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Illinois Moves Football to Spring OFFICIAL


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3 hours ago, oldunclemark said:

Worth what? Its one year. One season. Everybody gets their chance later and nobody risks unknown circumstances now.

This is not a permanent change.

Worth the grind that @psaboy referenced. You will lose some younger kids to physical and mental burnout. I know there is a strong contingent on here who thinks a spring football season would be fine, and it may be for some kids and programs, especially current Seniors, obviously, and bigger programs. But for underclassmen and especially smaller programs a spring season is just not that simple.

Even with two shortened seasons, there's still a number of ancillary issues to sort through. Each season would need at least two weeks of practice before competition begins, how do football coaches handle the Spring Break crowd (which having coached in both the fall and spring seasons incandescent assure you is TOTALLY different from even your week long fall breaks), how do they handle the new dynamic with winter and spring coaches.

Some consideration also needs to be given to how many student-athletes are not "football first" multiple sport athletes.  If I am a "baseball first" guy who plays football because it is fun and doesn't conflict with baseball season too much, I am likely not playing football in the spring, even if the seasons are separated a la what Illinois is doing. If I sustain a mild injury in the fall, I have the winter months to rehabilitate that injury and be pretty close to full strength by tr he time baseball rolls around in the spring. The Illinois schedule takes that away: now if I sustain even a mild injury it has a big impact on my baseball season. Basketball teams may see this too where they lose guys off their roster who are "football first" and play basketball because it doesn't really effect their traditional football season. Bow prevalent would these issues be? Depends on the size of your school and how many multiple sport athletes you have.

Also, if I am a baseball or track coach in Illinois I am ticked about their schedule.  For some, and I would hope this is a small crowd, selfishly I just lost half of my summer. Next, I think their overall participation rates will be way down. This may not be for lack of interest but simply because most parents take time off from work in June for vacation and that time is often worked into their schedule months or years in advance. Many reserve their spots at vacation spots years in advance and I think this past spring break proved that people are going to vacation even in the middle of a pandemic. Baseball coaches specifically are going to have to contend with travel baseball now more than ever.

Again, I am apparently on somewhat of an island here and I get that which is why I have refrained from posting about it as much. I could be totally wrong; things could go off without a hitch in Illinois, Virginia, and New Mexico. Participation may actually go up, coaches may work in perfect harmony, rainbows, unicorns, etc, but I just don't see it. 

I want football, I think it is safe to play now, I do not want our seniors to miss their last season, they have definitely earned it, but not at the expense of the long term health of the game. Fully admit I may be wrong, but there it is.

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1 hour ago, Titan32 said:

Kicking the can down the road could be kicking it onto a landmine.  There is no reason to believe things will be any "better" in the spring particularly if rudimentary case counts are the metric.

I think everyone involved here knows that is likely. IHSA is trying to get all sports at least something this year.  

57 minutes ago, wabashalwaysfights said:

Worth the grind that @psaboy referenced. You will lose some younger kids to physical and mental burnout. I know there is a strong contingent on here who thinks a spring football season would be fine, and it may be for some kids and programs, especially current Seniors, obviously, and bigger programs. But for underclassmen and especially smaller programs a spring season is just not that simple.

Even with two shortened seasons, there's still a number of ancillary issues to sort through. Each season would need at least two weeks of practice before competition begins, how do football coaches handle the Spring Break crowd (which having coached in both the fall and spring seasons incandescent assure you is TOTALLY different from even your week long fall breaks), how do they handle the new dynamic with winter and spring coaches.

Some consideration also needs to be given to how many student-athletes are not "football first" multiple sport athletes.  If I am a "baseball first" guy who plays football because it is fun and doesn't conflict with baseball season too much, I am likely not playing football in the spring, even if the seasons are separated a la what Illinois is doing. If I sustain a mild injury in the fall, I have the winter months to rehabilitate that injury and be pretty close to full strength by tr he time baseball rolls around in the spring. The Illinois schedule takes that away: now if I sustain even a mild injury it has a big impact on my baseball season. Basketball teams may see this too where they lose guys off their roster who are "football first" and play basketball because it doesn't really effect their traditional football season. Bow prevalent would these issues be? Depends on the size of your school and how many multiple sport athletes you have.

Also, if I am a baseball or track coach in Illinois I am ticked about their schedule.  For some, and I would hope this is a small crowd, selfishly I just lost half of my summer. Next, I think their overall participation rates will be way down. This may not be for lack of interest but simply because most parents take time off from work in June for vacation and that time is often worked into their schedule months or years in advance. Many reserve their spots at vacation spots years in advance and I think this past spring break proved that people are going to vacation even in the middle of a pandemic. Baseball coaches specifically are going to have to contend with travel baseball now more than ever.

Again, I am apparently on somewhat of an island here and I get that which is why I have refrained from posting about it as much. I could be totally wrong; things could go off without a hitch in Illinois, Virginia, and New Mexico. Participation may actually go up, coaches may work in perfect harmony, rainbows, unicorns, etc, but I just don't see it. 

I want football, I think it is safe to play now, I do not want our seniors to miss their last season, they have definitely earned it, but not at the expense of the long term health of the game. Fully admit I may be wrong, but there it is.

You have valid points.  I don't think there is any great solution out there right now. We will have to roll with the punches and see what happens. 

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6 hours ago, wabashalwaysfights said:

Worth the grind that @psaboy referenced. You will lose some younger kids to physical and mental burnout. I know there is a strong contingent on here who thinks a spring football season would be fine, and it may be for some kids and programs, especially current Seniors, obviously, and bigger programs. But for underclassmen and especially smaller programs a spring season is just not that simple.

Even with two shortened seasons, there's still a number of ancillary issues to sort through. Each season would need at least two weeks of practice before competition begins, how do football coaches handle the Spring Break crowd (which having coached in both the fall and spring seasons incandescent assure you is TOTALLY different from even your week long fall breaks), how do they handle the new dynamic with winter and spring coaches.

Some consideration also needs to be given to how many student-athletes are not "football first" multiple sport athletes.  If I am a "baseball first" guy who plays football because it is fun and doesn't conflict with baseball season too much, I am likely not playing football in the spring, even if the seasons are separated a la what Illinois is doing. If I sustain a mild injury in the fall, I have the winter months to rehabilitate that injury and be pretty close to full strength by tr he time baseball rolls around in the spring. The Illinois schedule takes that away: now if I sustain even a mild injury it has a big impact on my baseball season. Basketball teams may see this too where they lose guys off their roster who are "football first" and play basketball because it doesn't really effect their traditional football season. Bow prevalent would these issues be? Depends on the size of your school and how many multiple sport athletes you have.

Also, if I am a baseball or track coach in Illinois I am ticked about their schedule.  For some, and I would hope this is a small crowd, selfishly I just lost half of my summer. Next, I think their overall participation rates will be way down. This may not be for lack of interest but simply because most parents take time off from work in June for vacation and that time is often worked into their schedule months or years in advance. Many reserve their spots at vacation spots years in advance and I think this past spring break proved that people are going to vacation even in the middle of a pandemic. Baseball coaches specifically are going to have to contend with travel baseball now more than ever.

Again, I am apparently on somewhat of an island here and I get that which is why I have refrained from posting about it as much. I could be totally wrong; things could go off without a hitch in Illinois, Virginia, and New Mexico. Participation may actually go up, coaches may work in perfect harmony, rainbows, unicorns, etc, but I just don't see it. 

I want football, I think it is safe to play now, I do not want our seniors to miss their last season, they have definitely earned it, but not at the expense of the long term health of the game. Fully admit I may be wrong, but there it is.

I took a moratorium from posting, too.  I dont dislike anyone arguing for playing now. I just think this is a life and death situation and delaying the season to spring is a small cost no matter what the circumstances.

