Spring football’s ‘excitement level isn’t the same’
Homewood-Flossmoor High School seniors Alex Barrera and John Prokop didn’t like what they were seeing in front of them nor behind them during halftime of Friday night’s football game against Lincoln-Way East.
As they stood in the front of the student section with a few of their friends, they could see the scoreboard showed their team down, 17-0, in the SouthWest Suburban Blue showdown. Behind them was not a sea of red and white from students donning the school colors. It was more of a sea of silver as rows of bleachers were largely unused.
“It’s the biggest game in the conference,” Barrera said. “The seniors received 100 tickets and we don’t have 100 students here.”
“Last week we had a decent crowd, and it was fun,” Prokop said. “This week there aren’t enough people here. The excitement level isn’t the same out here.”
After this Saturday’s action, the high school football season, which usually lasts between nine and 14 weeks in the fall for most teams in Illinois, will be at the halfway point of a six-week, no-playoff spring season.
Illinois was the only state in the Midwest to cancel fall football as the Illinois High School Association continued to follow Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s rules and mitigations, which sparked controversy as rallies to bring back sports popped up across the state.
In January, when a chance for spring football seemed to be hanging on a thread, the state loosened its mitigations and worked with the IHSA for a spring season. But that has already brought some strange things:
• Playing football on Easter weekend. Many games throughout the Southland will be played on Thursday, just a couple on Good Friday and a few more on Saturday.
• Major projects on athletic fields are forcing some teams to play all of their games away from home, including Richards and Shepard as their fields are being converted to turf.
• Each school having the option of allowing bands, cheerleaders and dance teams at the games. Some take advantage of it. Others skip the extras and just concentrate on football.
• Sophomore football games, which used to be played before the varsity games, being been moved to a different day for most teams.
• Games getting canceled at the last minute because of the virus leaving some teams to scramble to find an opponent at the eleventh hour.
• Full-service concession stands not being open.
• Attendance being reduced to 20% capacity. Visiting fans are allowed at some schools but not others. St. Laurence fans were shut out of Saturday’s game at Nazareth Academy Saturday and the portable visiting bleachers were nowhere to be seen.
A game such as East vs. Homewood-Flossmoor could draw anywhere up to 5,000 fans in a normal year, according to Vikings athletic director Matt Lyke. It didn’t reach the 1,000 mark Friday.
Lincoln-Way East receiver Max Tomczak noticed the difference.
“I kind of knew when we had a season that we wouldn’t see that many fans,” Tomczak said. “It’s different. It’s not as loud. If all the fans would have been allowed, it would have been crazy at kickoff. You wouldn’t have been able to hear anything.”
After a victory over Stagg in Week 1, Sandburg quarterback Kevin Zimmer quipped, “I was happy we’re all able to come together and play in front of the few fans that we got.”
With just three weeks left in the season, the 20% mark will stay unless the state changes the mitigations status.
H-F allotted up to 500 tickets for parents or guardians of football players, band members and cheerleaders, 100 tickets for senior students and 200 for opposing fans. Lyke would like to see that increase.
“We’ll see what happens,” Lyke said. “From a visiting perspective, that policy will probably stay because we have that in place and it’s been approved by the conference. If the mitigations change and we can allow more fans, then we’re going to open it up to more parents and guardians, other family members and maybe even more of our student body.”
H-F was one of the few schools during basketball season to feature band and cheerleaders during games, so it was no surprise they have been at football games, too.
“Our goal at first was to bring kids back,” Lyke said. “So, we were able to bring our extracurricular kids back such as our jazz band and cheerleaders who haven’t had an opportunity in that space. We wanted to give them an opportunity first.”
Throughout the changes and uncertainty, football is back and that makes some people happy.
Tim O’Halloran, who most people in football circles is known as “Edgy Tim,” is a multimedia IHSA football expert and he said he is able to see more games per week as Catholic League teams have scheduled Sunday games.
Retiring Lincoln-Way East Principal Sharon Michalak said that having football back brings her student body closer to normalcy.
Mark Cohen, whose son, Alan, is a senior lineman for Lincoln-Way East, is happy because his son is heading to Ball State to work on a nursing degree, and the next four games will wrap up his athletic career.
“When your kids grow up, they eventually stop playing,” Mark said. “Just to be able to see them on the field one more time is important. It’s great to have one more opportunity to be in the stands and cheer on my son.”
And H-F coach Craig Buzea? He joined the Vikings in 2010 and is coaching his final season at the school to take a job in Indiana in the fall. He wanted one more season with these players.
Even though his roster shrunk to 40 players and his team, ranked sixth in the state in Class 8A by Associated Press, lost 31-0 to the No. 2 Griffins, it beat having no season at all.
“I’ve never been so happy after a loss,” Buzea said. “I’m so glad football is back.”