March 29, 2024
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Sauk Valley's Three Rivers basketball teams play the waiting game

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Morrison Fillies coach Kerry Grim understands just how difficult the situation is for her basketball players. First the IHSA issues guidelines on how to safely conduct practice, then the Illinois Department of Public Health says basketball is a high-risk sport and shouldn’t move ahead.

One day you’re about to start a season, the next day you might not.

Morrison just completed its allowable contact days Oct. 30. Practice might begin next week – or it might not. There also is no telling when an actual game might tip off.

“It’s difficult to get your seniors to buy in because they don’t know if you’re going to be able to play or not, if you’re going to have a season,” Grim said.

The Three Rivers is a conference divided, with Newman and St. Bede told by their respective Catholic dioceses to put basketball on hold and Sherrard moving ahead. The rest of the teams play a waiting game.

“Unlike other conferences around us, we have not tried to have a carte blanche answer,” Morrison athletic director Gregg Dolan said. “We’re letting the schools decide what’s best for them in their scenario.”

Other schools are leaving the call up to their school boards, with Morrison’s board tabling the motion this week. The board will meet again Monday, with a chance that practice will be able to begin the next day, or the chance that everything will be put on hold.

“Everything’s been so fluid, everything’s changed so much since March 13, that I think even the coaches are becoming accustomed to ‘Gosh, what do we have to do now to make this work?’ ” Dolan said.

The last thing she wants to do is keep stringing her players along, Grim said. For now, she is moving ahead as if there will be a season, meeting with boys coach Jason Banks to coordinate time in the gym. Practice originally was supposed to start this coming Monday.

“We’ve put together our practice schedules, we’ve spent a lot of time in preparation for a season to go ahead,” Grim said, “but as of right now, I have no idea if we’re going to be able to go ahead or not.”