Things wont go off without a hitch..there will be dozens of problems.../   But the virus is here and we have no ability to stop it.  Next spring, we probably will. That's what I hope for.

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7 hours ago, Temptation said:

Is it one year?  Are you sure about that?  Positive?

The goal posts keep moving on who we are protecting most and what the entire goal of this thing is.  A vaccine guarantees nothing even if it is produced in gross quantities.  The fear porn has been spread so widely that many folks will never mentally recover and keep their kids in a bubble because they don’t know who to trust.

If its bad next year, we postpone again.  But we have time to work on answers.  150,000 have died.

We cant play now.   Its a life and death situation that, to me, isnt worth the risk.

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8 hours ago, WolvesOnTheProwl said:

Maybe I missed it but when are they (Ihsa) beginning the winter sports, same time line as previous years or later start date?

Winter sports will run November through mid February, then they will squeeze in the moved fall sports from mid February though start of May, and traditional Spring sports will move to May though late June. 

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On 7/29/2020 at 6:06 PM, oldtimeqb said:

https://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/season/flu-season.htm


Per the CDC ‘flu activity peaks between December and February, but activity can last ars late as May.’

And ‘Stat Guy’ please look at the graph on the CDC site and tell me which month is the highest? How does it compare to October and November (which only about 1/2 of teams advance to in the playoffs)?

You really should learn something other than strawman arguments. Anytime you say ‘So you’re saying...’ and then try to rephrase someone’s opinion to fit your narrative, you are only showing your ignorance.

That is not necessarily a bad thing. Ignorance can be cured.  I’m looking forward to helping some of my students with it when I return to the classroom soon. 

Let me get this straight. 

You are okay with our kids playing through a covid surge and then hitting flu season..rather than sitting fall out, starting in January where potentially the nation by that time will have a handle on covid and we only have to worry about flu season? Got it. 

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26 minutes ago, wabashalwaysfights said:

Add "let me get this straight" to the list?

Also, the phrase "...potentially the nation by that time will have a handle on covid..." is loaded in countless ways...

To what list? 

I'm simply asking him if that is his stance because it sure does look like it thats what he's for.

Lets play a game , who cares if they, their classmates and coaches along with the other team get sick. 

That's what you guys sound like. 

 

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1 hour ago, wabashalwaysfights said:

Add "let me get this straight" to the list?

Also, the phrase "...potentially the nation by that time will have a handle on covid..." is loaded in countless ways...

He didn’t say ‘So let me...’ I think that’s progress? 😀

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Just now, oldtimeqb said:

He didn’t say ‘So let me...’ I think that’s progress? 😀

Well, he didn't even understand what list, so maybe a little.

38 minutes ago, TheStatGuy said:

To what list? 

I'm simply asking him if that is his stance because it sure does look like it thats what he's for.

Lets play a game , who cares if they, their classmates and coaches along with the other team get sick. 

That's what you guys sound like. 

 

And you sound like someone who simply does not understand what you are asking 14-18 year olds to do by moving football to the spring.

Also, as coaches, we do care. We care about our student-athletes' health and well-being. We care about our opponents in the same way.  We care about our fellow coaches.  That is why we adhere to a wide variety of health and safety protocols for a variety of issues, including transmission of any and all illnesses.  This is why we are currently changing our coaching methods to include social distancing and the use of masks.  This is why we are currently sanitizing any shared surfaces immediately after use.  This is why we go through Covid pre-screenings every day before workouts.  And we do these things regardless of our personal views on the pandemic because we care about our student-athletes.  You can sit there and scream into the wind for a spring season all you want, that's fine, you do you, you can even continue to argue that a spring season would be safer, again that is fine.  But I would respectfully ask that you do not dilute our efforts to protect our student-athletes by implying that we don't care, because we obviously do.

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13 minutes ago, wabashalwaysfights said:

Well, he didn't even understand what list, so maybe a little.

And you sound like someone who simply does not understand what you are asking 14-18 year olds to do by moving football to the spring.

