A WAY FORWARD THIS WINTER?
Hoops coaches hope survey data will help winter sports get the green light
There’s a glimmer of hope for winter high school sports in Illinois — enough for optimists to hold on to for the next few weeks.
Dr. Ngozi Ezike, director of the Illinois Department of Public Health, was asked Wednesday about winter sports during a news conference with Gov. J. B. Pritzker. Both Ezike and Pritzker had steadfastly resisted pressure to start football the last two months, making definitive statements against such a move.
But the stance on winter sports appears lighter. Ezike even indirectly acknowledged the Illinois High School Association’s calendar.
“We will have all of that information [ on winter sports] released very shortly,” she said. “Many people are waiting on that information. We can’t delay because decisions have to be made and people need to govern themselves accordingly.”
Winter sports practices are scheduled to begin Nov. 16, with the first competitions scheduled for Nov. 30. Low- risk winter sports ( boys swimming, bowling, girls gymnastics) are good to go under the IDPH’s current guidelines. But medium- risk winter sports ( boys and girls basketball) and high- risk winter sports ( wrestling, cheerleading and dance) can’t hold competitions until the IDPH moves them from Level 2 to Level 3.
Illinois basketball coaches have started a campaign to try to ensure the season starts as scheduled. It’s a bit different in tone from the “Let Us Play” campaign, which held protests around the state over the last two months calling for football and other fall sports to be reinstated.
On Monday, the Illinois Basketball Coaches Association released the results of a survey of the state’s basketball coaches. Nearly 800 responded to the survey, which collected data on how contact days ( supervised practices, basically) have gone during the pandemic. The IHSA allowed coaches 20 days of contact with their teams.
Contact days were used in July and August or are happening currently. Fifty- one percent of coaches said they used contact days over the summer. Seven percent of those coaches reported positive coronavirus cases on their teams — usually one or two cases.
Sixty- nine percent of coaches are currently using contact days. Nine percent of those coaches reported known coronavirus cases involving members of their program ( both coaches and players). Most had one to two cases. Two coaches reported outbreaks of three to five cases.
“The 9% isn’t 9% of the people that are playing,” said St. Ignatius coach Matt Monroe, an IBCA executive board member. “That’s the amount of programs. We had about 60 kids participating in contact days. Most schools would have at least 20. So the percentage of participants that had cases is much lower than 9%.”
Chicago Public Schools did not allow teams to conduct contact days, so a large percentage of the respondents that didn’t hold contact days was likely in the city.
Monroe said the IBCA is in regular contact with the IHSA and hopes to get the survey to the IDPH and Pritzker’s office.
Coaches were overwhelmingly in favor of starting the season on time. Ninety- five percent want to start as scheduled, and 81% said they believed their districts would allow basketball to start on time. Eighteen percent were uncertain what their district would permit, and fewer than 1% were sure basketball wouldn’t be allowed.
“Our main concern is the health and safety of players and families and officials,” Monroe said. “We wanted to collect and share the data. Obviously, it is our hope that we can play the season on time. But we are not medical officials. We leave the decisions on what mitigations should be in place to the health professionals.”