Do The Right Thing Or What's Easy?
Basketball decision can change the course of the IHSA and its future
(Photo Credit: Mark Ukena)
In one of the most important battles of the Civil War, Union General Ulysses S. Grant used resourceful and inspired tactics to win the Siege of Vicksburg in 1863. In the fictional book and television series “Game of Thrones,” the character Ned Stark knew he lived in a world of rubbish, yet tried to live his life with honor and integrity (it cost him his head, literally). In September, the first NFL game was held featuring two female coaches and a female referee.
All are examples of leadership in differing forms. We could use some of that in Illinois when it comes to youth and high school sports. Those in charge have an opportunity right now to do not what is easy, but what is necessary.
Wednesday, the Illinois High School Association is expected to release an ‘update’ regarding the winter sports season. In a typical year, there would be no need for such an announcement. Hoops, as well as wrestling, swimming and gymnastics, would start official practices and games next month as normal. But this is the Year Of The Virus, and conventions are no longer applicable.
Here’s what we know—the IHSA is waiting on health and safety guidelines from the Illinois Department of Public Heath and Governor’s Office before releasing it’s ‘update.’ The most recent guidelines came in July. Although Gov. Pritzker said then the document would change as new information on the virus became available, there have been no adjustments. That document determined how fall sports went down (most notably, no football) and the same for winter sports unless changes are made.
Under the current guidelines for basketball, only intra-squad scrimmages can be held, meaning teams can only play each other. Pritzker and the IDPH would have to loosen restrictions in order for teams to play games. Recent comments from Pritzker at press conferences are not encouraging.
Monday, he said this:
There appears to be a Covid storm on the rise and we have to get prepared
Last Tuesday Oct. 20, when asked directly about winter youth sports, he used less jarring language:
We are going to be very careful regarding any guidance issued for school sports for the winter...Illinois has done a better job than most states certainly those surrounding us and we'd like to keep it that way
For the most part, Pritzker hasn’t been asked about ‘school’ sports at press conferences.
A best case scenario is the subject is priority 100 on the list of 100 things Pritzker has to do this week. Let the IDPH hand over its recommendations, and let the sports people do the rest. That’s how most other states are operating.
We know we don’t live in a state like that, where the governor is told after the fact, or if at all, about decisions on school sports. Rather, since the beginning, Pritzker has made himself Big Brother Of Athletics. Based on the recent rise in cases, Pritzker will likely hide behind the health and safety shield and keep things where they are. We also know the IDPH and the IHSA are not “on the same page” as admitted by a doctor on one of the IHSA’s advisory committees.
Expectations from Pritzker should be what they’ve been—he will do what he can to restrict athletics participation. The IDPH will act as his proxy and gin up whatever necessary to ramp up anxiety and fear, rather than act with measured composure in responding to the current climate.
So here lies an opportunity for the IHSA. An opportunity to lead and re-define how it has dealt with the coronavirus pandemic since July.
The Executive Director of the IHSA, Craig Anderson, spoke to a reporter with the Peoria Journal Star last week. He talked of the organization’s financial hardships during the pandemic.
He said how the organization has an estimated budget shortfall of ‘$1.5 million to 2 million’ largely in part due to fall sports being moved to the spring. He also said this about winter sports:
If IDPH says we can play, but without spectators, we will probably play basketball. We’ll do that for the kids…but without spectators allowed, we’d go deeper into the hole financially than if we didn’t play at all. None of us know for sure how many seasons we might have to go on like this
His comments are what public relations experts call ‘spin.’ Anderson is retroactively explaining financial problems due to circumstances he says are beyond his control. Yes, the virus is a circumstance beyond his, and all of ours, control. But how the IHSA responded to what they could control was spineless and unimaginative.
For example, in Wisconsin, they held a state golf tournament. The tournament is typically held at a course in Madison, the state capital. But virus-related shutdowns prevented them from playing the tournament there. So what did they do?
The Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association recruited assistance from a corporate partner (the Kohler Corporation) and the tournament was held at a course (Black Wolf Run) in Kohler. Reasonable health and safety guidelines were put in place and the kids played the tournament.
This is a dispatch from one Kerr Report subscriber who witnessed the event:
I was fortunate enough to attend (my niece was playing). The conditions were brutal. After she posted a double bogie on 13 and triple on 14, the team leaderboard tightened. But my niece regrouped and finished par, birdie, par, par. Her team won Div 1 State. Golf is teaching her life lessons – she picked herself up from the canvass, dusted herself off and finished strong.
It was great to see kids competing – the smiles, the concentration, the cheering and even the tears. But it made me think about how much other athletes have missed. Many lifetime memories missed and many lessons never learned.
Does anyone think the young lady mentioned here is going to remember how she felt while scoring her double and triple bogeys? No, it’s the exhilarating experience of participating in a state competition. The reason she was able to is because her state association, at a time when ingenuity was desperately needed, thought outside the box and followed through on its mission statement, which is to maximize participation opportunities for its student-athletes.
What did the IHSA do this fall about golf and the state tournament? They just pointed people to a web page that re-published IDPH health and safety guidelines.
Sorry kids about losing out on that once-in-a-lifetime state tournament. But our hands were tied. At least you were safe from the virus. Be well and good luck in future endeavors.
The malpractice of the IHSA is well documented in this newsletter.
While it can’t remove what’s been done, it can set a new course in the next 24-48 hours. A course that requires leadership and vision.
We know Prtizker and his IDPH valets don’t want sports played.
The IHSA can say, ‘we will play.’
When Pritzker & Co. say it’s not safe, the IHSA can say, ‘we’ll find a way to make it safe.’
If Pritzker & Co. do not green light going to level 3, allowing for games within Covid-regions, the IHSA can say, ‘here is an alternative plan that minimizes travel but for games to be held.’
Whenever government officials sell doom, respond with data and logic. Cite the Illinois Basketball Association survey that shows how the sport can be played safely. Show them the WIAA survey that accumulated data from September and concludes how sports contact makes up .5% of virus transmissions.
Rather than be a soda straw and transcriptor of commandments handed down by Pritzker and the IDPH, be a nimble, inventive organization that advocates for student athletes not just throughout prosperous times, but during adverse conditions, as we are living in right now.
Will the IHSA step up and do what’s right ‘for the kids’ as Anderson stated, or will they do what is easy and succumb to excuse-making and weak-kneed rationalizations?
It’s a call for leadership. The time is here.