By FRED KRONER
The clock was restarted on Wednesday.
It’s go-time for high school athletes in the state.
Late in the afternoon on a snowy Wednesday, the Illinois High School Association issued guidelines for a return to competition for the 25 sports which have officially been on hold.
“It has been a different kind of year and I’m obviously excited that all of the athletes at St. Joseph-Ogden and in the state of Illinois get a chance to return,” SJ-O girls’ basketball coach Kevin Taylor said.
“I told our team that we wanted answers, and today we got them.”
The IHSA sports are grouped into one of three seasons, a winter season which begins immediately and concludes on March 13, a spring season which goes from March 3-April 24 and a summer season which, for most sports, starts on April 5 and ends on June 19.
Heritage athletic director Lori Archer is pleased to have a plan established.
“I’m glad to have some direction so we can begin moving forward,” Archer said. “I’m pleased that the IHSA was able to put together a timeline that accommodates all sports.”
The seasons are truncated, but no sport on the IHSA play list is excluded. There will be no postseason contests for the winter or spring sports, but the IHSA kept the door open for allowing postseason games for the summer sports, which lost their entire outdoor seasons in 2020.
“What they did was a good compromise,” SJ-O athletic director Justin Franzen said. “There are only so many days on the (school) calendar to work with.
“We want proper closure for all of our athletes, especially the seniors. We’re excited to see them back in uniform.”
Basketball teams can start scheduling games after seven practices – a change from what was previously 12 practices – and the Villa Grove/Heritage girls’ basketball team will take to the court for its first game on Saturday at 2 p.m. at Tuscola.
Joining basketball in the current winter sports season are bowling, cheerleading, dance and boys’ swimming.
The spring sport season features three sports that were all postponed from last fall: football, boys’ soccer and volleyball.
The summer sports include baseball, girls’ soccer, softball, track and field, and wrestling.
The wrestling season is the only summer sport which won’t start on April 5 and end on June 19. Wrestling begins on April 19 and finishes on June 12.
SJ-O boys’ basketball coach Kiel Duval acknowledged that, in an ideal world, he had hoped for more. But, he is satisfied that the end of the tunnel has been reached.
“Was I hoping for some sort of regional, end-of-season tournament?” Duval asked. “Yes. However, a week ago I thought we had a 20 percent chance of playing this year.
“I’m very excited for our guys to get an opportunity to play together. I think at this point, that is all that matters. I wanted our players, our athletes, to get some sort of normalcy this year and play. They have had a tough year. This is a step in the right direction.”
The Spartans don’t yet have a basketball schedule, but Duval is hopeful that the team’s opener will be on Friday (Feb. 5). Officials have already been hired for a home date that night.
“It is quick,” Duval said. “We won’t be ready, but I think our guys want to play. We are hoping to get somewhere around 15 games in if everything goes well.”
SJ-O expects to start into the conference portion of its basketball schedule the week of February 8.
Athletes who play a sport in each of the upcoming three seasons may face some choices. Not every season ends before another one starts.
“I was hoping to not have as much overlap,” Oakwood athletic director John Odle said. “That makes it tough on the smaller schools (who traditionally share athletes).
“My concern is that athletes stay healthy in multiple sports over a short period of time. It’s wear and tear on the young kids.”
Odle said it wasn’t like there were a bunch of other viable alternatives.
“There’s not a good answer any way you look at it,” he said.
Oakwood football coach Al Craig echoes many of Odle’s sentiments.
“I am a little concerned for my three-sport athletes,” Craig said. “That is a lot, and you worry about wear and tear on a young body.
“I know for me personally as a three-sport athlete in high school, I thought I was invincible and even when things would hurt or bother me, I’d push through it and that was just doing one (sport) at a time.
“I know we have a great group of coaches at Oakwood that will be mindful of this and we will do what is right for our two- and three-sport athletes.”
Oakwood boys’ basketball coach Jeff Mandrell appreciates the chance to play games, but he recognizes that the coronavirus could still wreck plans.
“We realize we continue to have to take things one day at a time,” Mandrell said. “We are waiting to see how our schedule will be.
“This has been an extraordinarily challenging year for athletic directors as they have had to rework schedules multiple times. I’m happy for the athletes who will be able to play sports and represent their schools.”
