IHSA Follows Pritzker's Lead In Pausing Winter Sports Season

BLOOMINGTON, IL — Just one day after Gov. J.B. Pritzker announced the state is instituting Tier 3 mitigations to combat the rising number of coronavirus cases, the Illinois High School Association opted to follow suit by pausing the high school winter sports season. All sports and activities — which has begun practice earlier this week — will cease by Friday for what the IHSA hopes is a "short-term pause," as voted on by the organization's board of directors.

"Given the rising COVID-19 cases in our state and region, we support the Governor's mitigations and believe it is imperative for everyone in the state to do their part in following them so that we can return to high school sports participation as soon as possible," IHSA Executive Director Craig Anderson said in a statement.

The Board will revisit the status of winter sports at their update discussion on Dec. 2 and again at its regularly scheduled meeting on Dec. 14, if necessary.

Last month, the IHSA Board voted to proceed with a high school basketball season despite Pritzker saying it was on hold due to a rising number of coronavirus cases in the state. The sport had originally been deemed medium risk for the coronavirus, but Pritzker and the Illinois Department of Health changed that classification to high risk. With coronavirus cases reaching record numbers, only a handful of schools in the state indicated that they intended to play basketball prior to Tuesday's announcement on Tier 3 mitigations.

Winter sports considered low risk for the coronavirus will also see their seasons paused under the new rules, including boys swimming and diving, cheerleading, dance, boys and girls bowling and girls gymnastics. Wrestling, considered high risk like basketball, had already been moved out of the winter sports season to the spring.

Pritzker Pauses Winter Sports Season Amid Coronavirus Mitigations

"The Board is sensitive to the scheduling difficulties these delays create for athletic directors and coaches. However, our experiences this summer and fall lead us to believe that setting arbitrary start dates hinders the process even more," Anderson said. "We realize it may seem redundant, but we have to preach patience as we await more data and direction from the state."

The Board provided the following participation clarifications to member schools:

Winter Season Start Date: Given the timing of the Governor’s new mitigations, Nov. 16 will not be recognized as the start date of the winter season, regardless of whether winter sport teams conducted any official tryouts or practices. A new start date will be established for each sport once winter sports can be conducted again.

Conditioning & Weight Training: Conditioning and weight training before and after school are paused. Local schools will decide if conditioning and weight training programs that are a part of their academic curriculums continue or are ceased.

Open Gyms: Are paused and cannot be conducted at this time.

Outdoor Workouts: Outdoor workouts may be conducted in any sport in groups of 10 or less with masks and social distancing. Coaches are counted toward the 10. Use of sport-specific equipment is allowable with proper sanitizing practices.

One-on-One Skill Work: Per Tier 3 Resurgence Mitigations and with school approval, one-on-one skill work between a coach and student-athlete is permitted for winter sports only, but is limited to one coach and one student-athlete per facility.

Activities: Practices and competitions may only be conducted virtually.

Non-School Participation: All sports organizations in the state, school or non-school, have been directed to abide by the Governor’s mitigations. IHSA coaches cannot organize non-school participation in any fashion. IHSA by-law 3.100 will be in effect once winter sport seasons begin following this pause.

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