A day after Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D-Illinois), announced that the upcoming basketball season would come to a standstill due to an uptick in COVID-19 cases throughout the state of Illinois, the Illinois High School Association (IHSA) Board of Directors decided to continue the season as planned.
The IHSA Board said in a statement told by Patch, "In August, the Board slated basketball to take place from November to February based on the Illinois Department of Public Health assigning a medium risk level to the sport. The IHSA Sports Medicine Advisory Committee offered additional mitigations, such as masks during play and social distancing on benches, that the SMAC believed would allow basketball to be played safely."
Cornerstone Christian Academy High School Boys Basketball coach, Rick Owens, felt like the conflicting arguments between IHSA and the government put schools in a tough spot.
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"Our belief as a school is the Bible teaches that we are to be under the authority of the people who are above us, so in this case, you have two authorities offering differing opinions which put us in a very difficult situation," said Owens.
The IHSA Sports Medicine Advisory Committee still offered mitigations such as masks during play and social distancing when on the benches.
"I think you have two authorities that as a school we are supposed to try and follow their lead and their guide. I think both parties are attempting to do what they think is best in some unparalleled times," said Owens, "(I've coached) for 43, 44 years now, and there's never been anything like this. I mean you've had snowstorms and you've had illnesses in other schools that have changed things and you've had unfortunately car accidents and players hurt and all kinds of things but I've never seen anything like this where we just don't know what the right answer is. I believe that you have two entities both attempting to look out for the best interest of the kids and unfortunately coming to some very very different conclusions about that."
Wrestling has also been voted by the Board to be moved from winter to summer.
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