By FRED KRONER
Shawn Skinner would love to coach his St. Joseph-Ogden football team at some point this school year.
He recognizes that his desire is not supported by facts.
Though the Illinois High School Association has not yet determined what will become of the remaining (and rescheduled) fall sports, such as football, or the still-on-hold winter and spring sports, Skinner sees the direction things are headed.
“I have little, to no optimism of playing football until August,” Skinner said.
He arrives at that conclusion by simply doing the math.
Football preseason practice traditionally starts in early August, following a summer utilizing 21 contact days, some for 7-on-7, some for conditioning and some for installing the offense or defense.
Three weeks of workouts are then mandated before a team can play its first game.
When the IHSA originally delayed football due to the COVID-19 pandemic, postponing it from August until a Feb 15 start for practice, season-opening games were set for Feb. 26.
What seemed plausible last fall no longer seems workable.
“I don’t understand how it’s even possible,” Skinner said. “In a perfect/typical scenario, where we have been working with kids all summer, they allow/require three full weeks of practice in order to begin.
“Do I think we could do it in two weeks? Possibly. But this is not a typical sport. The physicality that is associated with blocking and tackling can’t simply be replicated without practice and repetition.
“I know I wouldn’t feel safe having less than two weeks to prepare our athletes to go play.”
Assuming some games could get played before the April 9 deadline which was previously set as the end of the season, Skinner said it’s what follows that shows why the plan is not tenable.
“Then we need to recondition our helmets and shoulder pads and get everything set in place to do this all again starting on Aug. 9,” Skinner said. “Look at the original timeline that was presented to us: I believe the final playoff round was April 9.
“With that timeline, we would be looking at four months between (football) seasons. Why in the world would that be safe and achievable?
“In my talks with equipment reconditioners, they said there would be no way they could guarantee the equipment to be returned in time. So, taking all of that into account, is there any conceivable way that we start on Feb. 15?
“The answer is no.”
As for what’s next, numerous proposals have been floated, coming from an assortment of coaches, athletes, administrators, parents and sportswriters. All have good intentions, but many are specifically looking at ways for sports with which they are associated to continue.
Though he would naturally like his sport to be in the forefront, Skinner believes it’s time to make hard decisions and stick to them.
He also knows there is not one plan that will be applauded and praised by everyone.
“I don’t know why we are wasting time trying to make seasons work that we simply have no time to do,” he said. “I have seen different proposals where we have multiple sports being played at the same time.
“One proposal had football, basketball, soccer and wrestling being played in May and June. That’s a terrible idea that I could not support.
“Why would we finally allow sports to be played only to force kids to choose between what sport to participate in for a half-hearted season?”
Skinner’s idea is to restart where high school sports were paused in March, 2020.
“Let’s (now) commit to have a full spring sports season,” he said. “The same sports that lost their seasons when this began, let’s allow them to have a full season to bring us back out of this pandemic.
“To do that, we must be willing to admit and accept that we have essentially lost a year of extracurricular activities in the state of Illinois.
“It’s unfortunate. It’s sad. It’s infuriating. It’s also fair. What I mean by that is all of the schools, all of the programs, all of the athletes, all of the participants, went through and ultimately suffered the same consequences.”
There were a handful of exceptions during the 2020-21 school year, with cross-country, golf, girls’ tennis and girls’ swimming being permitted to compete for about two months last fall.
“Why would it be wrong for the spring sports to have their full set of contests?” Skinner asked. “Full set of state finals? A FULL SEASON.
“Not partial, made up, play for the sake of playing hodge-podge, where kids have to make choices on what to play or if they do a travel sport or their school sport in June/July.
“Get the full spring season and then give everyone involved a full summer of normal work.”
By implementing his concept, Skinner said it would, “get us back on track and on course to normalcy.”
The downside is obvious. Seniors in sports such as basketball, cheerleading, dance, football, boys’ soccer, volleyball and, perhaps, wrestling would not have the chance to again participate in those endeavors for their high schools.
Skinner agreed that is a huge negative.
“This is terrible for our current senior student-athletes,” he said. “But when I look at the big picture and I look at the calendar, I can’t come up with a better solution than this.
