The Kerr Report Mailbag
Tweets, Emails and Zooms...your questions, my answers
Per the norm since March, much news this week that has nothing to do with the actual playing of athletics.
Good time to address what’s going on in a Mailbag.
Wednesday saw the Illinois High School Association seek an audience with Gov. Pritzker. Hump Day was also early signing day for so many 2021 grads. Signing days are some of my favorite Twitter days of the year as a reporter, skimming my feed and seeing the images of moms, dads, brothers, sisters or other extended family, all together enjoying a truly special moment in the lives of young athletes.
The fact many of the athletes signing with colleges in November may not have the opportunity to participate in one more high school season is troubling. But at least for one day, all the uncertainty in our current climate can be overshadowed by the future, and all of the possibilities it presents for seniors.
Let’s get on with a Thursday version of the TRK Mailbag.
What is going on with basketball? -Scott C.
That’s a good question and one that can be asked every week from now until…April?
Gosh, let’s hope not.
Here’s the latest—Wednesday, the Board of Directors of the Illinois High School Association had a meeting. Late Wednesday, the IHSA released a statement summarizing the contents of the meeting.
Here is the statement in full:
The Illinois High School Association (IHSA) Board of Directors held a virtual update session on November 11, 2020, to review recent developments related to the IHSA basketball season ahead of the Board’s regularly scheduled meeting on November 19, 2020.
The Board announced that they are formally inviting representatives from Governor Pritzker’s Office and the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) to attend the IHSA Board meeting on November 19. Additionally, the IHSA will also seek representation at the meeting from the Illinois Principals Association (IPA), the Illinois Association of School Administrators (IASA), the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE), and a coalition of nearly 200 school superintendents who recently contacted the Governor regarding school sports during the 2020-21 school year.
”The Board hopes to create a dialogue and build a more collaborative relationship with all the entities involved with developing sports policy in our state as everyone tries to navigate the myriad issues caused by the pandemic,” said IHSA Executive Director Craig Anderson. “The Board’s decision to move forward with the IHSA basketball season was not meant to be adversarial. It was rooted in a desire to receive more direct communication and data from our state partners. They hope all the groups will see the mutual benefit of increased discourse and be represented at the meeting on November 19.”
The Board also announced that schools who plan to begin basketball practice on November 16 should adhere to the Level 1 mitigations from the IDPH All Sports Policy until at least November 19. The Board cited rising COVID-19 cases in the state and a recent membership survey for this recommendation. The Board plans to provide more direction on basketball practice and games following the meeting on November 19.
The Board revealed that among the 546 schools who responded to the survey (IHSA has 813 member schools), nearly 300 IHSA schools do not plan to start basketball on November 16, and another 212 schools remain unsure of their status.
“The Board recognizes the difficult decisions they have placed on member schools regarding basketball,” said Anderson. “With a limited number of schools set to begin their season on November 16, they believe it is prudent to adhere to IDPH guidance as they work with state officials to gain greater clarity on the metrics and mitigations required to conduct certain high school sports throughout the remainder of the 2020-21 school year.”
One obvious takeaway from the statement—the basketball season as presently constructed, Nov ‘20-Feb. ‘21, remains in serious jeopardy. According to Jakub Rudnik’s basketball newsletter that tracks opt ins, only nine schools have declared intentions to play the winter season (eight of the nine are smaller enrollment 1A or 2A schools). Everyone else has either opted out or is undeclared, the specific percentage released by the IHSA in its statement. The statement says how 512 schools responded to the survey (there are a few hundred more that did not respond).
Let’s examine other parts of the IHSA statement and what it means for the basketball season moving forward.
The Board announced that they are formally inviting representatives from Governor Pritzker’s Office and the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) to attend the IHSA Board meeting on November 19. Additionally, the IHSA will also seek representation at the meeting from the Illinois Principals Association (IPA), the Illinois Association of School Administrators (IASA), the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE), and a coalition of nearly 200 school superintendents who recently contacted the Governor regarding school sports during the 2020-21 school year.
Winston Churchill once said, “Politics is almost as exciting as war and quite as dangerous. In war you can only be killed once but in politics, many times.”
Churchhill might say how the IHSA and its board are finally learning from its defeats at the hands of Pritzker. Best to not bring a knife to a gunfight.
These ‘invitations’ to the Nov. 19 meeting is an attempt at a show of force. By asking education associations to get involved, the IHSA is trying to form a ‘coalition’ as written in its statement. It’s an equity play and a smart one. But I don’t believe it will have immediate returns. It’s more about gaining assurances for 2021.
The most significant road block to basketball and football being played is the ‘high risk’ label from the Illinois Department of Public Health. It restricts all activities beyond conditioning and drill work. No games. In Illinois, basketball and football have the largest participation numbers and drive revenue for the IHSA and partners, the sports essential to the emotional (and in some cases, financial) well being of school communities.
