It’s been 14 months since we could say this in the state of Illinois.
Football is back.
For basketball, its been almost 11 months.
Wednesday, both sports officially returned to play.
With so much going on with news this week…I figured it was the perfect time to address football and basketball’s return in another Kerr Report Mailbag.
So let’s get on with it.
We’ll start with about football and basketball’s return.
With that tweet late Wednesday afternoon, the news became official.
Here are the talking points:
*Basketball starts now and ends March 13.
*Football starts March 3 (preseason practices), games kick off March 19 and go until April 24.
*Both sports get basically six weeks.
*No state series, so expect a plus-one ‘bowl’ style season-ending game for football. For hoops, a jamboree-style conference tournament format is likely to close out the abbreviated season.
*Coaches in basketball are conflicted (football guys are more ready to roll without much anxiety, at least that’s my early sense); thrilled there is a season, but a bit stressed over all that needs to be done to pull it off with very little ramp up time.
I’ve talked to a bunch of coaches over the past 24 hours. Here are edited transcripts of interviews with four boys basketball coaches—Pat Ambrose of Stevenson, Phil Ralston of Glenbrook South, Matt Badgley of Mundelein and Phil LaScala of Lake Forest.
AMBROSE
You are excited, happy, elated, but also some concern.. Anytime you do something fast you are like, are we ready? Are we planned out? This is all new and it’s a different year.
At some point there is overlap. I have a kid who is a senior (guard Evan Ambrose) and when he was in grade school he was like, ‘I want to wrestle, I want to run, I want to play golf. We can play golf, then wrestle the next day, basketball then baseball on the fourth day.’ Well, at some point the kid has to choose, you have to make choices. Here, in a pandemic year, you are going to placate by keeping the no overlap for a segment of the population that is multi-sport athletes. Then you are slighting other kids who get a half a season or less because you are worrying about the multi-sport athletes. Across the state there are probably thousands of multi-sport athletes. I get it, that’s true. At some point they have to pick. They won’t be able to play more than one sport in college. For a junior this year, pick a sport and next year you are back to multi-sport. You are doing it for senior multi-sport athletes and at the same time you are jipping out single sports athletes and we might not play because we are not in the right phase and we might get paused. And we’re doing it because we want to preserve that football starts in March? We have to start football in March because we have to finish early and get those spring sports in?
I have dealt with overlap. For 20 years our football team has gone deep in the playoffs. Don’t tell me I don’t know how to deal with overlap. I never, never said to a kid, ‘don’t come because you are late.’ Never said to a kid, ‘what are you doing playing football? You better be ready for basketball!’ No, go ahead and play football. For them to say we don’t want overlap, we are worried about this…huh? Why do you start basketball in a normal year and have the football playoffs go all the way to Thanksgiving?
RALSTON
There are some details still to be put in there. Obviously we are now scrambling as they basically said, ‘OK, start your season now.’ AD’s scrambling and programs scrambling to finalize teams. We have seven days and in theory and could start next Thursday (Feb. 4). I don’t know if that’s a good thing or a bad thing. If you ask the kids they are itching to play.
I don’t think it’s going to be as clean. I am such a nit-picker and perfectionist in so many ways. But we’re playing and hopefully fingers crossed there aren’t many or any bumps in the road until the end of the season.
The IHSA isn’t going to make everyone happy but they’ve given us daylight and finally given us some metrics for how they are making a decision. If this things gets really bad again, it obviously means we an get shut down again, there’s that potential. But there appears to be a plan of action to give us a season and even if it’s a 10 or 15 game season its something for the kids.
BADGLEY
Not having a postseason is a bummer, not just because where we are with the team right now. I’m a state tournament guy, I’ve been going since 1981. My dad has gone to a bizillion of them. It’s just like, a year later, we are still not back. That’s a bit of a disappointment as well.
How do you make value of what you have? That’s what we talked to the kids about tonight. A week ago, we were still thinking there was a chance we’d never play again. That was terrible as there was no closure. This is a little better but when you look back, these kids never got a chance to have somebody beat them where they owned the loss or to win where they got to own the win. It was just done and it’s kind of like that this year too.
LASCALA
We have a season but it’s over real quick. For us coaches it’s different, but for the kids, this is their time. Everybody remembers the state tournament, their last hurrah. For them not to get that, it’s embarrassing. There is a way you can do it. That’s my opinion on it.
