Local coaches disappointed, but not surprised by IDPH announcement

Local basketball and wrestling coaches received text messages, saw tweets or had people reach out late Tuesday afternoon as the news broke the Illinois Department of Public Health elevated basketball to a “high risk” sport and put the basketball and wrestling seasons on hold.

Some were getting ready to practice and others were wrapping up practice when the news hit.

La Salle-Peru boys basketball coach Jim Cherveny was in the driver’s education car when L-P athletic director Dan Le texted him a screenshot of a tweet.

“I sent him a sad face Emoji back,” Cherveny said.

That sums up how many coaches around the area feel about the news.

All were disappointed, most weren’t surprised — except by the news coming a day earlier than expected — some said they understood and they’re all trying to remain hopeful a season will still happen.

“I feel bad for the kids and coaches across the state,” Cherveny said. “We all want (a season). When it comes down to the health and safety of young adults, that’s what’s most important. We have to take that into consideration. Although it’s not what we want, it’s what we need. It’s all based on the health and safety of the kids who we want to be at their best. If that means delay it a little and just be cautiously optimistic, that’s what we’re going to do right now.”

Marquette boys basketball coach and athletic director Todd Hopkins said he feels bad for the athletes who have been preparing to play.

“This doesn’t bode well for any indoor sports, to be honest … But we have to do what we have to do,” Hopkins said. “I’m pretty disappointed and so are the kids. You just feel for the kids who are working so hard to get ready for their season. Now, we’ll just have to wait and see what happens next.”

With COVID-19 numbers rising across the state and Gov. JB Pritzker implementing mitigations in certain regions, most coaches weren’t surprised by the news.

“I’m not surprised,” said L-P wrestling coach Matt Rebholz, who is entering his first season as a head coach. “I was kind of expecting something to change because everything is getting worse. I’m disappointed, obviously, but we have to do what is safe for the athletes, parents, grandparents and coaches. If they feel that’s what is safe, we have to follow those guidelines.”

Coaches said they’re hoping “hold on” simply means a delayed start to the season and not eventually a canceled season like the spring 2020 sports.

“I’ve tried to stay positive throughout all of this leading up to the start of the season, but my gut feeling was that we weren’t going to start until January like the IESA,” said Fieldcrest boys coach Matt Winkler. “I’m hoping that the term ‘on hold’ means just that. Somehow, some way, I still think a season is eventually going to happen.”

Like many area coaches, Bureau Valley coach Jason Marquis learned of the news from the local sports editor. He then relayed the messaged to his team at their evening practice.

“I told them I got a call at 4:30 from (the BCR) that the governor moved (basketball) to high risk. I really don’t know what that means,” he said. “I don’t know what that means for Thursday (practice). I don’t know what that means for our season. One assumption I make from that, it makes starting the season on Nov. 16 less likely than yesterday.”

The Storm coach said he told his team it can only control the controlables.

“At the end of the day, allowing sadness, frustration to carry on for any prolong amount of time over things you can’t control is mostly ineffective and put their efforts in controlling what they can control," he said.

“Our focus tonight is going home, getting our school work done, brush our teeth, waking up tomorrow and getting ready to go to work and have a good day of school.”

Marquis said he’d love to express more about his frustrations, but doesn’t see that being productive.

No issues

Several coaches said they’ve been holding contact days with the guidelines of masks, social distancing and using hand sanitizer and haven’t had issues.

“I understand it, but at the same time, we’ve been going the last three weeks with masks on,” St. Bede girls coach Tom McGunnigal said. “It’s really surprising to me, but they’re doing better than I thought. I really thought the masks would restrict breathing, but you work around that as a coach and just like any other conditioning, the girls are getting used to it. We were sanitizing and reminding them to shower and clean hands. We’ve gone three weeks with no issue.

“You follow the rules and do what you’re supposed to do and you should be able to continue on.”

Hall boys coach Mike Filippini said while practices have been going fine with masks, he doesn’t foresee it working for games.

“I’m not going to lie to you. It’s not easy to coach in one and it’s really not easy to play basketball in one,” he said. “My thought on the whole thing, if they’re going to make us play with masks, then it can’t be safe. You can’t play basketball with a mask on. They’re either going to have to let us play without them or if they don’t think it’s going to be safe, they’ve got to do what they did (Tuesday).”

McGunnigal is concerned with athletes not getting to participate.

“It stinks,” McGunnigal said. “The kids need something. We’re in a society of instant gratification. Putting it off a week, months or whatever it ends up being is not good for their psyche. Delaying it is not healthy. It’s not healthy to not have activity, to have your activity restricted or to have your competitiveness bridled. It’s unfortunate.”

What's next?

While the IDPH said basketball and wrestling were on hold, there was no indication of when the sports may start up.

The IHSA released a statement saying it plans to still hold a meeting Wednesday to provide direction on other winter sports and discuss the schedule for the remainder of the school year.

“We'll just have to see what comes out (Wednesday) from the IHSA and I'll sit down with our athletic director, process it a little bit and figure out what is the best thing we can do for our student athletes in the time being,” said Newark girls coach Barb Scott. “We just want to give the kids as many opportunities as we can and keep them as positive as we can. That really all we can do right now. It's totally out of our control.”

Coaches are waiting for more direction from the IHSA in terms of contact days and workouts

“I have to meet with (AD) Dan (Le) first and I have to find out what I’m able to do and what the IHSA is allowing,” Rebholz said. “I want to know specifics for wrestling. We can do lifting, I’m assuming. Individual type drills maybe, I’m hoping. If we’re cleared for that, we’re going to do what we’re able to do.”

Wrestling in the summer

With wrestling a contact sport that “doesn’t get much closer,” Princeton coach Steve Amy and other wrestling coaches were expecting not to start the season on time.

“The great thing about the sport of wrestling is it teaches you how to adapt and overcome when life throws you curveballs and anything else,” Amy said.

Amy and Ottawa coach Pete Marx said the Illinois Wrestling Coaches and Officials Association and others are advocating for wrestling to be moved to the summer.

“This isn’t a huge shock to me. The bigger shock is that they just didn’t come out and move it to the summer like the wrestling community has been proposing to the IHSA for a while now,” Marx said. “That’s what we’re hoping for. We know that is the best chance for us to have a season. We’re all looking forward to having a summer season, but we’ll go with what the state says.

“Under the guidelines they have right now, with a 50-person limit, it was going to be virtually impossible to have a season anyway. That was a plan that was designed to fail in a lot of respects.”

Shaw Media reporters Charlie Ellerbrock, Kevin Hieronymus and Brian Hoxsey contributed to this story.