Local ADs: Many questions remain after conflicting IHSA, IDPH guidance

Around 3 p.m. Wednesday, local athletic directors’ phones were flooded with calls, texts and emails.

The school community wanted to know what will happen next after the IHSA announced that basketball season could proceed as scheduled, in defiance of the Illinois Department of Public Health and Gov. JB Pritzker’s announcement Tuesday that the sport was put “on hold.”

“My phone was ringing off the hook, and I was getting texts,” Mendota athletic director Steve Hanson said. “Coaches are cautiously optimistic after [Tuesday]. This whole COVID thing puts you on a roller coaster ride. [Tuesday] we were surprised in a bad way. [Wednesday] we were surprised in a potentially good way.”

Despite the IHSA announcing basketball could start as scheduled with practices on Nov. 16 and games Nov. 30, many questions remain.

“People have a lot of questions like what does this mean and how does this work if the state is saying one thing and the IHSA is saying another thing?” said La Salle-Peru athletic director Dan Le. “There is a lot of confusion and questions about what we can and can’t do or how we want to move forward. This is obviously something bigger than just the coaches and athletic department. We’ll involve the administration in this and communicate with the school board as well. From my end, I’ll communicate within our conference as well to get a feel for what all the schools are thinking and how they want to proceed.”

The IHSA is leaving the decision to play basketball up to each district or school.

“I think this has created a situation where it’s almost going to be up to the local school boards to decide, 'Who are we going to follow? Are we going to follow the state and the scientists and the rules, or the IHSA because they oversee high school sports?' ” Seneca athletic director Steve Haines said. “There are still some really tough conversations and decisions that have to be made.”

Bureau Valley Athletic Director Brad Bickett, formerly the Storm boys basketball coach, said that the BV administrative team will meet Thursday morning to discuss the latest developments.

"Our stance through this whole thing, the safety of our coaches and our players are our No. 1 priority,” Bickett said. “And we're just going to continue to use that [stance]. Obviously, being a public school, we may have some challenges going forward if we want to play basketball."

Princeton athletic director Jeff Ohlson said he was surprised by the IHSA's announcement.

"I didn't expect that to come out. I was just trying to get through yesterday's announcement and then that comes out," he said. "I was curious what they were going to decide to do today. That caught me by a little bit of surprise that kind of decision."

St. Bede Athletic Director Nick McLaughlin said the IHSA and IDPH giving conflicting direction puts schools “in a very difficult spot.”

He said he anticipates the St. Bede administration and board will collaborate on the decision while seeking out legal counsel.

“We’re going to evaluate all the current information and make decisions that maintain the health and well being of our student athletes and the St. Bede community,” McLaughlin said. “It’s a lot to digest at this time. I think many schools will be weighing what things we need to do. I think you’re going to see more dialogue happen between the IHSA and the governor’s office and we’ll probably have more guidance in the next couple of days.”

Illinois State Superintendent of Education Carmen Ayala released a letter that said defying orders by the IDPH could "open schools up to liability and other ramifications."

“We have started conversation after the announcement came out and an Illinois Athletic Directors Association meeting with the IHSA's Craig Anderson,” said Streator AD Rory Bedeker. “I have been in contact with administrators as far as moving forward and we will be getting more information (Thursday). We'll know what guidelines are being proposed to make basketball happen.

“From there, we'll obviously have to have local decisions from our school district, school board, and most importantly, the school's lawyers to see what kind of liability there is for the school and make the choice to play or not play.”

Area administrators expect the disagreement between the IHSA and IDPH is not over yet.

“It was time to stand up to (Pritzker),” Marquette athletic director and boys basketball coach Todd Hopkins said. “What happened (Wednesday) was good, but this is definitely very far from over. It’s going to go back and forth and hopefully, it will at least get them to sit down and talk.

“It’s good news right now, but things may change (Thursday) or the next day or whatever. We’ll have to see what happens now that the ball is in (the governor’s) court."

With communication seemingly lacking between the IHSA, IDPH and Pritzker, area ADs hope the conflicting announcements force the parties to talk.

“It’s just craziness,” Ottawa athletic director Mike Cooper said. “I’m am surprised. This a brave move by the IHSA, but it’s probably warranted in this situation … The fact that the governor hasn’t spoken with the IHSA is incredible. As a school, we teach our kids to try to communicate with people and work with people to come to a common conclusion and that absolutely has not been the case here. Hopefully, this will get the Illinois Department of Public Health, the governor’s office and the IHSA into a room together so they can come to a compromise and a way to make these things work.

“There is a way to do this safely and granted, it may not be decided by Nov. 15, but when the time comes that the numbers do go down a bit, we’ll be ready to go.”

Shaw Media's Charlie Ellerbrock, Kevin Hieronymus and Brian Hoxsey contributed to this story.