Knights ‘ready to go’ for season start
With IHSA in holding pattern, Chicago Christian’s Pittman ‘ready to go’ for first day of practice
With IHSA in holding pattern, Chicago Christian coachKevin Pittman prepared, eager for first day of practice.
Kevin Pittman can’t wait for the first official day of basketball practice on Monday.
You can hear the excitement in his voice.
Entering his 16th season as Chicago Christian’s boys basketball coach, Pittman said, in fact, he’s as excited for the tipoff to this season as he has ever been.
“My (gym) bag is packed in my room,” he said. “My first three days of practice are mapped out. I can’t wait to put the whistle around my neck and a mask around my face. I’m ready to go.”
And Pittman has the support of his school’s administration, which gave its approval for the Knights to start the season on time.
That’s part of Pittman’s enthusiasm.
The other part comes from the interest of his players.
“We’ll have more kids at try outs Monday than I’ve had in years at all levels,” Pittman said. “I understand every angle of this pandemic. The kids are looking for something to do.”
It’s likely the Knights, however, are going to have to find
something else to do after Nov. 19.
That’s when the Illinois High School Association’s board hopes to sit down with Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s office, the Illinois Department of Public Health, the Illinois Principals Association, the Illinois Association of School Administrators, the Illinois State Board of Education and a group of approximately 200 school superintendents to discuss the next step for the basketball season.
Just make sure to bill Pritzker for the coffee and donuts.
“The board hopes to create a dialogue and build amore collaborative relationship with all the entities involved with developing sports policy in our state as everyone tries to navigate the myriad issues caused by the pandemic,” said Craig Anderson, the IHSA’s executive director.
In theory, an open dialogue between the IHSA, the governor and the IDPH should have happened all along.
Somewhere, the lines of communication were snapped. I do know Anderson has reached out to the governor’s office without much success.
The IHSA announced Wednesday schools wishing to practice Monday should adhere to the IDPH’s Level 1 mitigations until at least Nov. 19. Then all bets are off.
“If there’s a delay to the start
of the season until December or January, it’s better than coming out and saying there’s no season,” Pittman said.“We believe we can have a season right now and do it safely.”
Pritzker isn’t on board. He announced Oct. 29 that basketball would be delayed until the spring, which leads me to believe he’s not familiar whatsoever with the intricacies of high school sports.
Such as multisport athletes and facilities.
The spring season, which is scheduled to begin Feb. 15, is already a crowded field with football, boys soccer, girls volleyball, badminton and boys and girls water polo.
Pritzkerwants to add boys and girls basketball to the mix, too?
Someone needs to inform the governor there isn’t a school in the Southland with the facilities to accommodate that many practices and games.
Not even Home wood-Flossmoor— with its magnificent, state-of-the-art, $27 million field house, multiple artificial turf fields and basketball courts — could pull that off.
H-F boys basketball coach Marc Condotti admitted as much.
“Remember, we’re not talking about just varsity,” he said. “We’re talking three levels of boys and girls basketball, boys soccer, football and girls volleyball, all trying to practice and play games. We don’t have the facilities that can handle all of that.”
And believe me, if H-F can’t swing it, nobody can.
The other issue is sharing student-athletes. There are boys who play basketball and football and girls who play basketball and volleyball.
Many schools rely on those multisport athletes to not only improve their chances at winning but to provide depth on rosters.
Chicago Christian, with approximately 300 students, is one of those schools.
“We share athletes as much as any school around,” Pittman said. “Moving basketball to the spring will force kids to choose a sport. I’ll definitely lose some kids.”
That’s why it’s imperative all parties at the Nov. 19 powwow don’t slam the door shut on delaying the season to December or January.
I knowit’s unlikely, but maybe this latest surge in COVID-19 cases subsides and allows a window of opportunity to play.
Let’s wait and see and offer some hope.
“Our school can’t share all those athletes in the spring,” Pittman said. “Itwould hurt us unimaginably.”
He’s not alone.