South Central Reporter

Jeremy Schubert, head basketball coach at Breeze Central High School in Breeze, Ill. agrees with the Illinois High School Association’s  (IHSA) recent decision to keep the varsity basketball season on schedule, despite Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s decision to move the sport to the “high risk” category.

“I believe they just need to play,” Schubert told the South Central Reporter. “They need to have some structure in their lives.”

Schubert started his team's basketball practice Nov. 6 with the season expected to start Nov. 16.

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“We are abiding by the mask rule...Everything we have done has been with a mask. We try to social distance as best we can, said Schubert. 

Other nearby states are playing high school basketball, the coach noted.

“Basketball has started in Kentucky, it has started in Indiana,” he said. “They’re able to do it.” 

There have been some positive COVID-19 cases among student athletes at his high school, “But we’ve not seen any school spread,” said Schubert said. 

“All of the students in our building who have had it have had very mild cases. Kids aren’t suffering from this as bad as we think," said Schubert.

Delaying basketball until the spring is not feasible, Schubert believes.

“We have numerous multi-sport athletes,” said Schubert, “For a senior who had his football season taken away and now his basketball season is pushed back and now he’s going to have to pick what he wants to play in the spring is just not fair."

The Illinois High School Association (IHSA) Board of Directors voted in August  to schedule basketball from Nov. to Feb., based on the Illinois Department of Public Heath’s (IDPH) classification of the sport as "medium risk".

It decided stick to that schedule even after Pritzker’s moved the sport to the “high risk” category.

“The Board remains considerate of rising COVID-19 cases in Illinois and understand the importance of adhering to safety guidelines for the good of all citizens,” said the organization in a statement, “However, the Board has not been presented any causal evidence that rising COVID-19 cases make basketball more dangerous to play.”

According to Patch.com, Pritzker responded to the IHSA's decision by saying it's better to be safe than sorry.

“We're listening to is the guidance from national orgs, physicians that treat kids, the experts in sports medicine," said the governor.

"What I would suggest is that if there's a difference of opinion, I prefer to err on the side of health and safety. And I think that's where we have intended for all of our guidance to fall," said Pritzker.