IHSA takes first step toward fall
Return to Play plan has area athletic directors, coaches eager to go back to work
The first step toward having an Illinois high school sports season in the fall has been taken.
The IHSA released guidelines Friday for Phase 1 of its Return to Play plan.
Voluntary strength and conditioning activities are allowed beginning on Saturday, June 6. High school sports in Illinois have been shut down since March 12 due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The next step? Finding ways to be creative, according to West Aurora athletic director Jason Buckley.
“It’s a positive step and encouraging, but ultimately there are a lot of questions to be answered as far as the implementation of this,” Buckley said. “The good news is we’re all kind of in this together and playing with the same guidelines.
“Nobody has the blueprint, so we’ll all figure it out together.”
Lincoln-Way East athletic director
Mark Vander Kooi began sending out emails to his coaches Friday.
“I will be meeting with any coach who is going to utilize workouts in this phase,” Vander Kooi said. “I think it’s important enough to meet in person. We won’t do a Zoom meeting. We’ll meet face mask to face mask.”
Phase 1 of the plan — which was developed by the IHSA Sports Medicine Advisory Committee — limits students to three hours of participation per day with several requirements:
■ Participants must maintain social distance by being six feet apart.
■ Masks are to be worn when social distancing cannot be maintained.
■ Workout groups are limited to 10 or less, including the coach and medical personnel.
■ Students who participate in multiple sports for the year are encouraged to be grouped for summer participation in their fall sport.
■ Interaction between groups is not permitted.
■ Sessions can only include weightlifting, running and exercises designed to promote physical fitness.
■ Sport-specific drills are not permitted and sport-specific equipment may not be used.
■ Athletes are to be monitored at start of practice for temperature or symptoms of COVID-19. If symptoms are present, they are not to participate in practice and should be referred to a physician for evaluation and testing.
■ Athletes will be required to bring their own water bottle, shoes, towels and other personal equipment. The use of locker rooms, shared water coolers with cups and water fountains will be prohibited.
■ Camps, clinics and open gyms sponsored by IHSA member schools are prohibited in any sport at this time.
The most challenging requirement appears to be working in groups of 10 or less, particularly in football.
“The problem with us is we have 200 kids in our football program,” Vander Kooi said. “In soccer, we could have 60 kids out there. And right now, I have two non-touch temperature gauges, so we can’t have 200 kids show up at the same time.
“We’re going to have to figure out how to stagger their start times and keep them socially distanced.”
Craig Anderson, executive director of the IHSA, was poised to release the plan a week earlier, but remained in a holding pattern while awaiting approval from the Illinois Department of Public Heath.
“I commend the IHSA SMAC for crafting a plan that fits within the framework provided by state leadership and refuses to compromise safety,” Anderson said. “The IHSA Return to Play guidelines offer some important first steps in allowing student-athletes to reacclimate both physically and mentally.
“We will continue to seek input from our Sports Medicine
Advisory Committee, while following guidance from the Illinois Department of Public Health, on what potentially happens next in late June.”
High school sports in Illinois came to a halt on March 12 when the boys basketball state tournament was stopped due to the coronavirus pandemic. After several extensions of the stay-at-home order in Illinois, the spring sports state finals were canceled on April 21. Almost two months later, fall sports has a pulse.
“We’ve been waiting a long time,” Mother McAuley athletic director Laurie Jakubczak said. “I understand with everything going on, the state has to make sure that we get approval from everyone. But we’re really excited to be able to see our kids again.”