Hopeful high school sports season begins
Football returns despite shadow of COVID-19
The football left its tee on a crooked flight toward the Clark High School Eagles, heralding the start of a season that felt as though it would never come.
“Touchdown!” a fan yelled as the return man scrambled, looking for an opening through the swarming, black-clad King High School Jaguars. “Come this way! Come this way, shorty!”
The man was over-optimistic — the return was stopped for a short gain — but it was hard to fault his excitement in the early afternoon heat at Chicago’s Gately Stadium. High school football had returned to its traditional season, generating a feeling, warranted or not, that normal times might follow.
“I did have concerns, I must say, because of the pandemic,” said LaTonya Rounsaville, whose son Ishmael Davis plays receiver and special teams for the Eagles. “But I’m happy because he’s happy. And it gives me an opportunity to see him play.”
While high school sports are still operating under the shadow of COVID-19, some major changes are evident as the school year begins. Spectators are back. Masks, for the most part, are gone from the field of play. And the promise of competing for a state title is alive once more.
In Chicago, where many high schools struggled to get students to return to their classrooms in the spring, the anticipation is especially keen.
“Football is a magnet,” said David Underwood, who coaches at Julian High School. “You use (the sport) to get the whole student body back. The cheerleaders get to cheer, the band gets to play. It’s a way to bring the school together and get school spirit back.”
Vaccination could emerge as a key competitive advantage, especially in football. Teams that cannot field enough players due to positive tests will have to forfeit, damaging their chances of making the playoffs.
That has put some coaches in an awkward position. They want their athletes to get the shot, both for health reasons and to keep them on the field, but don’t feel it’s their place to coax.
“I try not to get too involved those talks,” said Nick Olson, football coach at Amundsen High School in Chicago. “I don’t even ask them. I don’t want to offend anybody or push the wrong buttons. … The coaches are vaccinated and I wish everyone would (do it), but not everyone thinks the same way.”
Vaccination, though, could also remove some hassles for players. Unlike the truncated spring sports season, when a single positive test forced entire squads into quarantine, vaccinated athletes can keep participating. And in Chicago, players who submit their vaccination records will not have to submit to weekly COVID testing.
Sports might also be the spur that prompts some schools to comply with Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s mask mandate. Private school holdouts have lost their recognition from the Illinois State Board of Education, which means they can’t participate in sports at all, while public schools have been put on probation.
Those schools can still compete during the regular season, assuming they can find teams willing to play them. If they can’t, they’ll have to take a forfeit loss, said IHSA Executive Director Craig Anderson. Schools on probation will not be able to participate in the postseason.
He said that rule has already motivated some schools to change their stance.
“There’s still a significant number that has yet to indicate to (the state) that they’ll meet the mandate, but we have seen some modify their adherence and come off probation,” he said.
Fall sports are coming back from a strange purgatory. Some were allowed to compete a year ago, albeit with limited travel and other restrictions, while others were moved to late winter or spring. The pre-vaccination eruption of positive COVID tests and quarantines meant some teams played only a few games.
Lincoln Park coach Reggie Collins said it was not a satisfying experience. The rushed season left his team unprepared for hitting and a rash of injuries followed, he said.
But in retrospect, he said, it was almost like a college program’s spring football regimen, and should lead to better play this fall.
“Our kids have had the time to prepare — weight room training and a good amount of practices,” he said. “We’re better prepared to take the field and play contact football.”
One change this fall is that athletes who compete in outdoor sports won’t have to wear masks, though that’s not true for indoor sports: Swimmers must wear them when not in the water, and volleyball players must wear them throughout their games.
That has already posed a challenge for schools like South Elgin, which does not have an air-conditioned gym. It canceled its first game because players had trouble breathing through their masks in the heat, coach Joni Plach said.
They went ahead with their second game, though the weather barely cooled. Senior libero Maggie McGough said she looked at it as a test of mental toughness.
“You just want to be able to say you did the best you could when the conditions were not what you wanted,” she said. “You want to say you put your entire effort into it.”
Swimmers, meanwhile, are getting a happy change this fall: After a season in which they could not compete in relays, those energizing races have been revived.
“(The athletes) are really excited,” said Sandburg girls coach Donna Driscoll. “Relays are a big part of the atmosphere. They love to compete for each other and their school and doing that on a relay is ideal.”
Like other athletes, soccer players are looking forward to the return of state championships. But Morton boys coach Jim Bageanis, whose team often ranks among the state’s best, said he’s trying to take a low-key approach.
“We’re just trying to get back up to speed,” he said. “We’ve got to develop that team chemistry of guys really knowing how to play with each other, like they did in the past.”
The chemistry took a while to gel for Clark High; the Eagles started the game with turnovers, missed tackles and ill-advised penalties. But as the game wore on they took control, hitting on a 70-yard touchdown pass early in the fourth quarter that stretched the lead to 40-20, which turned out to be the final score.
After the horn sounded, senior running back and linebacker Quadrell Hill took off his helmet and shoulder pads and stood on the sideline soaked in sweat, multiple touchdowns already in his account.
“What was it like to be on the field?” he said with a smile. “It’s a feeling I get (that’s hard to describe). It just felt great.”