We were ready to go as soon as the announcement was made. I’d like to get a game in Thursday (Feb. 4) or Friday (Feb. 5). There are some teams in our conference not starting until Monday (Feb. 1) so they won’t start the conference schedule until the following Monday (Feb. 8). You have to think about it that it’s about the kids and whatever we can get done we’ll peace meal together. It’s not going to be pretty, it’s not going to be the most well-organized stuff in the world, but so what? They have six weeks, six weeks of their high school season.
A jumbled mix of emotions from coaches, it’s safe to say.
Not having a state tournament is a huge blow. One of the unique aspects of basketball is the everyone-makes-the-postseason aspect of the sport. A 15-seed has just as much an opportunity to win a regional as a 2-seed.
That motivational chip won’t be there this year.
How do coaches managed that?
At a late afternoon press conference IHSA Executive Director Craig Anderson had this to say about no state tournament for basketball and football but the leaving the door open for a state series for spring sports like baseball and track:
The board wants to do everything in their power to prevent spring sports from going two consecutive years with no postseason IHSA play. There are obviously no guarantees, as risk levels by sport and local region mitigation statuses will factor significantly. Postseason could mean being limited to a regional or sectional level of competition, but we have not ruled out the idea of playing a full state tournament in these traditional spring sports if possible. The overwhelming feedback we have heard from athletic directors and coaches was that returning to play in all sports should be the main goal.
The desire to give spring sports as complete a season as possible was front and center in dictating how schedules for other sports shaped out. Why a truncated basketball and football season?
The IHSA did not want baseball, track, lacrosse, softball, to twice have seasons cut short due to Covid.
That’s a significant reason why basketball and football seasons combined, will be played in the span of 10-12 weeks.
When you have to please everyone, no one is left completely happy.
Speaking of scheduling…how will that play out for basketball and football? It will be interesting to say the least.
Will conferences play a home and away schedule then a end-of-season jamboree-style conference tournament as mentioned earlier in the mailbag?
Or will teams try and play one conference game then squeeze in as many non-conference Covid-region games as possible? That may be a challenge if most conferences choose the home and away route. Some of the decision making regarding scheduling may come down to how many schools are in the Covid region and eligible to play against.
For schools in Region 9, for instance, Lake and McHenry Counties, under the current construct, no opponents south of Highland Park would be eligible. There are a bunch of good teams in Northern Cook County—Notre Dame (Niles), Glenbrook South, Glenbrook North, New Trier, etc. and those would be easy drives for North Suburban Conference teams.
But Suburban Cook County is in Region 10. Public health guidelines prevent playing out of conference teams that are not in a schools’ Covid region.
“Hopefully maybe it changes a little bit and we can play,” LaScala said. “Schools aren’t going to be going out of state to play. I can get to Loyola (Academy) in 20-25 minutes.”
Much to be determined in the coming days. I say days because…the basketball season is measured this season in short increments.
As for football, when toe meets leather on March 19, it will be the first time a high school football game is played in Illinois since Thanksgiving weekend 2019.
That’s 16 months.
Earlier Thursday, I had a conversation with Antioch High School head football coach Brian Glashagel for my ‘Jon and Joe Show’ podcast I do every week with former Daily Herald columnist Joe Aguilar.
To get a full rundown of where things stand with football, I’d encourage giving the show a listen.
(If not here, you can find the show by typing in “The Jon and Joe Show” into your podcast player search engine).
A couple of important broad strokes from Coach Glas I’ll transcribe for the mailbag:
ON THE RETURN TO PLAY
I think every kid and coach was excited. I think every kid and coach would want more. I think we have to step back, there has been so many times in this roller coaster, you don’t know what each day will bring. If someone told us months ago that we are going to get games in, at least six games in, I think we’d all be relieved months ago that was coming. There is already incredible dialogue going on between coaches and players and athletic directors figuring this out. I think we all need to realize that it will be OK and we will figure it out.
ON SCHEDULING
In Lake County, our conference is within the region. So we don’t have as many questions. There are other conferences that are spread out over two or even three regions. There were some questions about that. There were questions about intra-conference and so, one of the first handful of questions people had was ‘what does that mean.’ Barrington High School for example is in Lake County in Region 9 but its whole conference is in the Mid-Suburban League (Suburban Cook County, Region 10) so does Barrington play conference? Are they allowed? My understanding is you can play conference even if you are in other regions. We as coaches came up with five and six and seven game schedules months ago. We already pumped it out. One thing we want to make sure of is we have a rivalry week set up. We have some natural rivalries in our conference and we want to make that a priority.