Villa Grove/Heritage girls’ basketball coach Dan Sappenfield received the notification of what the IHSA decided during his team’s practice on Wednesday.
He quickly noticed a change in his 13-member squad.
“Practices have been lively anyway because kids are anxious to play,” Sappenfield said, “but that (news) took it to another level.
“It was fun to see the expressions on the kids’ faces.”
Though the entire state series will be canceled for basketball, Sappenfield doesn’t view that as a negative for this year.
“When we started practice, I wasn’t sure if we would get any games,” Sappenfield said. “I told the kids, ‘This (practice) could be it.’
“We hope to get about 15 games. I told them, ‘Let’s go out and have fun.’ At the end of the day, it’s an opportunity to play and see friends from other teams.”
His squad members are on board.
“When I told them there was no state series, they said, ‘That’s all right as long as we get games.’”
Corey White, the Villa Grove/Heritage boys’ basketball coach, believes all of the staff members will be supportive when athletes face situations where sports overlap.
“The (nine) seniors want to get everything they can,” White said. “One already asked me what I thought about the overlap.
“At that point, if they need to go to those (football) practices, maybe they just play in the (basketball) games (without practicing).”
Priorities for scheduling, White said, will be the conference games. Villa Grove/Heritage is in the 11-school Lincoln Prairie Conference.
“We’ll try to get all of the conference games in before football (practice) starts,” White said.
The 10-game league schedule will be the centerpiece of the season.
“I question a little why they (IHSA) couldn’t do a regional round, but we can still play for a conference championship,” White said.
The Hawks will meet their practice requirement on Monday, meaning a basketball game could happen as soon as Tuesday (Feb. 2).
“I’m worried about (finding) officials,” White said. “That might cause us to have some weird playing dates, like Wednesday night or Saturday morning.”
While basketball, baseball and softball teams don’t have a limit on the number of games that can be scheduled, football is faced with a six-game season.
Just because there are no limits, Franzen said that doesn’t mean he will schedule 30-plus games in basketball.
“You don’t want to schedule too many games early,” Franzen said. “Kids need to get their basketball legs back. You want to make sure you’re careful.”
A six-game football schedule is acceptable to VG/Heritage coach Heath Wilson.
“In all honesty, I was predicting that we would only get four games,” Wilson said. “Today’s announcement that we are getting to play six games is great.”
He agrees with White that the various coaches will help sort things out for the multi-sport athletes.
“Coach White, Coach (Jason) Conn (baseball) and myself will get together and coordinate a plan so that players won’t get stressed out thinking they have to choose a sport,” Wilson said. “I recognize that this schedule does make it tough for the kids, but they are young and will adapt.
“I have already received a text from (senior) Ezra Ely, that he’s excited with the outcome. It makes me so happy to hear how excited these athletes are to finally get to play.”
This is not a year to complain, Wilson said.
“It may not be the type of season they dreamed of,” he said. “I am impressed that the IHSA was able to squeeze all sports into the little time we have left in the school year.”
SJ-O football coach Shawn Skinner sees much of the spring football season as preparation for the 2021-22 season, which is expected to start in August.
“In many ways, we are laying the foundation for what we will do in just six months when, if all things go well, we have a regular season,” Skinner said. “It’s also exciting because we will get to see some of our seniors pad up and take the field for a few more Friday Night Lights.
“Football is so special because there really is a limited number of times you get to put pads on and play the sport. As a coaching staff, we are excited to get to work with our kids and see what they have to offer.”
Skinner recognizes, however, that not everything is guaranteed to be smooth sailing from here on out.
“Clearly these are not normal times and there will be hurdles to overcome,” he said, “but what matters is that those who wanted a season are getting it.”
Odle is concerned that it won’t take much to force major shakeups in the plans.
“In a six-week basketball season, if athletes are positive (for COVID-19) and then quarantined, teams may not be able to play for 10 days,” Odle said. “Schools on their schedule would have to fill the gaps.
“We have to do what we can to make sure programs don’t go down.”
SJ-O’s Taylor realizes what is at stake so that a season can be played out in its entirety.
“COVID didn’t disappear,” he said. “We’ll have to take precautions and hope nothing changes for the worse.”
