Leaving his office at Mahomet-Seymour High School on Thursday night, Matt Hensley felt something he didn’t think he might experience this past week.
Energized. Elated. Motivated.
Even after putting in a 12-hour day trying to begin the process of figuring out key details to make high school sports — albeit with condensed seasons — possible this upcoming school year amid the coronavirus pandemic.
“Although there’s been a lot of angst, obviously, and there still is a lot of angst, the guys and gals I’ve talked to over the last few days, there’s now excitement in their voice,” said Hensley, the Mahomet-Seymour athletic director the last 15 years. “There was a lot of dread before. The seasons still might not happen, but people are like, ‘I’m getting my fingers dirty. I’m in the weeds. I’m figuring out what we can do for our kids.’
“At the end of the day, whether you’re a superintendent, the principal, an athletic director, the head coach or the 10th volunteer assistant coach, you’re doing it for the kids. To have the opportunity to do that, it’s quite cool, to be honest.”
One of the most important pieces, aside from following health protocols, is the scheduling component. An aspect that was flipped upside down with the IHSA announcement this past Wednesday of moving football, volleyball and boys’ soccer to spring seasons along with the potential for large gatherings — think multi-team invitationals for sports like cross-country, golf, tennis and swimming, among others — almost nonexistent under current health guidelines.
“Golf is an interesting one because they can put you 30 feet apart, but in cross-country, they can’t. You’re running side-by-side,” Rantoul athletic director Travis Flesner said. “I see those invites being canceled completely, even for golf. To be consistent for all high school sports, I think invites are going to be out for most sports.”
Holiday tournaments in both boys’ and girls’ basketball are probably not going to happen this upcoming school year, either, under the current guidelines. In an email sent to athletic directors across the state after Wednesday’s announcement, a maximum of two basketball games per week for each team is the plan, along with no tournaments or events featuring more than three teams.
And football schedules will have to be reworked. Football games are projected to begin March 5, 2021, with IHSA executive director Craig Anderson indicating a six- or seven-game regular season is possible with a likely regional postseason setup in play before the season ends May 1.
“Obviously, most decisions in high school sports are driven by football,” Flesner said. “We all know that. That played a big role in this decision for them to go four seasons because nobody wants to miss that season. That’s what everybody enjoys.
“Initially, with scheduling, I would like to see the IHSA just make all the decisions in terms of the schedules for football season. At first glance, I look at it and see a bidding war that’s just going to be cutthroat. Schools may think, ‘I just want to get my seven games, and I don’t care about anybody else.’”
But Anderson has indicated it will be up to the schools to schedule their football games.
Then, there’s the traditional spring sports that will now move into a summer season, albeit one that is shorter than the other three seasons — fall, winter and spring. Baseball, softball, boys’ track and field, girls’ track and field, girls’ soccer and boys’ tennis will get the chance to open on May 17 after practices begin May 3 before their seasons are scheduled to conclude on June 26. This comes after those sports didn’t get to have a season at all in 2020 because of the pandemic.
Urbana athletic director Steve Waller said he understands the IHSA plan is not going to appease all parties involved.
But ...
“Right now, every athlete will still be able to compete this year,” Waller said. “Now, obviously things are fluid and still in motion and could change at any day. Ultimately, I think the IHSA took all of the information they had to try to piece together some type of format that would still allow for some type of competition.”
Now, it’s on area athletic directors to work out what these abbreviated schedules will look like. Waller said Big 12 Conference athletic directors are set to meet next Wednesday, while Hensley said Apollo Conference ADs are set to meet as well next week and Flesner said plans are in place to arrange a similar meeting with his fellow Illini Prairie Conference athletic directors.
Expect to see plenty of conference games, matches and meets this upcoming school year. Working out the logistics — the Big 12, for instance, spans roughly 130 miles from as far west as Peoria to as far east as Danville — may take some time.
May take some patience. May take some compromise.
But it beats the alternative of not having any sort of high school sports in the coming weeks and months.
If the pandemic allows them to happen in the first place.
“I’m glad the IHSA is giving our kids an opportunity to play, giving our coaches a chance to coach and giving our families something to look forward to,” Hensley said. “I appreciate the fact that they’re trying. I’ve heard all the belly-aching about it, and there’s some things I probably don’t like about it.
“It’s not perfect. The consensus from most of my coaches, though, are give us a shot. We’ll do the best we can. The ball is entirely in our court. Everybody wears their masks. Everybody sanitizes their hands. If people do what they should do, we’ve got a chance. If we fumble it, it’s not the IHSA’s fault.”
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August 02, 2020 at 09:00PM
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Area ADs try to work through scheduling process - Champaign/Urbana News-Gazette
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