ON OVERLAP WITH OTHER SPORTS
The athletes that are playing basketball, if they need 12 football days going into the season to play week 1, we are going to make that happen. I sure hope every other school does the same thing. If the basketball coach needs a few of the football guys to leave a little early or as a football coach, if I need to schedule a separate practice, football and basketball guys will work together. That’s a 30 second conversation. Prior to that, if we can get conditioning, if that means put snowsuits and go run outside, whatever we need to do to get into physical shape, we will do. I assume football coaches will start having Zoom meetings at night for the mental stuff. If we are granted actual football-looking practices, let’s do it. Do we need a ton of time, no, but it would be nice to get into football. If we are given contact days, that 12-practice rule could be thrown to the wayside. In other words, a basketball player should be able to jump right into football. They’ve been running and jumping and doing plyos. Why would we do that? This whole buffer thing in between, with the seasons shrunken down, I would hope if you allow contact days I don’t see why you need the (required 12 practices). A basketball player should be able to come out of basketball and jump in and be ready to go. I don’t want to speak for every coach but I think all would agree, especially this year, the 12 (practice) mandatory thing, we don’t need that.
ON THE SHRUNKEN FOOTBALL SEASON AND PROTECTING SPRING SPORTS
Baseball players have been playing baseball games during the pandemic. We’ve had players leaving the state to play tournaments in Tennessee, Georgia. The pandemic did not stop baseball. Baseball people would admit that. They’ve had private opportunities. My defense of football is that we don’t have that. I understand where they are coming from but these baseball kids now will play a (school-sponsored) baseball season then the day they turn in their baseball uniform, are going to turn around and start travel right away. They will have a hundred games in the calendar year. I’m sympathetic towards the spring season but there’s another part of me that sees what’s going on. You can play four or five baseball games in a week. Even in a shortened season. I’m a track coach and in eight weeks, we can still get in the same number of meets as ten weeks. In football you can’t. It’s not weeks that makes a season but competitions. How many games can you play? You can play a lot with baseball, you can’t with football. That’s why I tweeted out we should start the season one week earlier so we can get seven (games). You don’t give us any flexibility if we have to shut down a week. I hope there is flexibility in days, if we have to play a football game on a Monday or a Tuesday or Sunday, so be it. Even if something happens in baseball you can play a doubleheader. Not the case with football. There are two sides to that argument that I think needs to be brought up.
ON A PLUS ONE ‘BOWL’ STYLE SEASON-ENDING GAME
If that did happen and we are in a good place with the virus, we’d be all for it. You can’t have a playoff, you can’t have a state (tournament) so I guess this would be the ultimate consolation. As a joke I tweeted at you and Joe Aguilar and Edgy Tim and Steve Soucie about you guys being a bowl committee and setting up some of those match ups. That would be cool. If we were able to get an extra game and play Cary-Grove or Prairie Ridge or Lake Forest, some of these other good 6A programs outside our conference of course we’d take it. It would be an awesome consolation concept.
Really good stuff from Coach Glas. We go into more detail on these topics in the show, so if interested in a deeper dive, give the podcast a listen.
There is no question that this will be the most unique late winter into spring sports season in the history of the state.
On with your questions, tweets and Zooms…
H.B. writes:
I would love to see you write an article on the uncanny timing of Pritzker's decision to return to sports in Illinois and the January 20 inauguration of Biden
H.B...you ask, I deliver. As I wrote about in an article published Tuesday, Pritzker all of a sudden deeming it safe to return has nothing to do with data or science.
The 1976 film “All The President’s Men,” based on the book of the same title, first normalized this quote in popular culture:
“Follow the money”
Well, the money is on its way.
This is was a massive issue for the IHSA and the board, avoiding as much overlap as possible.
In the small classes, 1A-4A, its not uncommon to have 75% the basketball roster, 10-12 players, also plays football. And those 10-12 are all starters on the football team.
It would be difficult for the football coach to run practices without his quarterback, running back, starting linebacker, etc, you get the point.
By squeezing in basketball and having it end right before football starts, you avoid the overlap issue. Coaches will have to get creative about practice time during the stretch in the calendar when there is overlap (mid-March) but it can be done.
This is a quote from the IHSA’s Anderson from the Tuesday press conference:
We believe our schools should be reasonable in their scheduling, that they have rest and are taking care of academics. That has to be a priority. Some reasonableness rather than us dictating it
One common phrase will be uttered hundreds of times over the next few months:
“Just figure it out.”
If given the opportunity, most schools will.
