At St. Francis de Sales High School, an impasse between Gov. J.B. Pritzker and the Illinois High School Association (IHSA) has left coaches and student athletes in a position of uncertainty, but St. Francis de Sales High School Basketball head coach, Kevin Wolfe, says he sees both sides of the controversy.
The IHSA Board of Directors is seeking to extend an olive branch after an initial vote of defiance following Pritzker’s reclassification of high school sports, including basketball, from medium-risk to high-risk, effectively delaying the start of the season, according to coverage by the Chicago Tribune. The board will meet again this Thurs., Nov. 19, and has invited Pritzker to send representatives from his office to attend the meeting and discuss a way forward.
Wolfe told the Chicago City Wire he had an assistant coach contract COVID-19 at the end of last season.
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“Two and a half weeks later he was in the hospital, and four weeks after that he passed away,” Wolfe told the Chicago City Wire, “That really hit us hard, because me and him were very, very close. I mean, we’d known each other for 30-some years.”
At the same time, Wolfe explained he has the impact on the students of schools being closed; even having honor students begin to falter late in the spring..
“So, it’s a fine line,” he told the Chicago City Wire, “I understand where Pritzker’s coming from, but then again I also understand the other part of this is that all the states around us are playing.”
Five minutes away from St. Francis de Sales is the Indiana border, where the high school basketball season is getting ready to kick off, explained Wolfe.
Yet between the IHSA, the league, the state government and – as a Catholic school – even the archdiocese, Wolfe says his school is stuck. He stated that his school remains in a kind of limbo while waiting to find out, from multiple sources, whether someone is going to prevent them from having a season.
As there is no word yet from the schools' administration indicating if basketball will, or will not, happen; Wolfe says his team is still getting ready for the season so that they are prepared if they are allowed to play. Wolfe also stated there is still a potenial the school could get shut down, and this shut down could come from one of multiple directions.
“We plan on going ahead as scheduled, unless something else comes up,” Wolfe told the Chicago City Wire.
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