Pontiac hoops fest a COVID casualty
Jim Drengwitz, the Pontiac Holiday Tournament director, called Friday with another stark reminder of the unique times we live in.
Drengwitz canceled this year’s tournament. It’s the first time that has happened since a six-year break from 1942 until 1947 that encompassed World War II.
“I never imagined I’d be the guy canceling it again,” Drengwitz said. “But that’s just where we are. We weren’t going to be able to put on the tournament we wanted. There are just too many things I couldn’t control.”
The tournament began in 1926 and was the first high school basketball holiday tournament in the state and likely the country. What does the future hold? It’s clear there won’t be any traditional holiday tournaments, but what will basketball look like this winter? Well, for it to happen at all, the Illinois Department of Public Health will have to allow medium risk sports to be played at its Level 3. The state is at Level 2. That only allows intrateam scrimmages and no competitive play.
The IDPH has not said how the state moves to Level 3. The Illinois High School Association hopes for guidance on that this month. Basketball practices start Nov. 16. Those would be allowed under IDPH guidelines, but the state would have to move to Level 3 for games to be play teams from many of the south suburbs.
“Technically, it looks like we could still play Hillcrest,” Evanston AD Chris Livatino said. “Our region does look the best. It’s interesting because there are different pockets in the north, west and south. We could maybe do some fun things with that.”
If games do happen, they are likely to be with no crowds or a smattering of fewer than 50 people. And masks most likely will be required for the players. That already has been mandated during the contact days the last month, so the kids are used to them.
“The kids have been in masks all summer long,” Livatino said. “There has been no problem at all. We aren’t allowed in our building, so all of our basketball contact days have been at Mason Park and the players have masks on all the time.”
Every school district likely will have a slightly different approach. Oak Park is only going to allow conference games, so the Huskies might not be able to benefit from being in the suburban Cook region.
It’s also possible that some districts won’t allow basketball at all, no matter what the IDPH or IHSA says. Chicago Public Schools didn’t allow basketball teams to hold contact days this fall, so it’s difficult to see that changing in a month.
There are rumors that high-level Public League basketball teams are looking at creative ways around the guidelines. The players are already holding weekly games across the state line in Hammond.
The bottom line is that even if basketball is allowed this winter, it will look nothing like we’ve seen before.