Based on the schedule, football will overlap, albeit briefly, with spring sports like baseball, lacrosse or track.
But unlike going from basketball to football, which has a practice mandate before playing games, other sports do not. Meaning if a football player wants to play baseball or run track or play lacrosse, they can immediately transition to the other sport and play games.
Duel sport kids will also be allowed to play both simultaneously. So if a team’s quarterback is also a starting pitcher for the baseball team, he could attend a morning workout with the baseball team, then go to football practice in the afternoon, just to use one example.
All of this will require a heavy dose of cooperation between coaches in each sport. Like everything during Covid, some will manage it better than others.
This is a legitimate concern, based on the current state of governing in Illinois and how seasons played out in other states.
Take Michigan for example. Michigan was the last state complete the fall football season, that being earlier this month. Michigan started in September, paused in November, and held its state finals last weekend.
While the stops and starts were not ideal, Michigan was able to give its seniors one final season.
Guess what lockdown governor Gretchen Whitmer did earlier this week? She used her public health servants to consent to another round of competition restrictions for sports like basketball and wrestling. It’s almost as if Whitmer is borrowing from the Pritzker playbook—usurping the authority of Michigan’s sports association and handing down rulings from the Tyrant’s Throne.
Michigan residents are fed up. The top official of state’s high school sports association is complaining about the lack of transparency from public health officials.
Sound familiar?
Illinois should be studying border states with an understanding that the same thing could happen here.
There needs to be an acceptance that while seasons will start, they will likely be paused at some point. And not just because of Covid metrics.
Let’s not forget the problem with contract tracing.
Currently, the CDC and IDPH recommend a 14-day quarantine for anyone deemed a close contact of someone who tests positive for COVID-19. But there are 7-to-10-day quarantine options if mitigations are met.
But for basketball, one exposure could put an entire team in quarantine.
Let’s say a player is in a classroom with someone who tests positive. If that player is deemed a ‘close contact’, they have to quarantine for 14 days (most schools will follow the 14-day rule).
To take it farther…what if that player went into the weight room with some teammates before she knew about her exposure in the classroom. If that player later shows symptoms, all players in the weight room with her would then be labeled ‘close contacts’ and have to quarantine.
See where I’m going with this? With such an abbreviated season now for basketball, a scenario just outlined could derail the season.
Don’t be surprised if this happens to a school or multiple schools this winter or spring.
That’s why the concept of ‘bubbling’ has worked. It’s why football teams in Georgia had their players go all remote during the season last fall.
It lessens exposure and helps ensure the completion of a season.
This is not from a question or tweet but a short item I wanted to get into the mailbag.
I was on a Zoom call a few days ago with an athletic trainer named Alex Noun, who works for ATI.
He had an interesting comment about acclimatization for athletes whom have not played competitive games in their sport in for some, well over a year.
It’s been a long layoff for all types of sports, especially high impact sports. We have to take the conditioning very seriously. It has to be a slow progression. people are going to go, regardless of the sport, they are going to go fast paced. They are going to take out, not necessarily aggression, but taking social cues to be out with their friends and teammates. They are going to go very hard they are going to go basically go high impact and go from a progression standpoint. So it’s important that coaches and trainers that we have to gradually put them in a program where they are successful. Make sure they are bio-mechanical, make sure that when they are weight lifting and out on the field, they have to go slow and have to start out steadily and progress
Hey, look, I’m super thrilled we are moving in the direction of all sports being played. But keeping an eye on injury prevention is something all coaches need to prioritize when designing practices over the days and weeks ahead, especially for the high impact sports Noun referred to like football and soccer.
Thanks to reader Jeff for tweeting the link from last week’s Sunday Six.
It made me remember a hilarious clip involving peanut butter from “The Family Guy” television show:
When is it never not “Peanut Butter Jelly Time?”
Finally…last week saw the passing of baseball legend Hank Aaron.
Baseball fans who grew up in the 50’s and 60’s remember Aaron in his prime and for some, were lucky enough to see him live.
TKR subscriber Robert Tito was a fan of Aaron’s and used to go to games at Comiskey Park and make the 90-minute drive from the south side of Chicago to Milwaukee to watch Aaron play.
Tito was nice enough to sent along a photo of him as a kid attending a game at Comiskey Park in 1966.
Dig the buzz cuts boys! (OBTW…Robert is 8th kid from left, above the dugout)
Thanks for reading the mailbag everyone. Have a great weekend.
Do you have tip/comment/suggestion for the Mailbag? Send to Jon and jon@jonjkerr.com.