During a press conference Monday afternoon at Rock Island County Health Department, Governor Pritzker announced the Illinois High School Association (IHSA) will cancel fall high school sports.
“With regard to sports, IHSA has said that they’re basically going to get out of the business of this in the fall, that’s what it appears they are saying. You know I’m deeply concerned, frankly. We’re seeing other countries have actually opened up schools, with no mitigation around sports, and guess what? There’s an outbreak among the kids that are in sports. I’m concerned about this.” Governor Pritzker said Monday afternoon.
The Governor said the State is watching the situation closely. Last week, Illinois Elementary School Association Board voted unanimously to canceled all fall sports for the upcoming season.
“This is not going to be like a fall like any other that we’ve seen. The school semester is just going to be different, people are going to have to expect that and they’re going to have to remain flexible. Parents, teachers, students, everybody because this virus has been unpredictable. I think we’ve seen that. There was a spike very early, we saw things getting out of control, and then it seemed to come down. Now it seems like a second spike going on in certain areas. The rising cases, even areas like Illinois where I think we’ve done a relatively good job.” Pritzker said this afternoon.
The Governor added Monday all residents need to stay vigilant on mitigation practices, adding the projection even several weeks out is challenging.
“It doesn’t go away. It’s not going away. Until we have a vaccine, or a very effective treatment, it’s not going away so we all need to be vigilant, we all need to wear masks and we all need to pray for the researchers and the scientists who are working on a vaccine or a very effective treatment.” Pritzker said this afternoon.
No official announcement has come from the Illinois Department of Public Health or IHSA on the state of fall sports as of Monday afternoon. The first official day of fall sports practice is August 10th with August 28th the first scheduled football games statewide.
This Wednesday, IHSA will meet to discuss the fall high school sports season. An official announcement from the organization is expected then.
