Bureau County schools working to get athletes back in action

Bureau County athletic directors are sorting through all the IHSA and IDPH developments of the week, looking to get their student-athletes back in action where they are allowed.

Bureau Valley High School will begin extracurricular activities Thursday with the normal guidelines for consent forms, district fees and weekly academic eligibility in place. COVID-19 protocols will also be implemented, requiring masks and other safety measures and health and symptom screenings. Locker rooms will be closed.

For now, Bureau Valley will focus on its winter sports/activities (basketball, cheer, dance, scholastic bowl, musical), and not hold contact days for spring and summer sports.

“We feel we don’t have the number of kids to support that, and with junior high sports potentially starting up, we don’t quite have the facilities,” BV Athletic Director Brad Bickett said.

Basketball practices will begin on Thursday with the girls meeting from 3 to 4:30 p.m. and the boys from 5 to 6:30 p.m. Tier 1 mitigations for higher-risk sports, including basketball, do not permit competition with other teams.

Bickett is afraid the calendar is running out against the IHSA being able to hold basketball.

“Each day that passes by, each week, it makes it difficult, because smaller schools in our area, we can’t afford to share athletes, and it’s just not fair to the kids, not fair to the coaches to overlap seasons. I would say we’re not in favor of overlapping any seasons, but we’re also at the point we can’t keep backing things up. Eventually, something’s got to happen,” Bickett said.

Cheerleading will start Monday, Jan. 25, at BV with practices conducted on Mondays and Thursdays from 3:30 to 5 p.m. in the high school band room.

Dance practice will start on Thursday, Jan. 28, in the auditorium at 3:30 to 5 p.m. Future practices will be communicated by the coach.

In-person practices for Scholastic Bowl will start on Thursday from 3 to 4:30 p.m. in Room 437.

Starting on Monday, Jan. 25, the BVHS weight room will be open three days a week (Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays), “getting those kids working out, because they’ve been on pause a couple months,” Bickett said. The number of occupants will be limited to follow IDPH mitigations.

DePue Athletic Director Robbie Fox said she is waiting on her administration and the school board for more instruction if they will be making changes to sports, noting the sports that are being allowed at this time they do not offer. She said she has a meeting with the Little Ten Conference soon to discuss schedules.

LaMoille Athletic Director Wanda DeLong said it’s been a whirlwind trying to get a plan in place. She said they will be starting contact days for basketball and volleyball next week, and when they get confirmation from the IHSA about the winter, spring and summer schedules, they will modify their practice schedule then.

“It is most important to get student/athletes back to playing and finding joy in the sport,” she said. “My hope is that they will not combine too many sports at one time in a season. If that happens it will make it difficult for small schools to field teams, because the students will have to choose between sports. We will do our best to give our student-athletes the best athletic experience we can.”

DeLong said she doesn’t want to get the kids’ hopes up only to have to disappoint them again.

Hall Athletic Director Eric Bryant said he’s seen some athletes losing interest with sports paused. With the bowling team starting practice Wednesday, basketball getting in the gym Thursday and the spring/summer sports starting contact days Monday, he hopes “we can turn that around.”

Still, despite the IDPH allowing sports to begin, he’s worried about what can happen this school year.

“I don’t know if it’s changed much,” Bryant said. “Yeah, our kids are able to come in and do some things. It’s a small step to getting back to what everybody would like to do, but I don’t know if it’s all going to be soon enough. We’re kind of running out of time.”

Princeton Athletic Director Jeff Ohlson said Wednesday morning he is still working through the process and waiting to see what further information will become available and then begin to work on a plan.

St. Bede Athletic Director Nick McLaughlin said the academy is planning on beginning low-risk bowling and cheerleading practices immediately, and that basketball will likely begin Thursday, though no physical contact may be allowed.

“Obviously there are some limits as far as what those sports can do and what those practices can look like,” McLaughlin said, “but there’s no finalized date for when basketball is going to start or what the schedules will look like or any of that. They could be practicing and they could decide to move everything around again.

“It’s a difficult time for everyone. I feel for the kids, but anytime there’s some kind of movement forward, it’s a good step. Let’s hope that something good comes out of this for the kids.”

The Putnam County’s girls basketball team started practicing Tuesday for the first time. Coach Jared Sale said he was “beyond thrilled” to be able to spend time and get the gang together again.

PC Athletic Director Chris Newsome said “it’s such a breath of fresh air” seeing kids have the opportunity to get back in the gym and on the field. He cautions that they don’t go “too hard too fast,” concerned with student-athletes’ physical and mental health dealing with the roller-coaster-like ride of hopes for a competitive season.

“While it looks like a competitive season for low risk and even medium risk sports will likely happen, unless something big changes, high risk sports (basketball, football) won’t be allowed to compete,” he said. “For those high risk sports, being able to practice is one thing, and don’t get me wrong, it’s better than nothing, but as so many other states are proving that winter sports can occur safely with proper mitigations.

“I’m fearful that the governor, IDPH and IHSA are providing false hopes. These kids, as well as the seniors who graduated last year, and their coaches have been on one heck of an emotional journey.”

The area athletic directors are anticipating the IHSA Board of Directors meeting on Wednesday, Jan. 27, to get more direction and learn each sport’s fate.

“There’s a pretty important meeting down in Bloomington and I assume there will be quite a bit of information come out of it in regards to sports and their season and what that schedule is going to look like,” Bickett said.

“I know the IHSA will tell you the spring sports that missed their season last year are a major priority to have a nice season this year. That leads me to believe that football and basketball, those high risk sports, are maybe in trouble. And maybe, we can sneak in a volleyball season with it being a medium risk sport.”