Also, as coaches, we do care. We care about our student-athletes' health and well-being. We care about our opponents in the same way.  We care about our fellow coaches.  That is why we adhere to a wide variety of health and safety protocols for a variety of issues, including transmission of any and all illnesses.  This is why we are currently changing our coaching methods to include social distancing and the use of masks.  This is why we are currently sanitizing any shared surfaces immediately after use.  This is why we go through Covid pre-screenings every day before workouts.  And we do these things regardless of our personal views on the pandemic because we care about our student-athletes.  You can sit there and scream into the wind for a spring season all you want, that's fine, you do you, you can even continue to argue that a spring season would be safer, again that is fine.  But I would respectfully ask that you do not dilute our efforts to protect our student-athletes by implying that we don't care, because we obviously do.

you are trying to make me out to be the bad guy but you all are for playin this season when we are clearly heading straight for another surge and then to top it off by finishing in the start of flu season ..so in reality. Who is asking too much of kids that are 14-18?..who looks bad now?  And again.. How is that asking too much? Most go right into next season after they finish the previous season and most during the summer are working jobs and balancing 4 to 5 nights a week of 2 sports. I'm sure the IHSAA has a back up plan, im sure the head of the IHSAA is in close contact with Ohio, Michigan, Kentucky and Illinois' high school association's leaders..and as I said before, my spring plan isn't "the plan" im sure their spring plan is way better (as it should) than mine

26 minutes ago, oldtimeqb said:

He didn’t say ‘So let me...’ I think that’s progress? 😀

At least im not the guy that's okay with kids playing through a covid surge, then hitting the flu season. SMART. 

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Again, the problem isn't with the kids...it's with the adults.

For this to work, the kids need as LITTLE contact with adults as possible.  I don't think the adults will let that happen.

You can have all the sanitation plans in place, but they have to be followed 100% of the time, a nearly impossible task.

You are going to have football programs hit hard by this virus...elimination adult contact will help lessen that risk.

No coach is willing to sacrifice lack of contact.  It won't happen.

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10 minutes ago, LaSalle Lions 1976 said:

Again, the problem isn't with the kids...it's with the adults.

For this to work, the kids need as LITTLE contact with adults as possible.  I don't think the adults will let that happen.

You can have all the sanitation plans in place, but they have to be followed 100% of the time, a nearly impossible task.

You are going to have football programs hit hard by this virus...elimination adult contact will help lessen that risk.

No coach is willing to sacrifice lack of contact.  It won't happen.

Are the kids "conduits" and "spreaders"?

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41 minutes ago, TheStatGuy said:

you are trying to make me out to be the bad guy but you all are for playin this season when we are clearly heading straight for another surge and then to top it off by finishing in the start of flu season ..so in reality. Who is asking too much of kids that are 14-18?..who looks bad now?  And again.. How is that asking too much? Most go right into next season after they finish the previous season and most during the summer are working jobs and balancing 4 to 5 nights a week of 2 sports. I'm sure the IHSAA has a back up plan, im sure the head of the IHSAA is in close contact with Ohio, Michigan, Kentucky and Illinois' high school association's leaders..and as I said before, my spring plan isn't "the plan" im sure their spring plan is way better (as it should) than mine

At least im not the guy that's okay with kids playing through a covid surge, then hitting the flu season. SMART. 

Do we play sports every flu season already?

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15 minutes ago, TheStatGuy said:

you are trying to make me out to be the bad guy but you all are for playin this season when we are clearly heading straight for another surge and then to top it off by finishing in the start of flu season ..so in reality. Who is asking too much of kids that are 14-18?..who looks bad now?  And again.. How is that asking too much? Most go right into next season after they finish the previous season and most during the summer are working jobs and balancing 4 to 5 nights a week of 2 sports. I'm sure the IHSAA has a back up plan, im sure the head of the IHSAA is in close contact with Ohio, Michigan, Kentucky and Illinois' high school association's leaders..and as I said before, my spring plan isn't "the plan" im sure their spring plan is way better (as it should) than mine

At least im not the guy that's okay with kids playing through a covid surge, then hitting the flu season. SMART. 

