High schools across region working out plans to restart sports

The Illinois Department of Public Health and Illinois High School Association have agreed high school sports can – albeit in a limited and still-restricted capacity due to ongoing efforts to contain the novel coronavirus – return to action.

Now it’s up to high schools to figure out the best way to do it.

“Winter sports are starting practices,” said Streator High athletic director Rory Bedeker, whose Bulldogs – for the time being – have restarted practices for sports such as basketball and bowling, with competitive dance and cheer also expected to gear practices toward an upcoming all-virtual season, and spring and summer sports expected to be added to the practice mix in the near future. “Of course, it looks different for each sport depending on whether they can actually do competitions or not. ...

“We’ve had a lot of kids who want to do stuff; a lot of coaches who want to do stuff. This (IDPH/IHSA decision) allows them to get back together doing something. Because other than a couple weeks in the fall, there’s been nothing.

“We’re just trying to give our kids an opportunity to at least do something that’s somewhat normal.”

A few miles south at Woodland, AD Jordan Farris spent much of his Wednesday in meetings as the school crafts its sports game plan. Aside from its bowling and wrestling co-ops with Streator and a girls basketball co-op with Flanagan-Cornell, Woodland’s only traditional IHSA winter high school sport is boys basketball.

“We, and the IHSA, I feel, have the goal of being able to give every athlete, especially the seniors, a chance to compete in the sport they love.”

—  Ottawa High School athletic director Mike Cooper

La Salle-Peru athletic director Dan Le said it’s been hectic since the region moved to Tier 1 mitigations, but he’s happy to have sports starting up.

“It obviously feels good to be able to resume activities again, and getting to the point where we can start planning practices and competitions,” Le said. “There are great benefits for everyone involved to be able to be active and participating in extracurriculars again. Obviously there are the physical benefits, but the mental health benefits and the social/emotional health benefits as well.”

Boys and girls bowling, boys swimming and girls basketball were starting practices Wednesday, while boys basketball will get in the gym Thursday. Le said he’s still awaiting guidelines on competitions for bowling and swimming.

“We need to rebuild the schedule ...” he said, “(and) we’re working on scheduling in terms of balancing facilities and giving those teams time to get in and have workouts as well.”

Hall athletic director Eric Bryant said he’s seen some athletes losing interest with sports paused. With the bowling team starting practice Wednesday, basketball getting in the gym Thursday, and the spring/summer sports starting contact days Monday, he hopes “we can turn that around.”

Still, despite the IDPH allowing sports to begin, he’s worried about what can happen this school year.

“I don’t know if it’s changed much,” Bryant said. “Yeah, our kids are able to come in and do some things. It’s a small step to getting back to what everybody would like to do, but I don’t know if it’s all going to be soon enough. We’re kind of running out of time.”

Bureau Valley will begin extracurricular activities Thursday with COVID-19 protocols in place. For now, BV will focus on its winter sports/activities and not hold contact days for spring and summer sports.

“We feel we don’t have the number of kids to support that, and with junior high sports potentially starting up, we don’t quite have the facilities,” BV athletic director Brad Bickett said.

Basketball practices will begin Thursday, but Bickett is afraid the calendar is running against the IHSA being able to hold basketball.

“Each day that passes by, each week, it makes it difficult, because smaller schools in our area, we can’t afford to share athletes,” he said. “And it’s just not fair to the kids, not fair to the coaches to overlap seasons. I would say we’re not in favor of overlapping any seasons, but we’re also at the point, we can’t keep backing things up.

“Eventually, something’s got to happen.”

Princeton AD Jeff Ohlson said Wednesday morning he is still working through the process and waiting to see what further information will become available, and then begin to work on a plan.

Marquette Academy’s Todd Hopkins said his school is waiting to have its basketball practices scheduled until it receives word from the IHSA exactly what the criteria will be. He also expects the contact days for the high school’s low-risk spring and summer sports like baseball, softball and track & field to begin on Monday, as per IHSA mandates.

“It’s just a good thing that the kids have something to do and look forward to,” said Hopkins.

St. Bede AD Nick McLaughlin said his school is planning on beginning low-risk bowling and cheerleading practices immediately, and that basketball will likely begin Thursday, though no physical contact may be allowed.

“Obviously there are some limits as far as what those sports can do and what those practices can look like,” McLaughlin said, “but there’s no finalized date for when basketball is going to start or what the schedules will look like or any of that. They could be practicing and they could decide to move everything around again. ...

“It’s a difficult time for everyone. I feel for the kids, but anytime there’s some kind of movement forward, it’s a good step. Let’s hope that something good comes out of this for the kids.”

Mendota’s bowling and basketball teams will start practices Monday, while contact days also will begin for the sports set to start Feb. 15 – football, volleyball and soccer.

“Getting the kids back active is a positive step,” Mendota athletic director Steve Hanson said. “At this point, we’ll take anything we can get.”

Hanson said he’s awaiting more information from the IHSA on the timeline.

“We’re getting so good at this (changing of schedules),” Hanson said. “I’ll email the local people and see if we can throw together some matches in the timeframe they allow. I don’t anticipate it being too difficult, because everybody will be in the same boat.”

Seneca AD Steve Haines said, while there are still some questions to be answered, a pair of sports have begun working towards actual, virtual competition.

“Basketball teams are having open gyms – not truly practices – but it allows the coaches and kids to get together and do what they love to do,” Haines said. “They have missed that so much, and it’s so great to see the smiles on their faces, being able to interact with their teammates, something they really haven’t been able to do in two months.

“We’ll just have to wait for the IHSA’s meeting next week before taking basketball things to another level. We’ll also hopefully find out when the start and end dates are for these winter sports, and then begin putting a schedule together.”

At Ottawa, AD Mike Cooper says a few Pirates and Lady Pirates teams have already started gearing up for a season.

“Our boys and girls bowling teams have been practicing already this week, as well as our competitive dance team, and tonight was the first practice for swimming with the La Salle-Peru Co-op,” said Cooper. “The boys and girls basketball teams are holding open gyms right now, but will both start practicing in the very near future. I would expect us to have a bowling match scheduled for the end of next week, and we’ll work on the other schedules moving forward.

“It’s been a crazy last few days. We’ve received four or five emails from the IHSA as they try to keep us informed of the information they have and up-to-date information they have gotten from the Illinois Department of Health.

“We’re obviously excited we get to do some things, but we are also hopeful that the sports deemed ‘high-risk’ will also be able to compete. We, and the IHSA, I feel, have the goal of being able to give every athlete, especially the seniors, a chance to compete in the sport they love.”

— J.T. Pedelty, Kevin Chlum, Kevin Hieronymus, Charlie Ellerbrock and Brian Hoxsey contributed to this story.