So much going on this week. Perfect for a mid-week mailbag.
This week’s events are quite Machiavellian—how the Governor of Illinois tried to fleece the hapless Illinois High School Association and again ground athletics in the state of Illinois.
Then, in a stunning turn, the IHSA put up its middle finger to Gov. Pritzker and said:
We’re going to let the kids play.
Basketball is a sport baked into the identity of the entire state of Illinois more so than any other. When a politician strips that away for reasons that are obviously politically-motivated, it cuts so many ways, injurious to the collective psyche of thousands.
For the Illinois High School Association to defy Pritzker is downright shocking.
But you know what else it is?
Absolutely the right thing to do.
Lots of tweets, emails and Zooms to get to. We’ll start with the latest on basketball and the winter season.
The key line in that tweet “all other winter sports will proceed as scheduled.”
That means we will have basketball in 2020-21.
I’m going to pull quotes from the release and comment on each one:
The Illinois High School Association Board of Directors made the decision today to continue with the IHSA basketball season as scheduled in 2020-21. In August, the Board slated basketball to take place from November to February based on the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) assigning a medium risk level to the sport. The IHSA Sports Medicine Advisory Committee (SMAC) offered additional mitigations, such as masks during play and social distancing on benches, that the SMAC believed would allow basketball to be played safely
What this means is the IHSA is retroactively fitting in original guidelines from July. Those guidelines labeled basketball as ‘medium risk’ and able to proceed with looser heath and safety restrictions.
More from the statement:
After diligent discussion, the Board has made the decision today to follow the recommendation of the IHSA SMAC as it relates to basketball. The Board remains considerate of rising COVID-19 cases in Illinois and understand the importance of adhering to safety guidelines for the good of all citizens. However, the Board has not been presented any causal evidence that rising COVID-19 cases make basketball more dangerous to play by the IDPH or any other health organization nationally or internationally. On the contrary, the IHSA has been looking to bordering states who have sponsored both medium risk and high risk sports in the fall that have noted a low incident rate of COVID-19 spread.
What this tells me is the IHSA is calling out B.S. on Pritzker and the IDPH. They are absolutely right. Pritzker and the IDPH have strayed far away from causal evidence, instead making vague references to ‘outbreaks’ and ‘long term damage’ from playing sports during the pandemic.
Studies from states outside of Illinois reveal that sports can be played safely by following certain protocols and adhering to mitigations. More on that later in the mailbag.
One more piece from the statement:
Mounting challenges, from increased mental health issues among our students to a shrinking calendar that limits our ability to move sport seasons this school year, were instrumental in this decision to move forward with basketball as scheduled. We see our students regularly leaving the state to play sports, or covertly continuing to play locally. Students can be better protected in the high school setting, and the Board remains steadfast that playing under IHSA rules and SMAC mitigation is the safest way to conduct athletics at this juncture. Contact days for our teams this fall have been an incredible boon to our students’ well-being. We fear for the mental health of students who attempt to traverse a long winter with no athletic outlet available. So much about dealing with this virus has been learned in the past eight months, and this decision will grant the membership the opportunity to apply that knowledge during their basketball season.
This is a huge acknowledgement from the IHSA. That they are listening to what member schools are telling them, absorbing the data presented on mental health and watching what’s going on in the state with travel teams.
Glenbrook South head boys coach Phil Ralston has been out in front of this issue. He told me this on Wednesday after the IHSA decision move forward with the season:
“I have heard of groups of kids and coaches assembling teams and playing high schools in other states or play basketball in other states. I don’t think that is not that far off the mark if there is not IHSA basketball. The question is, is that safe or less safe? I think we here are better equipped. I know I and my staff will do the best we can for our kids and keep them safe.”
I heard rumblings of what Coach Ralston refers to, of super teams forming with players from different schools and traveling over the boarder to play. When Dr. Ezike said competitive play puts ‘kids at risk’, there are always loopholes. Loopholes can lead to unnecessary exposure as it likely not as regulated as a high school environment.
The turnkey for high school play to resume diminishes the chances of these mega teams forming. If given the option, an overwhelming majority of players will choose high school. Now they have that option.
What happened Tuesday at Governor Pritzker’s briefing? Didn’t the same thing happen this summer? -Ann B.
Yes, as Yogi Berra once said, ‘it was Deja Vu all over again.’
The IHSA Board of Directors meeting, which happened Wednesday, was supposed to be an official vote on heath and safety recommendations given by Gov. Pritzker/IDPH. What happens in probably 49 of 50 states is that information is passed along in a cooperative fashion, everyone does their job and trusts the others to do theirs. At the end of the day, it’s all about the kids, right?
Not in Illinois.
Tuesday, at his daily COVID press briefing, Pritzker changed the game. He and his virus valet, Dr. Ezike, ramped up the fear-based voodoo and said that basketball was too dangerous to be played in the current climate.
