‘Let us play’: High school students and parents rally
Demand Pritzker allow fall sports amid the pandemic
About 100 parents and students rallied Saturday morning at the Thompson Center, chanting “Let us play” and demanding that Gov. J.B. Pritzker allow students to participate in fall sports.
Groups of students from Loyola Academy, Glenbrook North High School, Batavia High School and other, mostly suburban, schools gathered in jerseys with signs decrying Pritzker’s decision to halt football and a number of other sports deemed higher risk during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Student speakers at the rally pointed to other Midwest states that are allowing football and other contact sports to proceed, and said students will lose out on college scholarships and miss out on opportunities to get exercise, maintain good mental health and build leadership skills.
“It’s our way of escape,” said Myles Mooyoung, a senior football player at Kenwood Academy High School, in the city’s Kenwood neighborhood on the South Side. “It’s how we get scholarships.”
Pritzker in July unveiled restrictions for fall sports for youth and adult recreational leagues, barring some contact sports from engaging in any play beyond practices and nocontact training. Those strictest guidelines apply to football, hockey, lacrosse, rugby, wrestling, and competitive cheer and dance.
Basketball, soccer, volleyball and water polo are among the sports the state considers medium risk.
The Illinois High School Association, deferring to state officials, moved high school football, boys soccer and girls volleyball — sports considered to be at medium to high risk of virus transmission — to the spring. But the organization recently sought to regain authority over its calendar after surrounding states began playing contact sports without reports of major outbreaks.
At Saturday’s rally, students asked for a chance to show they could play safely. They pointed to students in the crowd who were wearing masks.
“We can do this safely, just like everyone else in the Midwest,” said Jaylen Brown, a senior football player at Wheaton Warrenville South High School.
Also among the roster of speakers at Saturday’s event was Republican state Rep. Darren Bailey, of Xenia, who has sued Pritzker over his statewide mandates related to COVID-19, alleging they are an overreach of his powers under state law.
“It’s time to take our state back,” Bailey told the crowd, adding that he drove four hours from the small village in southern Illinois to be there.
But a reversal by Pritzker appears unlikely. At a news conference Wednesday, the governor said his scientific advisers say the risk remains too high. He referenced the Frontier Community College baseball team in the southern Illinois town of Fairfield, where 37 players recently tested positive for the virus.
“This is a terrible and unprecedented moment in our country. … While parents might choose to send their children out onto the playing field, I can tell you that someone else who becomes ill because of that decision wouldn’t call that your personal choice,” Pritzker said.