Chicagoland Conference Bans Spectators For Fall Sports
How the NLCC came to decision and why it must not be permanent
(Photo Credit: Lakes Cross Country & Track)
Steve Schoenfelder spent a good portion of the month of June in Iowa.
The Antioch High School Athletic Director has family in the state, including a niece and nephew. Both were participating in the summer high school baseball and softball seasons, a staple of the Iowa sports scene.
While Schoenfelder was in Iowa to support family members, there was another reason for the trip, one of intelligence gathering.
“I had a niece and nephew playing in the tournament. I’d watch one of their games and go to a different school and talk to their athletic director, take him out for breakfast,” Schoenfelder said.
Schoenfelder observed how Iowans spectated during the live sporting events. Then, over morning coffee and eggs at a restaurant in cities like Clinton or DeWitt, he asked athletic administrators about the demands of enforcing health and safety guidelines due to the coronavirus pandemic.
While Schoenfelder was in Iowa, the Illinois High School Association had yet to rule on fall sports in Illinois. In July, it approved the participation of six sports with truncated seasons—girls and boys golf, girls and boys cross country, girls tennis and girls swimming.
But before those sports got clearance, Schoenfelder came to a conclusion on his own, based on personal observations of sports events in Iowa and feedback from local officials.
“I went to four or five games and I didn’t see a single mask worn. No one was six feet apart, we were the only ones,” Schoenfelder said of him and his wife, Kathy. “There were seats roped off, they’d have three or four staff members that put all that work in, and people sat on top of the police tape. They did whatever they wanted.
“It’s not going to work.”
By ‘work’, Schoenfelder means fans at fall events in the Northern Lake County Conference, a conference with eight schools in Lake County, IL. Earlier this month, the NLCC announced it would not allow spectators at fall events.
No parents at cross country and swim meets, at tennis or golf matches.
As painful as the decision is, Schoenfelder said it is done with one outcome in mind.
“My main thing is we want our kids to have a season. If there is an interruption, the season is not going to be extended,” Schoenfelder said. “You start and something happens and you have to shut down for two weeks. That’s what we don’t want. We want to get the kids out and to have a season.”
Brian Moe, the Athletic Director at Grayslake Central High School, has a baseball playing son, Coby.
Coby Moe is a such a good baseball player that he earned a spot on the team at Northwestern University. There is nothing more Moe looks forward to than watching Coby play.
“As a dad, if I couldn’t watch Coby’s senior year of baseball, I’d have been miserable,” Brian Moe said.
This past spring, when all sports got cancelled, that meant no baseball. And more conflicted emotions for Moe.
“All spring, when we got cancelled, everyone around me was like ‘Brian, stop.’ I was like, ‘we need to play baseball!’” Moe said. “But I’ll be damed if I’m going to risk the lives and health of my kids and the hundreds of athletes we have.”
About three years ago, Coby Moe was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease. The condition prevented him from participating in the summer baseball Northwoods League in Wisconsin. More unrealized baseball memories due to the virus.
Brian Moe empathizes with parents. He understands the joy of watching sons and daughters compete, and the pain in being denied the experience, which for most parents, is a short window.
That’s why the decision by the NLCC to disallow spectators is one not made passively.
“It wasn’t a snap decision that we jumped to. We had to take the all-sports policy requirements into consideration and student athletes heath and safety into consideration and what’s best for all the schools in our conference,” Moe said.
The ‘what’s best for all the schools in our conference’ may be the most important aspect of Moe’s statement.
Health and safety is of course a top consideration in any of these decisions but as we have learning throughout the coronavirus pandemic, is a subjective one. I might have a differing view on what health and safety means than my neighbor. I might be comfortable putting my kids in school while my co-worker does not. I might think going out to a restaurant or sitting on a barstool next to a stranger is perfectly fine while my friends would prefer Zoom social gatherings.
Exercising personal freedoms are just that, personal.
But when people such as Moe, Schoenfelder or any athletic director possess a job that requires responsibility for hundreds of young athletes, they can’t be the arbiter of personal freedoms. They can’t afford to care what a parent thinks about how the virus is not that big a deal or how we all need to just get on with it and how denying the right of a mom or dad to watch their kid play is unAmerican.
“If a parent believes that COVID-19 isn’t that big an issue as other parents do, who am I to tell who is right or wrong? I’m not the judgment police or the moral police,” Moe said. “But we can’t make decisions based on each parent’s individual beliefs for their kids. We have to make decisions for what’s in the best interest for all of our kids in all of our buildings.”
And for decision makers, hundreds of people gathering for sporting events is not in the best interest of all involved. The risk assessment is too high.
Moe said parental response to the spectator ban is a mixed bag. Some are understanding, others less so. Sounds like a cross section of our country as it relates to the virus.
In five months, the phrase ‘abundance of caution’ has gone from obscurity to a copy-and-paste press release corporate verbiage mandate. One case, one infection, is the new majority we all must succumb to.
“Back in the day, we used to be like ‘it might snow tomorrow’ so we cancelled school and athletics. And if it turned out to be 33 degrees and sunny, I’d rather be the school that cancels school and it ends up being a sunny day,” Moe said. “In my opinion, any decision we make that causes us to lose one kid is a bad decision. As an (athletic director) if I made a decision that cost us one of our kids, I don’t know if I’d be able to come back to my job.”
When I first saw the NLCC press release, I knew I’d write about it. But I had to do some reporting and reach out to those in charge.
After speaking with Schoenfelder and Moe, as well as a few text exchanges with other administrators, I understand the NLCC’s decision. I am not going to criticize education leaders making health and safety decisions based on guidelines provided by state officials. We are in the midst of a global pandemic, one that we can’t wish away or deny it’s existence.
But what I would strongly advise all athletic directors and administrators is this—keep trying. Do not surrender. Make decisions based on data (which changes constantly) not fear and emotion.
Moe is a passionate former coach who works tirelessly for his school and community. Schoenfelder’s trip to Iowa is an example of someone trying to find a way. He said the school is working on streaming sporting events so parents can watch from home. Both should be applauded for their efforts. But do not stop there.
Here’s a suggestion—attend other conference sporting events this fall and see how others are coping with fans. My understanding is other conferences in Chicagoland are starting the season with spectators. How are they doing it? What obstacles are they overcoming or buckling to? They are probably the same at any school attempting to hold an athletics competition—keeping gatherings of 50 or less people 30 feet apart from one another, social distancing, mask wearing, cost of staffing, etc.
What they witness may confirm the reasons for the spectator ban. People simply won’t comply and are going to do what they want.
But what they see may also surprise them.
That the desire parents have to watch their sons and daughters compete is so strong that they are willing to sacrifice personal freedoms. Maybe they will wear masks during the events. Maybe they will avoid high fives with their friend after their daughter drains a 15-foot putt for birdie or finishes a cross court forehand winner on set point.
And if they remove their mask to give their son a peck on the cheek after a 3-mile PR, who cares? Those are the intimate moments that define high school sports.
Here’s what happens when education leaders succumb to fear and anecdote-driven emotion—they drive parents and kids away. They drive them into the waiting arms of private clubs and organizations. Those groups do care about the individual beliefs of their benefactors. They have to. Their business model depends on it.
So I support Schoenfelder and Moe, as well as the other NLCC athletic directors and officials, for the reasoning behind the decision to ban spectators. But permanence is not the right message when dealing with the virus.
Continue to find solutions and that bring us back to normalcy. When it comes to sports, that’s fans.
Find a way. Be better.