IHSA Board Approves Modified Schedule for 2020-2021 School Year

The Illinois High School Association Board of Directors has announced plans for the 2020-2021 school year. The plan has been sent to the Illinois Department of Public Health for final approval.

All sports will be played over the course of shorter fall, winter, spring and summer seasons. As a result, several team sports will shift to new seasons, including football, boys soccer, and girls volleyball moving from the fall to the spring.

IHSA boys and girls golf, girls tennis, cross country and girls swimming and diving will remain as fall sports, and can proceed to start on August 10 as scheduled. Per the governor's announcement earlier Wednesday, fall sports will begin with competition limited to conference opponents and other schools in the same geographical area. Schools will be provided more details in the coming week about the scheduling limits, and scheduling will continue to be assessed throughout each season.

Football, Boys Soccer and Girls Volleyball will now begin February 15 and conclude May 1.

State Series tournament decisions will be made on a sport-by-sport basis as each season progresses, but providing postseason opportunities remains a priority of the Board. This could potentially include culminating State Series Tournaments after Regional or Sectional rounds, or seeking other non-traditional means to conduct events.

“I understand that today’s announcement will be met with mixed emotions,” said IHSA Executive Director Craig Anderson. “Our staff and Board have heard from thousands of people over the past few weeks with ideas, opinions, and proposals on how we should proceed. We respect and understand their passion, because we share in it. It is a great reminder that if we want high school sports to return to normal, we all need to do our part to help stop the spread of COVID-19.” He said that the decisions were in part an effort to let three-sport athletes continue to compete in all three sports seasons.

The Board also extended the current Phase 4 Return To Play Guidelines, which will allow sports slated to be played in the winter, spring and summer seasons to allow an additional 20 days of contact for schools between September 7 and October 31 following IDPH Phase 4 Guidelines.

The Board also verified that IHSA by-laws do not prevent schools who are conducting remote learning from participating in IHSA sports and activities. Participation will remain a local school and district decision, regardless of the learning plan a high school is utilizing.

The Board discussed IHSA activities for the 2020-21 school year but did not take any action. The IHSA’s activity offerings include Bass Fishing, Chess, Debate, Drama & Group Interpretation, Individual Events, Journalism, Music & Scholastic Bowl.

“We believe we can still offer many of our activities via virtual contests,” said Anderson. “The Board has asked our staff to investigate those possibilities, and we will report back soon on if and how each can be held.”

Regarding the spring sports being moved to fall, Anderson said their current activities will conclude August 9, then resume September 7 and end October 31. He said they can have open gym and weight lifting. He also said they will leave it to the schools to schedule opponents, but will encourage conference and regional matchups. The figure of six or seven regular season football games was mentioned by Anderson, then some post-season play to make sure they get their nine games in.

Now, what if there is a spike in COVID-19 cases to warrant a change in plans? Anderson said if there is a spike in the fall, they would try to "reload" the contests in February. If a spike occurs in the February to May window, "we may have to do some soul-searching". 

As for the specific dates, Anderson said, "The dates are our first attempt" and of basketball, he said, "I would not be surprised if this moves later."

Speaking of later, Anderson said the adjustments of the summer seasons into the end of June might warrant pushing back the start of the sports cycle for the 2021-2022 school year.

Further details on items such as sport season and practice limitations will be released to IHSA schools following IDPH approval of the plan.Three IHSA Board members (Hasson, McMahan, Rogers) were present at the IHSA office for the meeting, while the other eight Board members attended electronically. The chart below outlines the new IHSA schedule for the 2020-21 school year: