Phase 4 = high school football?

Thanks for posting ging. I think we can get the season started. I just hope that we can get a full season in.

I hope it gets through the IL Dept of Health. The language leaves something to be desired. Hope more clarification is forthcoming.

OldTitan wrote:I hope it gets through the IL Dept of Health. The language leaves something to be desired. Hope more clarification is forthcoming.

i agree. am i reading this right? there can only 50 people on the field during a game? and that counts the officials in the total?

are they going to throw a flag for a fist bump? huddles allowed?

net wrote:

OldTitan wrote:I hope it gets through the IL Dept of Health. The language leaves something to be desired. Hope more clarification is forthcoming.

i agree. am i reading this right? there can only 50 people on the field during a game? and that counts the officials in the total?

are they going to throw a flag for a fist bump?  huddles allowed?

i read it as multiple GROUPS of 50 are allowed at the same facility as long as the groups are 30+ feet apart.  so, 50 on my sideline (which includes players and staff) and 50 on the other sideline.  and the 30 foot rule doesn't apply to "game play".

File this under "I heard from a guy who heard from a guy":


The head bus driver for a local school district with a very good 1A/2A football program was told by his superintendent that bus drivers should report for training and certification on a date certain and that they should plan on NO FALL SPORTS in 2020.

Teetime wrote:File this under "I heard from a guy who heard from a guy":


The head bus driver for a local school district with a very good 1A/2A football program was told by his superintendent that bus drivers should report for training and certification on a date certain and that they should plan on NO FALL SPORTS in 2020.

I don't doubt this, but why are they jerking people around right now then?

net wrote:

i agree. am i reading this right? there can only 50 people on the field during a game? and that counts the officials in the total?

are they going to throw a flag for a fist bump?  huddles allowed?

ging wrote:i read it as multiple GROUPS of 50 are allowed at the same facility as long as the groups are 30+ feet apart. so, 50 on my sideline (which includes players and staff) and 50 on the other sideline. and the 30 foot rule doesn't apply to "game play".

That's the problem. These are both legitimate readings of the language as presented.

The other thing I want to know is Phase III of the IHSA "Back to play" tied to the Restore Illinois Phase 5?

What is the definition of a gathering under Phase 4 of the Restore Illinois plan?

Does football fall under the outdoor recreation guidelines?

What we have thus far is neither pithy nor perspicuous!

Drove past a park in Crossville TN today and they were holding Pop Warner workouts.... basically, kids in helmets and shorts running sprints is what I saw...

Head Idiot wrote:

Teetime wrote:File this under "I heard from a guy who heard from a guy":


The head bus driver for a local school district with a very good 1A/2A football program was told by his superintendent that bus drivers should report for training and certification on a date certain and that they should plan on NO FALL SPORTS in 2020.

I don't doubt this, but why are they jerking people around right now then?

JB is far enough away from an election to get away with it, but it will be a bad look if all the stares bordering Illinois are playing and we are not.

Head Idiot wrote:

Teetime wrote:File this under "I heard from a guy who heard from a guy":


The head bus driver for a local school district with a very good 1A/2A football program was told by his superintendent that bus drivers should report for training and certification on a date certain and that they should plan on NO FALL SPORTS in 2020.

I don't doubt this, but why are they jerking people around right now then?

I don't think they are jerking anyone around, at least on purpose.

The people in government making the decisions really don't know anything about how this is going to play out, regardless of the perpetual attempts to demonstrate that they are competent and up to the task because they have all the Science️, Data️, and Facts️,

They aren't because they dont't. Until there is a vaccine or herd immunity, the virus is going to do what viruses have done for hundreds of millions of years. It doesn't care when Phase 4 is scheduled to begin or when the football season starts.

Nobody knows anything. The situation is so fluid that information is changing daily. The authorities don't know what things are going to look like in a couple days. There's no way that they will know what things are going to be like in August.

Here’s the deal...I don’t like the language of some of this any more than anyone else...and I don’t agree with some of the things done by politicians on both sides during this thing, but July is going to be the deal breaker in my opinion for HS sports in general in the fall. It’s inevitable that a kid at (insert school name here) is going to come down with this. And said kid will have been around teammates practicing, doing whatever that sport is doing, for a significant period of time before diagnosis. What’s the IHSA going to do and how are they going to handle it? Will they shut down that school, just the team, do nothing? To me, that’s going to be the ultimate litmus test.

You are correct Lefty, lots of questions left to answer but you have to see what happens before you can make a decision.

Making an entire school close for 1 positive test is overkill in my opinion (see coronavirus thread), but individuals who are susceptible need to take extra precautions if they feel it is necessary.

We have to let things happen and have a plan for changes should things turn negative.

ging wrote:
All of the Stage 2 guidelines take effect when Illinois reaches Phase 4. All four of the state's designated health care regions are on track to reach Phase 4 on June 26.

it's important to note that IHSA Stage 2 guidelines still have to be approved by the IDPH. i did not know that was the case. i thought the idph had already helped the IHSA develop the guidelines for each stage.

ging wrote:

ging wrote:
All of the Stage 2 guidelines take effect when Illinois reaches Phase 4. All four of the state's designated health care regions are on track to reach Phase 4 on June 26.

it's important to note that IHSA Stage 2 guidelines still have to be approved by the IDPH.  i did not know that was the case.  i thought the idph had already helped the IHSA develop the guidelines for each stage.

Correct. I am surprised the IHSA was so open with their recommendation for Stage 2 even though they hadn’t been approved by IDPH.

They have gotten a lot of hopes up.

Seems like there a lot of COVID cases being announced on various sports teams etc. I’d have to say this is not good for the prospect of football this fall. I could see them allowing golf, cross country, tennis, and perhaps volleyball; not a lot or really any competitor contact with those. Football and soccer...?...I’m worried!

I could see some major issues allowing some sports and not others and many schools choosing to cancel all to save from to hassle with parents and potential lawsuits.

At some point, as I have stated many times before, we have to learn to live with this disease. Others disagree but there is treatment that has been proven to help those who are not already on their death beds, or close to it. A vaccine will only help a small portion of the population at first so we are looking at years until an effective vaccine is available.

I know 8 people who have tested positive for COVID and of those 8, only one said it was the sickest they've ever been and he is 73.

There is pretty consistent data on who usually killed by this virus but we seem to still believe we are all at risk of dying. We are at risk at contacting the disease and there are bigger risks that may kill us everyday that will likely kill us that are not named COVID.

Kids need an opportunity to be kids and they are getting screwed over left and right and the negative impact will be around much longer than a potential increase in hospitalizations from this disease.

dusty7 wrote:You are correct Lefty, lots of questions left to answer but you have to see what happens before you can make a decision.

Making an entire school close for 1 positive test is overkill in my opinion (see coronavirus thread), but individuals who are susceptible need to take extra precautions if they feel it is necessary.  

We have to let things happen and have a plan for changes should things turn negative.  

I'm of a considerably more pro-active stance than you, but ultimately our opinions do not matter.

center wrote:I am surprised the IHSA was so open with their recommendation for Stage 2 even though they hadn’t been approved by IDPH.

They have gotten a lot of hopes up.

IHSA has made public a pathway to have some semblance of sports. If they get vetoed or modified by the IDPH - well then, they have passed the buck effectively haven't they.

I agree with Lefty that current situations with sports teams is not a positive harbinger for this fall.
21 more Clemson players test positive for Covid

When you have Dr. Fauci saying 'no football this fall' it makes it a tougher path to find a way to play.

I won't be surprised if the Phase II announcement is delayed past next week. The IHSA can always point to the IDPH and say 'we're waiting on them.'

ging wrote:If contests are held, handshakes, high fives, fist bumps, hugs, and other such things cannot occur pre or post-match.

So, these kids are going to play a full game huffing and puffing in each others' faces while lined up inches apart across the LOS, blocking faceguard to faceguard, all manner of intense physical contact and droplets flying everywhere, and they are being prohibited from fist bumping their opponents at the end of the game?  Does anyone else find this absurd, or is it just me?

The average age of high school football officials in Illinois is close to 50.  If I were the IHSA, I would be far more concerned about having enough officials than about disallowing fist bumps after the game.

All you younger adults who are complaining about the possibility of high school football not happening and who are also suggesting that the at-risk population (older, morbidly obese, hypertension) should just take care of themselves and take the appropriate steps to avoid becoming infected had better be lining up to become high school football officials.

While I agree there are many at risk besides the players, you could have just simply said that without taking your typical passive aggressive insult at us “younger adults.” There’s nothing wrong with hoping there is a season. Blow it out your ass

wolverine55 wrote:While I agree there are many at risk besides the players, you could have just simply said that without taking your typical passive aggressive insult at us “younger adults.” There’s nothing wrong with hoping there is a season. Blow it out your ass

There is a difference between hoping there is a season (as I do) and complaining about the possibility of not having one (as many are doing).  As someone who is old enough to collect social security benefits, I'm sick and tired of being told that I and my same age peers should be responsible for our own health during the pandemic and allow the less at-risk people do whatever the hell they want.  So, those who want us older folks to take care of ourselves while they get to go about their lives as if there is no pandemic had better not also be the ones to complain if there is no football because officials my age and older are busy safeguarding our own health in the pandemic. How ironic it would be if football were allowed to happen but it couldn't happen because the very ones who complained didn't see fit to step up to become officials.

ramblinman wrote:

wolverine55 wrote:While I agree there are many at risk besides the players, you could have just simply said that without taking your typical passive aggressive insult at us “younger adults.” There’s nothing wrong with hoping there is a season. Blow it out your ass

There is a difference between hoping there is a season (as I do) and complaining about the possibility of not having one (as many are doing).  As someone who is old enough to collect social security benefits, I'm sick and tired of being told that I and my same age peers should be responsible for our own health during the pandemic and allow the less at-risk people do whatever the hell they want.  So, those who want us older folks to take care of ourselves while they get to go about their lives as if there is no pandemic had better not also be the ones to complain if there is no football because officials my age and older are busy safeguarding our own health in the pandemic. How ironic it would be if football were allowed to happen but it couldn't happen because the very ones who complained didn't see fit to step up to become officials.

Translation- in true Boomer fashion- I don't give a shit about any other generation. You should all rearrange your entire lives and futures to pacify us. ME! ME! ME!

PS- I'm pretty dang close to that 50.

Head Idiot wrote:

ramblinman wrote:

wolverine55 wrote:While I agree there are many at risk besides the players, you could have just simply said that without taking your typical passive aggressive insult at us “younger adults.” There’s nothing wrong with hoping there is a season. Blow it out your ass

There is a difference between hoping there is a season (as I do) and complaining about the possibility of not having one (as many are doing).  As someone who is old enough to collect social security benefits, I'm sick and tired of being told that I and my same age peers should be responsible for our own health during the pandemic and allow the less at-risk people do whatever the hell they want.  So, those who want us older folks to take care of ourselves while they get to go about their lives as if there is no pandemic had better not also be the ones to complain if there is no football because officials my age and older are busy safeguarding our own health in the pandemic. How ironic it would be if football were allowed to happen but it couldn't happen because the very ones who complained didn't see fit to step up to become officials.

Translation- in true Boomer fashion- I don't give a shit about any other generation. You should all rearrange your entire lives and futures to pacify us. ME! ME! ME!

PS- I'm pretty dang close to that 50.

Interesting.  Seems to me that the young whippersnappers telling all us old folks to simply watch out for ourselves while they do whatever the eff they want in the pandemic is a pretty selfish thing.  The problem with the "You do you, I'll do me" attitude in a pandemic is how you do you impacts how I have to do me.

Have you looked at the U.S. daily new cases curve versus that of most European countries?  They have successfully plateaued their daily new cases numbers WAY down in comparison to the U.S.  Ours are plateauing at a far higher number and actually going up in recent days.  Why?  Because they had the balls to stick it out and we didn't. Because of selfish people who don't give a shit about older people, or at-risk people, or people who live in big cities, or people who live anywhere other than their little corner of nirvana. Because of people who got tired of social distancing so they just stopped.  Because of people who rebel against state and local restrictions and take a don't tread on me.  Because of people who don't want to wear a mask because they don't want to endure the minor inconvenience or discomfort.
Talk about selfish!

Ok Ramblin calm down a little bit.  Their curves are flatter partially because they are small countries (geographically) and the US is more spread out.  Where the spikes are happening right now are where the virus was not as prevalent in Feb - April.  Illinois, in my opinion, has done a great job at slowing down the virus.  We have plenty of room in the hospitals for those who may need care, plenty of ICU beds, and plenty of vents, should they be needed.

Let's get this straight right now, we all want to see a football season and I do not think anyone on this board wants to see those older people get sick and potentially die.  We have all been impacted by this negatively and obviously this isn't going to go away, probably ever, so many of us believe that it is time to move on and see what happens, we need to learn to live with the disease like we have many times in our history.  As you and I have debated, the experts have been incorrect before and many people have lost faith in the predictions and many believe it is time to get some normalcy back to our lives and school and HS sports can provide that normalcy, especially for teenagers, who desperately need it.  

But please don't ever assume that us younger people are okay with the older people dying, that is the generation of our parents, I don't wish anything ill on your generation and it sucks that the older generation is more impacted by this disease, but that is the way it is.  

One group wants to move on and the other doesn't, and we need to accept the fact statistics show who is impacted by this disease and teenagers can most likely go out, compete, and there will be very little negative impact on their individual lives.  Just as you are thinking the younger generation should sacrifice for the older generation, the younger generation believes the older generation should sacrifice something for the younger generation as well. The door swings both ways.