Abudayyeh said in an email. “The goal has never been to cancel seasons, but to rather postpone the seasons with the hope that by the spring there will be a vaccine or effective treatment that will allow more students to report to in-school, in-person and participate in extracurricular activities. There are currently 1.8 million students in the state who are in remote learning right now and as the Governor has said, he is focused on bringing down positivity rates in communities across the state so local school boards feel comfortable enough to bring students back into the classroom.”
Matt Daniels, at the News-Gazette, reported shortly after IHSA spokesman Matt Troha said that the high school sports organization had not been contacted by the Governor’s office, and was “not comfortable commenting.”
The IHSA did release IHSA’s Winter Sport Mitigation Consideration Thursday afternoon, though.
In a Thursday press conference, Champaign-Urbana Public Health Director Julie Pryde called the IHSA decision to move forward with winter basketball “ridiculous.”
“I am very frustrated by that decision,” she said. “Everybody keeps saying to me, ‘well what about college and professional?’ Well, college and professional is a lot different because they, first of all, are not going back into their homes or to their families or going back into the schools; for the most part they’re isolated. They’re in a sort of bubbles type situation. They can’t even be compared.
“And we also know that there are kids who have very, very serious complications from this, including death. And although it’s much lower, it’s not non- existent. Kids who get cardiomyopathy, for example, that’s not something you want because you have had a COVID infection.
“The IHSA’s decision is completely irresponsible, but it goes along with a lot of the other attitudes that we’re seeing out there, unfortunately. It’s very frustrating.”
According to IPDH guidelines, higher-risk sports, like basketball, can only have no-contact practices and training at this time.