“The virus spreads easier indoors and basketball requires vigorous breathing and close contact with other people,” Dr. Ezike said. “Based on what we know now, there is no safe way to be engaged in their sport. When I say engaged in their sport, there may not be competitive play..." and that line attempted to put ‘on hold’ the sport for the 2020-21 season.
Ezike doesn’t need corroboration when she says ‘the virus spreads easier indoors and basketball requires vigorous breathing and close contact with other people.’ I do not dispute the ‘virus spreads easier indoors’ statement based on objective data I have read and medical professionals I have spoken to. But the second part, the ‘there is no safe way to be engaged in their sport’, that does require objective data and per usual, she offered none.
“We know of numerous cases of outbreaks involving the playing of basketball,” Dr. Ezike said.
OK, what outbreaks? Where? What are the circumstances? Nothing.
In the absence of data, it is perfectly reasonable to assume she is making it up to fit the political narrative spun by Pritzker. That is an embarrassment and honestly, medical malpractice. As one tweeter said, ‘she is literally practicing junk science. This method doesn’t pass up to the slightest scrutiny.’ Absolutely true.
While the presser was going on, in real time, the IDPH was updating its website to reflect adjustments made in the ‘risk-labeling’ of athletics.
In July, the IDPH labeled basketball ‘medium’ risk. It remained that way until Tuesday afternoon, when the sport got elevated to ‘high’ risk. That label mandates tougher restrictions and essential means basketball can’t be played other than a game of HORSE.
The ‘risk-labeling’ of sports is something sports medicine doctors don’t agree with.
Dr. David Smith, medical director of youth sports medicine in the University of Kansas Health System says this:
I’m not inclined to categorize sports. The National High School Sports Federation has put together some guidelines. I’ve shied away from categorizing. I could take every sport, and figure out a way to reduce the risk. I can’t eliminate the risk, but I can reduce it. let’s see if we can open as safely as possible with everyone looking at the risk level or ratio and if they feel the risk is too great to participate that is their choice. Parents obviously help the youth make that choice. If they feel like the benefit is greater than the risk and we can help follow with these guidelines and help with human behavior than I feel strongly that we can do youth sports
In full scramble mode, the IHSA released a statement late in the afternoon Tuesday:
About 15 minutes prior to Governor Pritzker’s press conference (Tuesday), we were alerted that the [IDPH] has elevated the sport of basketball from a medium-risk level to a high-risk level. We remain considerate of the recent rise in positive COVID-19 cases in our state. However, in our meeting with IDPH on Friday, we felt that we presented multiple options that would allow for basketball to be conducted safely by IHSA schools this winter, many of which are being utilized in neighboring states who plan to play high school basketball
Once again, the IHSA is caught with its pants down. The fact it let the same circumstance happen to them twice is unconscionable.
Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.
But the IHSA didn’t get fooled. They acted as their mission statement says, which is to maximize athletic opportunities for student-athletes in the state of Illinois. The organization deserves credit for doing what not only is hard, but necessary.
So I had conversations with several coaches and players Wednesday. Here are excerpts from those chats:
PHIL LASCALA, LAKE FOREST BOYS BASKETBALL COACH
I think the biggest thing is the kids need it. We’ve been doing these contact days and the level of intensity for that is unbelievable. They are sitting in front of their computers all day. I feel like it will be a great thing for the kids.
I don’t want to be disrespectful of anyone who has differing views but it’s one of those things where we have to learn to live with it and figure out if we don’t try anything, we just sit back.
If any of our school board members came to our contact days and saw their faces and how they are, you wouldn’t believe how happy they are to get on the court and play.
CONOR ENRIGHT, MUNDELEIN SENIOR GUARD
I’m the happiest I’ve been in a long time. There is still a lot of work to do but giving the people the option to play rather than a complete shut down, that is great.
I’ve been following what’s going on, I’m on Twitter and keeping opinions to myself because I don’t want to get attacked. Some of it makes sense, some of it I don’t understand but whatever it takes to have a season.
I could have transferred to a few prep schools but I didn’t want to move my life. I decided to stay.
No one cares about the masks. No one cares as long as we get to play.
PHIL RALSTON, GLENBROOK SOUTH BOYS BASKETBALL COACH
It’s surprising in that it is a fairly decisive action by the IHSA. I was surprised.
I know what our staff will do and what our school will do to keep our kids safe and Covid free and do a better job than a club would do. The reality is the kids are going to play whether the governor says we will have a season or whether the IHSA does. The question is is the environment going to be safer at schools and they will follow regulations the state says we need to follow and our school districts and procedures we will follow.
This comes down to people needing to communicate. I feel like there would be so much less craziness if there was just more open dialogue.
I respect the governor for trying to keep us not become Wisconsin right now. But sometimes you have to see the forest through the trees and understand that sometimes the decisions we make that are broad subjects and to try and mitigate, you are not understanding the microcosm of kids and certain activities.
