Danville High School’s athletic director says the IHSA made the right decision yesterday when it reorganized the high school sports seasons due to the pandemic.
Mark Bacys says many of his coaches were pleased with the decision by the IHSA to move football, volleyball and boys’ soccer to the spring, while pushing spring sports back two months and shortening the fall and winter sports seasons.
He says the biggest challenge right now is scheduling, since that is up to the schools, not the IHSA. Bacys says the Big 12 Conference has upcoming meetings, but some longer trips could be eliminated.
“The IHSA’s recommendation is that competitions take place within your COVID region, or within the conference,” he said. “Peoria’s the farthest in the conference, and so we might have to limit our travel to Peoria to play those games.”
While fall sports such as golf, girls’ tennis, cross-country and girls’ swimming are still on and their seasons beginning August 10, questions remain about just how those seasons would play out.
“Can golf tournaments still go on? Can tennis tournaments still go on, or are they just going to be dual matches that you’re just going to play with another school? The same with cross country: how are the invites going to go? Same with swimming.”
IHSA Executive Director Craig Anderson acknowledged state championships might not happen under the revised schedule, but Bacys says even a shortened postseason would be meaningful to athletes.
“A lot of it sounds like they’ll go to a regional or a sectional and that’s as far as we’ll get in the state series,” Bacys told Vermilion County First News. “To be honest with you, winning a sectional is pretty difficult, and so if you can end the season as sectional champions, that’s a pretty good year.”
Bacys said Danville High School is looking at different options for fans, such as video streaming, since they cannot be at the games.
