Oswego School District 308 delays start of basketball season

OSWEGO – Oswego School District 308 is joining the other school districts in the Southwest Prairie Conference in announcing that it will not begin the basketball season on Monday, Nov. 16, as proposed by the Illinois High School Association.

Oswego and Oswego East's athletic departments each made the announcement on Twitter Friday morning. The schools joined others from around Kendall County, including Plano and Yorkville, in putting the basketball season on hold. Practices were scheduled to start Nov. 16, with contests Nov. 30.

The start of the season, though, has been in doubt with coronavirus case numbers and positivity rates spiking throughout the state – and has led to a tug-of-war between statewide governmental agencies.

Gov. JB Pritzker and the Illinois Department of Public Health on Oct. 27 moved basketball from a "medium risk" to "high risk," and has taken the position of moving basketball to spring. The IHSA Board of Directors, though, voted on Oct. 28 to move forward with the winter basketball season as scheduled.

"OHS, along with the other districts in the Southwest Prairie Conference, will abide by the state recommendations regarding basketball competition," Oswego Athletic Director Darren Howard said in a letter to basketball parents and players, advising that the district considered the different positions of the state and the IHSA and the "potential ramifications." "As a conference, basketball practice will begin two weeks prior to to any scheduled contests, whether before a delayed winter start or a start date later in the school year."

The Oswego schools joined the vast majority of schools statewide in making the decision to postpone the start of the season.

In an IHSA survey of member schools released this week, nearly 300 of 546 responding said they do not plan on playing basketball by Nov. 16. Another 212 indicated that they were unsure of their status.

The IHSA is scheduled to meet again Nov. 19, and has said that it has invited Pritzker and the IDPH to participate in the meeting. Howard said that once information is released from the IHSA on its stance and guidelines for the season, Oswego District 308 will revisit its stance and decision.

Howard said that Oswego High School may choose to offer open gyms for basketball from Nov. 16-19 following the mitigations laid out by the IDPH and the governor's office.

"Health and safety are the top priorities of our schools and we look forward to a potential future season for our high school basketball athletes," Howard said.

Oswego East AD Tony Millard in a letter said the boys and girls basketball teams will not be holding tryouts starting Monday, Nov. 16. Instead, both programs will begin with either tryouts or open gyms starting the week of Nov. 30.

Millard said the schedule for that week, and moving forward, will be released after the school has more direction based on the IHSA's Nov. 19 meeting.