‘It’s literally tomorrow’: With firm start dates in hand, coaches start preparing for IHSA seasons

All of a sudden, the Indian Creek boys basketball team’s contact day turned into a practice.

With the IHSA’s announcement Wednesday that competitive games may start after seven practices – and those practices can start immediately – Indian Creek hit the ground running.

“There’s an energy here today in this last hour that we have not had here since the supersectional last year,” Indian Creek athletic director Ehren Mertz said. “Our boys basketball team is in the gym practicing already. We’ve got the entire team practicing in there. This is Day 1 of practice. We’ve been ready to go for whenever this happened.”

And it wasn’t just basketball. Start dates were announced for every remaining sport that did not compete in the fall. Bowling, boys swimming, dance, cheerleading and gymnastics can start after seven practices. The season will end March 13.

Football will start March 3, with games running from March 19 to April 24. Boys soccer starts March 1 and volleyball March 8. Traditional spring sports start April 5 and end June 19. Wrestling runs from April 19 to June 12.

But for basketball, it concludes a seesaw of emotion that’s been going on since October.

“They were all extremely pumped,” Sycamore girls basketball coach Adam Wickness said. “They’ve been chomping at the bit since October. We got that little tease in mid-October. We got those 20 contact days, then we were off, then we were back on when [Gov. JB] Pritzker pulled the plug. It’s been a roller coaster of emotions.”

Basketball, football and other higher-risk sports can be played only when a school’s health region enters Phase 4 of the Restore Illinois plan. And although DeKalb County and Region 1 – north to Rockford and west to the Iowa border – are in Phase 4, Region 8 with DuPage and Kane counties still is in Tier 1 of Phase 3. It needs three days in a row with a seven-day rolling positivity rate of less than 6.5% and is at 7.2%.

That would mean Kaneland, as it stands right now, would not be able to play football or basketball among other sports. It also would complicate things for DeKalb, which is in a conference with five DuPage County schools.

Kaneland football coach Pat Ryan said it’s a lot of uncertainty.

“We just have to roll with the punches,” Ryan said. “Now with having a date, and the metrics look like they are going in the right direction to get to Phase 4, hopefully in time for our start day. Hopefully people are making the right decision, wearing masks, and we can get these kids a chance to play.”

DeKalb athletic director Peter Goff said Region 8 is trending the right way – it was at a 9% seven-day rolling positivity rate 10 days ago – and the plan is to go forward with games for both boys and girls on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

He said he has a shot in the dark as a backup plan – he declined to comment on what it was – but hopes it doesn’t have to come to that.

“We’re just hoping they make it,” Goff said. “If they don’t make it, we’ll look at Saturdays for some nonconference games, which I’m doing right now anyway. We might have to beg someone to let us in, I don’t know.”

Genoa-Kingston boys basketball coach Ethan Franklin said he expects his team’s first official practice to happen this weekend, although they’ve been participating in contact days this week.

He said he wouldn’t be surprised if there were games by next weekend.

“I’m very, very detailed oriented with what we do. With this quick of a turnaround, it’s going to be wild,” Franklin said. “I’m just excited for the kids to have an opportunity to have a season. We’ve been hearing this quite a while with stuff floating out there about an opportunity to play here and there. The fact is there’s a date, and it’s not like it’s three months away and going to get canceled. It’s literally tomorrow.”

With the overlap of the sports, it may present a challenge for smaller schools. But Mertz said it shouldn’t be an issue for the Timberwolves.

“We’re pretty confident we’ll be able to run everything,” Mertz said. “Our boys basketball team is pretty much our soccer team. So there’s some overlap there and we may not be able to play soccer games that first week. But we think we’ll be fine.”

While not quite as imminent, soccer’s start date of March 1 has energized the DeKalb boys team, coach Patrick Hamilton said.

“We were actually in our first fitness session today,” Hamilton said. “There’s an excitement in the air. Players are excited. Everyone is looking forward to finally get out and showcase what this group can do. But we all hold the responsibility to do it safely. ... We need to make sure the excitement doesn’t overshadow the responsibility to make sure we do it right and we do it safely.”

Goff agreed with his soccer coach, saying that safety comes first.

“The big thing now is making sure we stay where we at,” Goff said. “We need to be diligent in enforcing protocols. We did a great job in the fall, and we’ve got to keep it up. We’re all on the same page with this. It’s what I’ll be reinforcing. It’s just as easy to go forward as it can be to go backward.”