Craig Anderson, Executive Director of the IHSA, said this to the Peoria Journal Star about the organization’s revenue drain:
This fall, as of right now, I’d estimate us already at a deficit of $1.5 million to $2 million. That’s because much of our fall sports were moved forward to the spring. So we lost revenue from all of our fall sports. That can change. We don’t know yet what will happen with all those spring sports (including the fall sports moved into the spring calendar). If by then we have spectators permitted, that deficit goes down.
Football is a fall sport moved to the ‘spring’ season of 2021. It is scheduled to begin practices Feb. 15. That is three calendar months away but seemingly closer with the holidays approaching. We have no idea about basketball except most schools do not want to play the winter schedule due to liability concerns related to insurance coverage for Covid.
The rapidly moving calendar makes for a hard deadline. Decisions must be made, regardless of the number of virus cases.
(I hear on social media from people that continue to diminish the importance of athletics because ‘we are dealing with a public health crisis.’ Stop it. Both can be done. Just because you want to stay home with the blinds drawn doesn’t mean others should have to).
By bringing more bargaining chips to the table, can the IHSA get not just an audience with Pritzker/IDPH, but an assertion that the ‘high risk’ label for basketball and football, and the restrictions the label presents, is movable? If so, how or when?
Said Anderson:
The Board hopes to create a dialogue and build a more collaborative relationship with all the entities involved with developing sports policy in our state as everyone tries to navigate the myriad issues caused by the pandemic
If Pritzker ignores the invitation (likely based on previous behavior and cranky mood after having his tax amendment soundly defeated) then the IHSA and educational leaders know what they have to do.
They must move forward without cooperation from Springfield or the public health department. That will require hard decisions about sports in 2021.
I’m not talking about the Nov.-Feb basketball season, that is not going to happen based on the current climate. I’m talking about districts realizing that unless they want an entire season of football or basketball wiped out, they will have to get creative and find a way forward.
All of the starts and stops is another mental drain on young people. The lack of certainty is weighing on kids and coaches, many of whom are parents themselves.
More from Anderson:
The Board recognizes the difficult decisions they have placed on member schools regarding basketball. With a limited number of schools set to begin their season on November 16, they believe it is prudent to adhere to IDPH guidance as they work with state officials to gain greater clarity on the metrics and mitigations required to conduct certain high school sports throughout the remainder of the 2020-21 school year.
Whatever happens on Nov. 19, the IHSA, superintendents and principals are at a critical moment. There cannot be another round of can-kicking. Either get some assurances Pritzker/IDPH will be open to dialogue or not.
If not, then move on without them.
Now some Tweets from this past week.
This has been going on since the beginning of the pandemic. Travel teams leaving to play in Wisconsin, Iowa, Missouri, Indiana, states that based on positivity rate, are not as safe as Illinois (Indiana’s latest seven-day total was just shy of 20% compared to Illinois’s, which is 12.4% as of mid-week).
Kids that have the resources to travel and for private coaching, will continue to participate in their sport. The ones who don’t are stuck practicing on driveway or public facilities in thermal underwear.
If a high school season happens, most basketball players will play for their high schools. There remains an affinity for high school play in the sport of basketball, unlike academy-driven sports like soccer where elite players are encouraged to bypass high school. But if it’s really about ‘health and safety’, which Gov. Pritzker preaches every day, how is it ‘safe’ for athletes to travel to states where public health numbers are worse, then cross back into state lines?
Logic and reason take a back seat, per usual.
We are so early in the Covid era lawsuits have yet to be adjudicated. It’ll be 2030 before judges/juries render enough verdicts and proper analysis is evaluated.
Everyone experiences the wild inconsistencies in Covid restrictions every day (for example, my gym allows us to rent lockers from 5 am-10 am. Only during those hours. So it’s unsafe to do so during the other operational hours. What?) As addressed in the earlier tweet, we see other states participating in sports, in technically less safe environments, yet appear to be getting on just fine.
Or, how is it ‘safer’ for junior colleges in this state, who have rosters filled with 18-year-olds, able to play basketball, but not high schools that also feature 18-year-olds on its rosters? Absolutely silly.
The above tweeter asks if a waiver could hold up in court. Thus far, no school districts want to find out. The ‘high-risk’ label from the Illinois Department of Public Health is the deal breaker.
Earlier in the summer schools were making choices about in person/hybrid/remote learning. Here is an excerpt from an article in the Aurora Beacon-News:
The good news for local districts is that schools in Illinois can fall back on the Local Governmental Employees Tort Immunity Act, according to Tiffany Puckett, professor of law in the College of Education at Northern Illinois University.