There are challenges but there are ways to work through them and still provide a positive experience for the kids. At the end of the day, you have to have a positive experience and for our seniors that had their year taken away from them in many ways. You want them to have the best experience possible and reflect back in a positive way.
Like all boarding states, Iowa is playing a football season and is in the midst of its postseason. Have there been cases of players testing positive for the virus? Sure. Wisconsin had games postponed or canceled. But they pressed on and will finish their season.
Data is being collected on the safety of playing sports during The Year Of The Virus.
The University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health collaborated with the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Association on a study. It was a comprehensive study, with 207 schools, 30,000 student-athletes and using data collected from thousands of practices and competitions from September.
The conclusion? That no sports were found to have a higher incidence rate (cases per person-day) than the average 14-17 year old in the state.
You can read more on the study here.
So sports is being played safely in Wisconsin, a state that as of Tuesday, has a 28% positivity rate. Iowa? 26.4%. Illinois? 6.6%.
So what’s really going on here? As I’ve said since my first newsletter in July, Pritzker is playing a game of political chess. The doctors he trots out at his press conferences are pawns. But for the young athletes in this state, they are not allowed on the other side of the chess board.
It’s an empty chair.
The IHSA needs to find a partner, probably a school in the University of Illinois system, and conduct its own study. Take all data from basketball season and other winter sports. My guess is the results will be similar to what they were in Wisconsin.
Hi Jon…Chicago keeps adding states to the quarantine list. Do you know the difference between a quarantine and being in isolation? -Todd C.
An interesting question and I had a situation come up recently that got me thinking more about this.
I coach in 7 on 7 one-touch football league (tackle is banned, remember?) and a parent on an opposing team brought to our attention an ‘outbreak’ at a school attended by players in our league. The parent said the school had ordered a quarantine mandate for a certain number of kids at the school.
The proper mitigations were taken and we are able to continue our season with no interruption.
But I wanted to find out constitutes a ‘quarantine’ action and as the subscriber asks, what distinguishes ‘quarantine’ from ‘isolation.’
I found a really good answer from Dr. Scott Morcott, Medical Director of Passport Health Chicago.
Here is what Dr. Morcott said on a Zoom Town Hall for District 115 in Lake Forest.
There are several people involved when you have a case. The first one is the person themselves that are diagnosed with COVID-19. If you have symptoms or have been exposed or diagnosed with COVID-19, that person is isolated not quarantined. Isolated meaning whenever possible over six feet from people or anytime over 15 minutes. They should maintain that distance for 10 days. The idea of 10 days for isolation of people that have been diagnosed is that within 10 days the time with which that person has been infected with COVID-19 has passed. Ironically, people whom have been diagnosed with COVID-19 are released from isolation earlier than contacts of that person with COVID-19 who have to quarantine for 14 days. On the isolation of positively tested people its 10 days from the time you are diagnosed with COVID-19 meaning you have a positive test you have to isolate for 10 days from the onset of your symptoms or from the time you were diagnosed from your test, whichever started first. In other words, if you had symptoms and were tested two days later, your 10 days started on the first day of your symptoms. That’s the 10 days for someone diagnosed with COVID-19. Now, anybody who is a close contact, that means anyone within six feet of that individual for more than 15 minutes, and that close contact period started two days prior to the diagnosis of the person with COVID-19, meaning when the symptoms started or when they had the positive test, you go back 48 hours or two days before and you contact trace anyone who had close contact. The close contacts have to quarantine for 14 days from their last date of contact with the person who was diagnosed.
There’s a lot there but is about as good an explanation as I’ve found on the response process after a positive test.
There’s more:
For example, if you are a student in class and the student is removed from the class and you were in close contact, your 14 days would start from the last day you had contact with that student. The reason its 14 days is you can turn positive for COVID-19 anywhere from two to 14 days with exposure to someone with COVID-19. So the quarantine period is longer for a contact than for someone that has been diagnosed. If you are a parent or a sibling of someone that has been diagnosed with COVID-19 and you live in the same household with that person and you are not able to maintain isolation from that person, your 14 day quarantine time doesn’t start until the person diagnosed 10 days is over. In other words, if you are in close contact with that person who has been diagnosed for those 10 days, your 14 days starts on the 10th day. So its really important if you have someone in your family that has been diagnosed, a sibling, and many of our families have more than one child in school, is if you can maintain that social distancing between your children at home that isolation period can start at the same time
Terrific stuff from Dr. Morcott. He’s a doctor and with any medical-related questions, the only responsible thing to do is to ask the experts. His answer covers in great detail the quarantine/isolation question. I’d encourage going to the Passport Heath website for more information. An excellent resource.
This wasn’t from an email, tweet or Zoom. Just what I found during a Halloween-induced SNL-skit You Tube rabbit hole exercise.
This clip is from a Tom Hanks-hosted show.
Enjoy.