The Illinois Elementary School Association (IESA) released a statement after the IHSA decided to move forward with high school basketball despite IDPH guidelines Wednesday.
“Earlier today, the Illinois High School Association (IHSA) held a special meeting of their Board of Directors,” Executive Director Steve Endsley wrote.. “During their meeting, the IHSA Board voted to allow high schools to move forward with basketball practice starting November 16 and games to begin November 30. While it is a local decision as to whether a high school will move forward with their basketball season, the IHSA Board believes the guidelines they have in place allow basketball to be played in a safe manner. The Board strongly believes that high school students need to participate in education-based activities for their mental and physical well-being and that the IDPH totally disregarded the information that was presented to them by the IHSA as they made their decision to move basketball to the Higher Risk level.
“How does this impact IESA member schools? In some ways, it does not impact us too much. In other ways, it does have an impact.”
IESA, junior high boys’ basketball games, are not scheduled to begin until January 16. Junior high girls basketball games are not scheduled to start until March 20.
Whether or not the IDPH guidelines will be the same in January or March still remains to be seen, the statement says.
But IESA contact days run from November 2-December 18.
“With basketball having been moved into Higher Risk, contact days for your basketball players may only be held at Level 1 which does not allow for physical contact in practice. It allows for training only.
“At this point, I believe the safest course of action for the IESA membership is to follow the guidelines of the IDPH. The IESA Board of Directors will need to meet and review all that has transpired in the past two days. I simply believe that until that meeting happens, the IESA membership should follow IDPH guidelines,” Endsley wrote.
Girls volleyball, a moderate risk sport, can operate under Level 2 guidance: intra-team scrimmages allowed, with parental consent for minors and no competitive play. Matches are set to begin Jan. 23.
Endsley wrote that IESA boys wrestling will not begin in January, but he is hopeful that something will happen for wrestling in the 2020-21 school year.