“This is not to say that I wouldn’t want a season. I want to make that clear. But I have no desire to have a season where I have to ask kids to choose between playing football, basketball or wrestling.
“In some ways I think that would somehow be taking a bad situation and making it even worse on these kids and their families.”
Skinner is not one who faults the IHSA for the manner in which the situation has devolved.
“It’s clear that anything that happens will be out of the IHSA’s hands,” he said. “The governor and the IDPH have created such a mess with tiers and protocols and restrictions.
“We can sit here and complain for days that we haven’t played sports and that neighboring states have done this and that, and we failed.”
Instead, Skinner said that whatever plan is ultimately put in place, adults will have an opportunity for input. In the future.
“In the years to come, we can utilize our votes and voices to ensure we don’t make these mistakes again,” he said. “I hope we never face another scenario like this one.
“But we can learn from our mistakes and some of our good decisions, as not everything the state has done has been an absolute failure.”
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Other area coaches share many of Skinner’s frustrations, but also pinpoint an underlying issue they believe is as important as the missed practices and games.
“I would like to see IHSA set final dates and not move them any more,” Villa Grove/Heritage boys’ basketball coach Corey White said. “It would give everyone a chance to process what is most likely to happen instead of providing what could be false hope.”
The anticipation has been prevalent for much of the past 10 months.
“I think back to the spring where they left the door open if things got better for contests that the schools could schedule on their own, but IHSA said they were done,” White said. “With as many teams that are already going out of the state to play currently, I think a similar statement could be made, but the date-changing needs to stop.”
White thinks it would be devastating for the IHSA to schedule multiple sports on an overlapping basis.
“For small schools that share athletes, I don’t believe it is possible to overlap sports and make kids choose which one they will play,” White said. “It is not realistic to have them play multiple sports at the same time.
“Even though the students are young, their bodies still need time to recover.”
And yet, unless some sports are cast aside for this school year, the reality is that seasons may be played simultaneously.
“If the IHSA is going to try to have every sport, we are at a point where seasons will have to overlap in order to get a significant amount of contests in,” White said.
The IHSA has scheduled a follow-up Board of Directors meeting for Jan. 27, at which time an announcement of substance is expected.
“I think most coaches would love clarity,” SJ-O boys’ basketball coach Kiel Duval said. “I think that is what I would love to see next.
“There have not been any true decisions made over the last several months and things keep getting pushed back because of all the unknowns.
“Just give the kids an idea of what is going on. Student-athletes are really struggling right now. The toughest part for our students is seeing states around them competing. Making it work.”
Mahomet-Seymour boys’ basketball Ryan Bosch sees a glimmer of hope on the horizon. He is just uncertain when that seemingly far-off destination can be reached.
“I just feel horrible for our kids and their families,” Bosch said. “Not only are they being kept from sports that they love, they’re not getting any leadership in terms of making a concrete plan for moving forward.
“It really is a feeling of paralysis for many of us. I am hopeful that as the vaccination is rolling out, that there may be a light at the end of the tunnel and we can move forward.
“But it is likely a much longer timeline than any of us can imagine.”
Duval said that maintaining a positive attitude is difficult.
“I do think they are running out of time to push all the sports into the calendar that is left,” Duval said. “It is nearly impossible, and I think that is what IHSA hinted at in their previous update.
“It is hard to stay optimistic about the season being played, but at this point I’m looking forward to being able to be back in practice with our players. It is hard having very little contact with them that relates to basketball.”
Bosch’s colleague at M-S, girls’ basketball coach Garret Risley, is a believer that the efforts made by athletes while being sidelined from school sports will eventually be beneficial.
“As each day passes, we simply continue with the mindset that we’re going to be playing sooner rather than later,” Risley said. “And at some point, the work all the athletes in our sports programs are putting in now will pay off.
“One of the biggest challenges for them has been working towards a goal without a deadline and not being able to see the results of their work in terms of wins and losses.
“Our athletes have had to be internally motivated, but those that have continued to put in time will see the benefit of that in more ways than one.”
Bosch has found a way to avoid disappointment.
“I’ve learned to not get my hopes up,” he said.