While government immunity is different in each state, here in Illinois there is “extensive protection to schools” under this act, said Puckett, who has also worked as a school district attorney.
Districts would not be protected if injury was caused by conduct that shows deliberate, indifferent or conscious disregard for the safety of others, she noted. “But as long as schools have a reopening plan that’s consistent with local, state and federal laws,” as well as guidance under the Illinois State Board of Education, Centers for Disease Control or local health department, they will be protected against any COVID injury claims.
Presumably, schools that follow these guidelines are protected under the ‘Tort Immunity Act.’ Time will tell if this is true. Lawsuits are coming, I’m sure.
For the sake of argument, let’s say Pritzker signed an executive order ordering schools to be closed. What if a school defied the order and opened anyway? Presumably, a lawyer could argue negligence against a school in a Covid case.
This is the same scenario schools are afraid of with basketball or any high risk sport. Negligence is a dirty word and one personal injury lawyers would love to charge hundreds of dollars an hour to prove.
Collinsville Superintendent Brad Skertich said it best, in this quote I published in a newsletter article earlier this week:
“If the public health department says basketball is high risk and we say ‘the heck with that we are going to play’ and we get sued, then we are sitting there with no coverage and that’s what we have to be mindful of. For example if I have a playground that is damaged and unsafe and we continue to let kids play on it, we’d be willful and wanton and negligent that we didn’t act on that.
“School districts are a state agency and we have to follow state guidance. If we knowingly defy health guidance we’d be negligent if something occurred and that would jeopardize our insurance coverage if litigation was brought against a school district.”
The question then becomes…will a district finally get fed up enough with Pritzker’s shenanigans to take a leap? Will others follow?
Time will tell.
See above. Oh, another one…I tried to get a hot bowl of soup at the market the other day but the metallic baskets you scoop the soup out of were empty.
I guess holding a ladle of soup is a violation of a public health order?
I walked out of the store, wandered 50 yards down the street into a pizza joint and ordered a beer from the tap. It was a cold IPA (from Lake Bluff Brewing…keepin’ it local) and tasted great.
Open container of soup = not safe
50 yards away
Beer from a keg = safe
What the heck are we doing?
As I addressed at the top of the Mailbag, Wednesday was early signing day for senior athletes all over the country.
One datapoint I picked up on early from social media and emails: there are more and more girls playing college sports.
The above photos are from three volleyball players at Libertyville High School, in Chicagoland’s North Suburban Conference. I could fill pages and pages in this article with images of girls at signing ceremonies all over the state, surpassing the boys by a fairly wide margin.
What a super cool thing to see.
I host a weekly podcast with my friend Joe Aguilar. Joe was a prep columnist for the Daily Herald for two decades and moonlights as a sports commentator for ABC7 in Chicago.
Thursday, we interviewed Tricia Betthauser, the Athletic Director at Stevenson High School, located in north suburban Lincolnshire. Stevenson is one of the largest high schools in the state, with an enrollment in excess of 4,000.
We talked to Trish about girls participation in high school sports and the number of them continuing their sport at the college level. Here is one interesting except from the conversation:
I do see an uptick in overall girls interest in playing at the collegiate level. I think the opportunities are there, I think prior to Covid, there were more Division 3 or Division 2 school offering opportunities. And I do think that athletes are realizing it’s not that difficult a process to find those schools. What might have been an unfamiliar name to them before, it just doesn’t matter. It doesn’t have to be the big name school, it doesn’t have to be the big name program or the familiar program. And they are willing to be that first athlete in the area to go because there is some novelty to that. I’m going to pave the way.
You can listen to the full conversation here.
I thought I’d do a quick numbers check.
According to a National Federation of State High Schools survey, 4.5 million boys played high school sports in the United States in 2018-19. In the same year, 3.4 million girls participated in sports.
The National Collegiate Athletic Association participation numbers for 2018-19 by gender list 279,244 males as playing a college sport, 219,447 females.
Those numbers come to a .062% high school-to-college participation rate for males, .065% for females, a slightly higher percentage for girls than boys.
A much deeper dive into the data and more sourcing is needed to fully examine the topic. I’d have to look back through several years of data to see if there have been increases in participation numbers at the high school level and has that translated to more opportunities in college? How much of a factor is race/ethnicity? How much of a dent has Title IX made? All interesting questions.
Based on my anecdotal observations from Wednesday and objective data, it’s clear previous barriers to entry for girls and athletics are slowly being chipped away.
Finally…The Hair of the Year thus far goes to Conor Enright of Mundelein.
The above photo (thanks to Enright’s mom, Stephanie, for the image) is of the senior boys basketball player at his signing ceremony Wednesday. Enright will play college basketball at Drake University in Des Moines, IA.
Enright has managed to keep that ‘do since last season.
It warrants its own Twitter burner account.
@bucketsflow
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