On July 3rd, the IHSA, in conjunction with the Illinois Department of health, made the decision to move on to Phase 4 of the Return to Play Guidelines. That meant that an IHSA member school could conduct team activities, such as practices or contests, in groups of 50 coaches and students. Coaches and officials were mandated to wear a mask with student/athletes practicing social distancing when not on the field or court. Shortly after the announcement on the 3rd, several schools around the state were reporting positive COVID-19 cases, the closest positive-reporting school to our listening area being Dunlap High School. In the late afternoon yesterday, the IHSA’s Craig Anderson issued a press release stating that it will defer to the Illinois Department of Public Health, or the IDPH, Illinois State Board of Education and the Governor’s Office on all future Return To Play Guidelines decisions. Anderson said that the IHSA understands that there needs to be a greater consistency between the guidelines for returning to in-person learning in schools this fall and returning to interscholastic athletics. Also stating that some of the recommendations by the IHSA Sports Medicine Advisory Committee and directives from IDPH have come into direct conflict with each other, especially as it relates to the use of masks by student-athletes. Monmouth-Roseville School District Superintendent Ed Fletcher agrees.
Both Fletcher and Anderson still believe there is hope to a path to conducting high school athletics in the fall. There are many options that are being discussed such as modifying the fall sports schedules, along with possibly moving the fall sports to a spring start.
