Faith rewarded: After months of uncertainty, athletes finally know when they will play

Hampshire girls basketball coach Eric Samuelson actually was moved to tears when he hit “Send” on an email to his players and their parents Wednesday afternoon.

It was a real practice plan for Thursday. The IHSA released its sports schedules for the remainder of the COVID-19 pandemic-ravaged 2020-21 school year and basketball practices can start as soon as possible.

“It said something along the lines of ‘committing to something you cannot see or touch is faith. And since May 18, your daughters have had faith in something they couldn’t see or touch,’ " Samuelson said. “It hasn’t been a real good year to tell people to have faith in something. So much has been taken from these kids. Now, we have a shot.”

The IHSA winter season can begin for most sports as soon as teams complete seven days of practices. The winter season will run through March 13. The spring season for boys soccer, girls volleyball and football are scheduled from early March to April 17 or 24. The usual spring sports, along with wrestling, are set to run from April 5 through June 19.

Regions 8 (Kane and DuPage Counties) and 9 (McHenry and Lake Counties) currently are at Tier 1 and need to reach Phase 4 for basketball, considered a higher-risk sport by the Illinois Department of Public Health, to compete. That would require a positivity rate less than or equal to 6.5% for three consecutive days as measured by the seven-day rolling average.

Recent trends indicate that could soon happen.

The IHSA’s announcement for the sports schedules came out about 3 p.m. Wednesday and was met with great anticipation.

“I was circulating the gym, kept hitting ‘Refresh,’ kept hitting ‘Refresh, kept hitting ‘Refresh,’ " Richmond-Burton athletic director Kristi Martin said. “When it finally popped up, there were chills. OK, this is real. Now we have to get to Phase 4. It’s awesome. I’m so happy for the kids to have an opportunity. Thanks to the IHSA board of directors and the SMAC (Sports Medicine Advisory Committee) for all their hard work.”

The IHSA adjusted the sports seasons last summer to try to get all sports some kind of season. The 2019-20 sports season was stopped in March before the finish of the boys basketball state tournaments.

The IHSA moved football, volleyball and boys soccer to a season between its regular winter and spring season feeling those sports would not meet the IDPH guidelines to play in the fall.

Boys and girls cross country, boys and girls golf, girls tennis and girls swimming competed in the fall without many problems. But the COVID-19 numbers spiked in November and winter sports were not able to start.

Finally, with most regions closing in on numbers that will allow competition, the IHSA released its plans for the rest of the year.

“What they put out was good,” Woodstock AD Chris Kirkpatrick said. “It’s a step in the right direction and it’s good for the kids. Good for everybody to get back to some normalcy. The biggest problem right now is some seasons overlap. It’s the best of a bad situation for everybody.”

Kirkpatrick said Kishwaukee River Conference ADs will meet Friday to hammer out their winter schedules.

“We all talked and had ideas, I don’t think it’ll take long,” Kirkpatrick said. “This didn’t catch us by surprise. Nothing was officially voted on because we had to change it so many times.”

Fox Valley Conference ADs also will meet before the end of the week, Crystal Lake Central AD Jeff Aldridge said.

“I have meetings all day (Thursday) with a lot of different people to put this in place as fast as we can,” Aldridge said. “We’re excited, we’re pumped, we’re juiced. I was pacing all afternoon waiting for the stuff to come out, just like all my colleagues were. It’s not going to be easy, but at least the kids will get an opportunity to do some things. That’s what’s most important.”

There will be no state series for the winter and spring sports. The IHSA still is determining what the state series will look like for summer sports. The IHSA wants to give the summer sports [last year’s spring sports] some kind of state series because that entire season was lost last year.

At least now there is a solid plan and a schedule to work with for ADs.

“We’ll start crafting our conference schedules,” Aldridge said. “Then we have to talk about fans or no fans? What’s that look like? What’s fair? We’ll do it within the regulations we’ve been given and in the safest way we possibly can. I don’t want to be the reason why it gets shut down.”

There will be times when coaches and athletes will have to adapt as seasons overlap. Basketball players may need to attend football practice or volleyball practice toward the end of their seasons.

“This is a year unlike any other,” Samuelson said. “We want our girls who play both to be able to do both. We’ll encourage that.”

Those problems seem small now. There have been doubts since the fall is some sports would even have a season.

Many schools will have basketball players back in their gyms Thursday starting practice. Kirkpatrick has seen Woodstock players in the gym already this week.

“They need it. They like being out there,” Kirkpatrick said. “Even with the masks on. You take what you can get at this point. It’s a good opportunity for all of them. They seem happy.”