IHSA: Host schools can enforce own mask policy when mask mandate lifted on Feb. 28

With Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker announcing a plan to end the statewide indoor mask mandate effective Feb. 28, the Illinois High School Association said Wednesday that masking policy for athletic contests will be up to the individual schools and venues.

Pritzker said the indoor mask mandate will be lifted everywhere except for at schools, but still encouraged the use of masks to help prevent the spread of COVID-19 and its variants.

On Wednesday, the IHSA through a spokesman said it still is recommending masks per IDPH guidelines, but host schools and non-school facilities may institute their own local masking requirements in conjunction with the mask mandate being lifted Feb. 28.

The IHSA is awaiting clarification but doesn’t believe there have been any changes made to basketball, either, which is the only sport currently where athletes must be masked.

Masks have been a part of athletics, at least for spectators, for the past year since the IHSA started competing regularly in late January 2021.

After a condensed schedule at the end of the 2021-22 school year, athletics returned mostly to normal at the start of this school year. Some sports, such as basketball, require participants to be masked. All sports require spectators to be masked, although some teams and schools stopped the requirement Friday when Sangamon County Judge Raylene Grischow issued a temporary restraining order invalidating the mask mandate for public schools.

The ruling applied to about 170 school districts that were sued by parents and students. Basketball players from those districts have not been in masks this week.

Northern Illinois University athletics has been requiring masks at all home athletic events. A representative at the school said the decision of any policy changes after Feb. 28 will be a university call, and any policy would be for all events on campus, not just athletics.

Illinois has seen a continued decline in statewide COVID-19 hospitalizations, coming off a peak of 7,380 people in the hospital with COVID-19 on Jan. 12, down to 2,496 on Tuesday – the first time the state dropped below 2,500 COVID-19 hospitalizations for the first time since November.