IHSA board to convene in special session

The Illinois High School Association board of directors meets Wednesday in a special session to vote on what form, if any, winter sports will take amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The IHSA’s sports medicine advisory committee laid out a plan to state authorities that would allow basketball games, provided that the players are masked while playing.

Last Thursday, IHSA executive director Craig Anderson told the Journal Star that he expected the board to vote on such a plan, even if the Illinois Department of Public Health decides that spectators would not be allowed at games.

The board could not vote on the winter sports plan during its regular meeting of Oct. 19 because it was still waiting on that communication from the IDPH.

IDPH director Dr. Ngozi Ezike had said Oct. 14 that she understood the high school sports community was waiting on a decision, “so we can’t tarry or delay.”

The IHSA expects the road ahead to be a rocky one financially, regardless of the decision. The not-for-profit organization relies on tickets sold at its state championship events to remain solvent. The EMS region structure and state guidelines prohibit contests outside a school’s region, except in the case of conference affiliations, so the IHSA cannot conduct state finals for its activities.

Already, the IHSA required participation fees be paid by its 815 member schools to conduct regionals and sectionals for fall sports, including golf, tennis, girls swimming and cross country. Even so, Anderson estimated that the IHSA was currently operating with a $1.5 million to $2 million deficit.

A survey conducted by the Illinois Basketball Coaches Association in early October showed that 95% of the state’s basketball coaches supported starting the season on schedule. Under the IHSA’s modified calendar, the winter sports season begins with practices on Nov. 16 and contests on Nov. 30.

Bowling, boys swimming and girls gymnastics are expected to start on time because those activities are classified as low-risk of having participants transmit the coronavirus. However, any step back from Phase 4 under the Restore Illinois plan would halt those activities.

Cheerleading and competitive dance are considered higher-risk activities.

As for wrestling, also a higher-risk activity, IHSA assistant executive director Sam Knox appeared on WRMJ radio on Oct. 21 and said that a proposal by coaches to move the season from the winter to the summer seemed to give the sport the best chance to be played. The board is expected to vote on that proposal on Wednesday, too.

Since the IHSA board last met, however, the state has experienced a surge in COVID-19 cases. Gov. J.B. Pritzker announced an expansion of mitigation measures. Region 1, the northwest, was in Tier 2, meaning indoor sports activities can involve no more than 25 persons or 25% of facility capacity. Region 5, which is southern Illinois, Region 7, which is Will and Kankakee counties, and Region 8, which is Kane and DuPage counties, are under resurgence mitigations that do not change the All Sports Guidance made effective on Aug. 15.

Pritzker was in Peoria on Monday. While commending Region 2, which includes Henry County, for having the best metrics, Pritzker said the region’s 7.2% positivity rate was “nothing to write home about.”

On Oct. 14, Pritzker said any decision about high school sports would be based on prevailing science and not politics.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention does not make specific recommendations for indoor sports, placing the onus on local health officials and event administrators. Generally, the CDC says an emphasis should be placed on limiting contact between players, spectators and others because the more people an individual interacts with and the longer that interaction lasts, the higher the potential risk of becoming infected with COVID-19 and having the disease spread.

The CDC published research conducted by Thomas R. Frieden, a physician, and Christopher T. Lee, epidemiologist, whose June 2020 paper was on identifying and interrupting superspreading events. In conclusion, Frieden and Lee said response efforts should prioritize settings at high risk for superspreader events, such as schools and mass gatherings.

The University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health released a study Thursday that said that the state’s high school sports had not caused an increase in COVID-19 infections among athletes. The survey of 2,007 schools representing 30,000 athletes and more than 4,000 games showed that positivity rates between athletes and normal school populations were comparable. Of 209 athletes who contracted the virus, only one case was attributed to sports participation.