On Jan. 15, Illinois Governor JB Pritzker announced the resumption of sports in multiple regions across the state, including region 10 (Suburban Cook County). Before moving from tier two to tier one COVID-19 mitigations, winter sports were postponed before the season even started.

By moving from tier two to tier one COVID-19 mitigations, winter sports, including badminton, boys swimming & diving, competitive cheerleading, competitive dance and girls gymnastics, have all been deemed “Low Risk” winter sports and resumed on Jan. 25.

Boys swimming & diving, competitive cheerleading, competitive dance, and girls gymnastics have all been scheduled to finish their season on March 13. April 3 is the end date that is scheduled for Badminton. 

After another IHSA board meeting on Jan. 27, an updated sports schedule was released. This new schedule laid out the beginning and end date for all of the spring and summer sports. 

“I believe their decisions today are a positive step for the mental, emotional, and physical well-being of our students,” IHSA Executive Director Craig Anderson said in a statement made to IHSA.org. “We are excited to channel our energy into creating as many positive experiences for Illinois high school students as we can between now and the end of this extraordinary school year.”

In this meeting it was announced that practices for boys/girls basketball will begin immediately with the season ending on March 13. Practices for boys soccer are planned to start practicing on March 1 with the season finishing up by April 17.

Practice for the H-F football team begins on March 3 with the first game scheduled to be played on March 19. Girls volleyball will begin practicing on March 8 and will end on April 24 along with football.

According to the IHSA, “All sports will be required to hold practice on seven different days prior to holding a contest, with the exception of football which requires individuals to participate in practice on 12 different days.”

The remainder of sports including: girls volleyball, boys gymnastics, boys/girls water polo, baseball, boys/girls lacrosse, girls soccer, softball, boys tennis, boys/girls track & field, boys volleyball, wrestling plan on starting back up throughout March and April with all sports scheduled to finish by the middle of June.

Due to guidelines set by the IDPH, CDC, IHSA, and SWSC, fans will not be allowed to attend athletic events during the winter sports season for the time being.