At the latest Board of Directors discussion update on December 2nd, the IHSA announced that the winter sports season will not begin until January of 2021 at the earliest.
IHSA Executive Director Craig Anderson said in his statement following the meeting, “Given Governor Pritzker’s current mitigations, the Board has no expectation of starting low risk winter sports prior to January. The Board and IHSA staff will continue to monitor the Tier 3 Resurgence Mitigation in effect currently. When there is a timeline for the state to emerge from these restrictions, the Board is prepared to restart lower risk winter sports quickly,” said Anderson. “In addition, the Board hopes to reestablish contact days in January for any winter sports that cannot begin, as well as spring and summer sports. The introduction of the contact days will be based on mitigations from the Governor and the Illinois Department of Public Health at that time.”
The announcement comes weeks after the IHSA put the winter sports season on pause back on November 17th. Boys and girls basketball, boys and girls bowling, girls gymnastics, boys swimming and diving, cheerleading, and competitive dance are the sports currently on hold.
Tier 3 mitigations in Illinois began on November 20th and Governor Pritzker recently announced that the state will not be moving back to Tier 2 for at least a couple weeks while the IDPH monitors the COVID-19 case numbers and hospitalizations.
Craig Anderson also brought up the possibility that girls badminton could be moved from the spring season to the winter because it is a low risk sport.
The next IHSA board meeting will be held on December 14th.
