West Central Reporter

The Barry basketball coach initially liked it when Illinois High School Association's defied Gov. J.B. Pritzker's attempts late last month to put off the state's upcoming high school basketball season over COVID-19 concerns.

Then Curtis Stout, Western Community Unit District #12 High School Boys head basketball coach, said he had a change of heart.

"At first I thought it was good that the IHSA stood up for basketball, but then realized that they didn't really do anything but put everything on the schools to make an impossible decision," Stout told West Central Reporter. 

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"It made me sick thinking about how the kids are being strung along with everything that has happened over the past few weeks between the Governor and the IHSA," said Stout.

Stout also is a Western High School assistant golf coach and teaches physical education and health at the school. 

Pritzker, with guidance from the Illinois Department of Public Health that had just moved basketball from the "medium risk" category to "higher risk" in its winter safety guidelines, announced high school basketball and wrestling in the state would be "on hold."

The day after Pritzker's announcement, IHSA's Board of Directors voted in a special meeting to proceed with the basketball season as scheduled. The board also set schedules for other sports, including "low risk sports" such as swimming and diving, cheerleading, bowling and gymnastics, according to an IHSA announcement.

The IHSA made those decisions following guidance from its Sport Medicine Advisory Committee (SMAC). Boys and girls basketball will begin practice on Nov. 26, according to the announcement.

Play can begin "within an Illinois COVID Region or within a conference" on Nov. 30, the announcement said.

Teams will follow limitations that allow a maximum of 31 games and masks will be worn by players, coaches, and officials during play, according to the IHSA announcement.

"It will become a local school decision to determine if a school will allow their basketball teams to participate following the guidelines developed by the SMAC," the IHSA announcement said.

Since the announcement, fewer than 34 high schools are certain their basketball seasons will start this month, according to Chicago Sun-Times sources.

Western High School apparently is one that is uncertain.

"At Western we are currently in a wait and see approach for the upcoming season," Stout said, "At this time the school has not made a decision one way or the other in terms of the basketball season."