Fear and Politics Driving Fall Sports Decision

Who is fighting for your kids? No one in the state of Illinois

On July 14, the Illinois High School Association made an announcement that might as well been tagged with a white flag emoji.  

It will defer to the Illinois Department of Pubic Health, Illinois State Board of Education and the Governor’s Office on all of its Return to Play Guidelines moving forward.’

For those of you railing against the IHSA, don’t waste your breath. When it comes to the virus and the fall sports conundrum, the IHSA is a proxy organization, or more appropriately, a liaison between the political power brokers actually making the decisions about who can play sports or not. 

Fear is winning. Reason is not. 

On July 5, the IHSA announced Return to Play guidelines for fall sports teams participating in summer camps. An uptick in optimism followed, coaches and players given the safety protocols necessary to get back on the field. 

Guess what happened? 

A few days later, a group of kids felt queasy at a Lake Zurich sports camp. A bunch of positive tests for coronavirus followed. 

On July 9, the IHSA adjusted Return to Play guidelines previously announced July 5. The changes eliminated scrimmages in sports that require physical contact, all but ending summer camp activities for football, wrestling, basketball, lacrosse, soccer, water polo. 

A lawsuit soon followed. Then on July 14, the IHSA decided it would wash its hands of any decision-making as it came to sports. 

After the announcement, IHSA Executive Director Craig Anderson went on 1450 AM radio in Springfield explaining the decision to cede responsibility to Pritzker and state officials: 

It was everything related to agencies above us…were dictating to us.

One of those state agencies is the Illinois State Board of Education. The other the Illinois Department of Public Heath. They are in charge, have always been in charge, all under the authority of Gov. Pritzker. Anderson is nothing but a spokesperson, lip-synching to a record recorded in a studio far from the dance hall. 

That reality hit home this week. And it stinks.

Return to play is being dictated by the Alphabet Court, appointees of the Governor, giving directives devoid of logic, continuing to hide behind the bullet proof ‘health and safety of our student athletes’ shield. 

The problem with that gets to the core of where we are as it pertains to high school sports and the virus. 

Of course everyone wants kids to be safe and healthy. We want the same for parents and grandma and grandpa. But there is a divide on what is an appropriate environment for kids to be ‘safe and healthy’. The politicians are winning because they control the schools and they are listening to fear porn, anecdote-driven narratives and to unions they are indebted to.

An example is the Lake Zurich sports camp incident. 

In a radio interview with 1450 AM in Springfield on July 14, IHSA Executive Director Craig Anderson, explained what happened: 

There was a slight spike in one of our member schools. Some students, not as a result of activities at the school but prior to coming, in that situation they came to us and made guidelines more restrictive. 

The ‘they’ Anderson is referring to is the IDPH and Governor’s Office. The ‘students’ Anderson mentions are those at Lake Zurich High School. A number of coronavirus cases were reported after the sports camp opened at LZHS on July 6.

So the Alphabet Court decided to exert its authority and make the Return to Play guidelines, which had been amended a few days before, more restrictive. Not just for LZHS. But for everyone. 

As a result, coaches, athletes and parents all over the state who do not attend LZHS, were forced to amend practices and workouts for their ‘safety and well being.’ Huh? 

The reality of the IHSA’s lack of authority came full circle after Lake Zurich. There are other unintended consequences from the LZHS incident. 

In the evening of July 14, a meeting was held on a youth football field in Lake Zurich.

Geoff Meyer, the President of the Chicagoland Youth Football League, announced the league was cancelling its season. The TCYFL is one of the largest youth football programs in the country. Many of the big conferences in Chicagoland, the North Suburban, Central Suburban, Mid-Suburban, have feeder teams that play in the TCYFL.

In a five-paragraph statement, the league referred to ‘Health and Safety of our players and families’ and the ‘most up to date medical information from the IDPH and revisions to the guidelines of the IHSA’ in making the decision to cancel the season.

I have no doubt the decision was painful for Meyer and the executive board. He and the board devote much of their free time to the league. Full disclosure, I coach in the TCYFL and know first hand what a first class operation it is. Meyer is a champion for football and an honorable man.

But this decision by the TCYFL was made with emotion and not reason. It was made based on an anecdote—the LZHS cases—and guided by fear. 

And that fear is perpetuated by the media coverage of the incident—multiple Chicago television stations ran stories on their newscast—and the arbitrary decision-making by the Alphabet Court who apply ‘safety and well-being’ as if it is was a pair of house pants.

So who is fighting for our kids? 

The IHSA is trying. Bless its heart. It wants sports to be played this fall, I do believe.

But here is Anderson explaining to AM 1450 in Springfield what the IHSA actually does: 

Our association is a non-for-profit, its solely at the direction of our member schools…our purpose is to help our schools organize and conduct state series programs for their students. This ancillary stuff we’ve gotten ourselves into related to guidelines and return to some activities safely this summer, it’s not a jurisdiction that we have like a state agency might have.

The ‘ancillary’ stuff Anderson is referring to is return to play and the virus. We can argue whether the IHSA should insert more authority in this situation. But that’s separate from what they will or or more important, if they can. The answer is no. 

Watch for more of this in the coming days and weeks—teacher union blowback on returning to in-person school attendance. Whenever a union official takes umbrage with a district’s plan, it’s another brick in the wall preventing football from returning and to some degree, fall sports. 

In 2018, Pritzker won the Governorship. What was inarguably his largest union endorsement? The International Teachers Federation. 

Who do you think Pritzker is listening to? You think he’s that’s concerned about football or soccer or field hockey? 

For those of us who want football and fall sports to return, the power is in the hands of politicians. That’s never a good thing. 

Fear is winning, not reason.