I do not feel the least bit bad or unintelligent for following the safety protocols put into place by our athletic trainer, guided by the hospital system he works through and our local school board, to safely conduct a season in within the normal calendar year.  We have conducted these workouts for four weeks now and while I recognize that in other areas of the state they have felt it necessary to cease workouts for health concerns, our area, the West Central portion of the state, currently has not seen any such closures of workouts.  My hope is that we continue to safely move forward as such and if that changes, we will change accordingly.

Further, I, for one, do not feel that you are a "bad guy;" I believe your opinion to be misguided and ultimately incorrect.  I take offense to your assertion that by nature of my opinion that I am either uncaring or unintelligent, but I don't think you are a "bad guy" no more than I think anyone else who is in favor a spring season is.

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40 minutes ago, DannEllenwood said:

Are the kids "conduits" and "spreaders"?

They can be.  Although the severity of their symptoms seem to be small...there is the chance they can carry it to the adults.

All I want is a football season this fall...if adults don't need to be near the kids to make this happen...all the better.

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8 minutes ago, LaSalle Lions 1976 said:

They can be.  Although the severity of their symptoms seem to be small...there is the chance they can carry it to the adults.

All I want is a football season this fall...if adults don't need to be near the kids to make this happen...all the better.

I'm curious as to what you mean by this... social distancing or something additional?

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19 minutes ago, wabashalwaysfights said:

I'm curious as to what you mean by this... social distancing or something additional?

I mean as little contact as possible...explain a drill and get out of the way...limit long corrections...during games...coaches in pressbox with headsets to give information to the players.

It won't happen...but would lessen the amount of contact

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16 minutes ago, LaSalle Lions 1976 said:

I mean as little contact as possible...explain a drill and get out of the way...limit long corrections...during games...coaches in pressbox with headsets to give information to the players.

It won't happen...but would lessen the amount of contact

Some observations from the past month's worth of workouts in relation to these:

1) When it comes to drill time, our current guidelines are to maintain social distancing (6 feet) during outdoor workouts.  If we need to demonstrate a drill, for example, which requires that we break that distance, we must wear a mask.  For my two cents; I have a mask hooked on one ear while I am outside of 6 feet so that if, and when, I have to demonstrate a drill I simply grab the other ear hook (or whatever the proper term for it is) and the mask is on long before I come within 6 feet.  It was a bit tedious at first, but after a couple of days you just make it part of the norm.

2) As obvious by some of my posts, I am long winded by nature 😉 so this has actually forced me in the moment to be more succinct in my explanations when in close proximity to players (and masked) and/or be more pointed and focused in my verbal instructions from a distance.

3) With regards to games, I see where you are coming from, but you HAVE to have coaches on the sidelines.  The chaos of anywhere from 20-60 teenagers running around on the sideline without adults with them is... unimaginable.  That said, I think that the IHSAA extending the sideline box for players will help, and again, our current guidance mandates masking when you are within 6 feet, so as long as coaches on the sidelines are masked it seems as though healthcare professionals are, to a degree okay with that.

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On 7/31/2020 at 9:50 AM, LaSalle Lions 1976 said:

Again, the problem isn't with the kids...it's with the adults.

For this to work, the kids need as LITTLE contact with adults as possible.  I don't think the adults will let that happen.

You can have all the sanitation plans in place, but they have to be followed 100% of the time, a nearly impossible task.

You are going to have football programs hit hard by this virus...elimination adult contact will help lessen that risk.

No coach is willing to sacrifice lack of contact.  It won't happen.

What you said and to add on kids will be at home, potentially giving it to grandma/grandpa/mom/dad or parents will give it to little johnny and hell give it to a couple friends..and guess what. Program shut down for a week or two...its gonna happen all over...and that's why we won't finish a season. 

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