Youth hockey in Illinois has been frozen by COVID-19 restrictions. Some parents say it’s time for a thaw.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker often says he is “listening to the experts” about which youth sports are safe to play during the COVID-19 pandemic, but when some hockey parents filed a public records request to learn what those experts were telling him, they received a pile of emails in which almost everything was blacked out.
The opaque response infuriated the parents, whose favored sport cannot be played in Illinois under current rules. They say Pritzker and his staff don’t understand the attributes that make hockey safer than other sports classified as high risk, and show no interest in learning.
“If they have information that says youth hockey is high risk because of A, B and C, that’s what I’ve been looking for,” said Kelly Quinn, a Glenview parent of four hockey-playing children and head of a group called Restore Youth Hockey. “I’m a reasonable person. But (the lack of information) makes me believe they didn’t explore hockey at all.”
A spokeswoman for the governor did not respond to a request for comment. But at a news conference earlier this month in which he was asked to justify the ban on contact sports, he cited concerns over “an exchange of sweat, saliva and other things that are going on” along with a potential lack of social distancing in locker rooms.
Illinois' restrictions aren’t stopping many kids from playing. Like athletes in other sports, they’re simply heading out of state for tournaments, a scenario that concerns epidemiologists but which parents say they feel compelled to pursue.
“We’ve traveled up to Wisconsin,” said Mark Zaremski of Downers Grove, whose 10-year-old son plays on a travel team. “We’ve got something set up for Indiana in a couple of weeks. I just think it’s unnecessary. I don’t think we should have to do this. It doesn’t make any sense at all.”
In July, following a COVID-19 outbreak among Lake Zurich High School athletes that was later traced to social gatherings, state officials created regulations for youth sports that ranked their risk level from high to low.
The Illinois Department of Public Health placed hockey among the higher-risk sports, which also include football, wrestling and rugby. That meant athletes could practice as long as there was no contact, but not play games.
That’s a greater risk level than the National Federation of State High School Associations and the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee assign to the sport. (IDPH officials said they consulted the groups while creating their rankings.) Hockey parents said the sport should be considered low risk, a category that includes cross-country, golf and baseball, and created an online petition that makes a case for easing the restriction.
They noted that players are covered head-to-toe in protective gear that includes face shields, do not share equipment and compete on a vast surface. USA Hockey produced a study earlier this year that found with the sport’s constant movement, youth players spend only a few seconds in immediate proximity to one another during a practice or game.
The organization announced in early August it would continue to sanction the sport, citing guidance from the Mayo Clinic. With precautions such as hand-washing, off-ice mask wearing and social distancing, USA Hockey President Jim Smith said, “A trip to the rink is likely as safe as a trip to the grocery store.”
Illinois public health officials, however, point to several hockey-related COVID-19 outbreaks around the country, including one that happened last month at a tournament for adults in Traverse City, Michigan. Contact tracers found 35 infections stemming from the tournament, though they couldn’t pinpoint the exact route of transmission.
“Not only were there a lot of games, but also there were a lot of outside the rink activities that the groups did together — barbecues, hanging out, a lot of social events where they were not masked and in close proximity,” said Wendy Hirschenberger of the Grand Traverse County Health Department.
Even so, she said hockey should be viewed as a high-risk activity given its physical nature. Zachary Binney, an epidemiologist at Oxford College of Emory University, agreed with that assessment and said he was concerned about COVID-19 spreading through interstate tournaments.
“The virus does not obey state borders,” he said. “If you are traveling, you run the risk of becoming infected and either bringing the virus to your destination or back home. It is really disappointing to see youth organizations engaged in this race to the bottom.”
USA Hockey allows its state affiliates to set their own rules on tournaments, and in Illinois that duty falls to Amateur Hockey Association Illinois, or AHAI. In a statement issued earlier this month, it said while it does not recommend teams play out of state, it won’t require them to get the permit ordinarily needed to compete outside of Illinois.
Still, AHAI warned there could be consequences.
“If teams or participants travel out of Illinois, they would be subject to any applicable state of Illinois quarantine requirements and may be subject to penalties by the state of Illinois if it determines that such travel violated the current health regulations,” it said.
Some parents and coaches insist the game can be played safely, pointing to a July tournament held in the Chicago area before the new rules took hold. Nearly 200 youth teams came and went without any reports of an outbreak, they said.
“With all the science that’s out there and all the legwork that’s been done and all the evidence that kids have been skating since June (with) no outbreak in the hockey community, it’s proven itself,” said Sylvain Turcotte, hockey director of the Glenview Park District and the Glenview Stars travel team. “Hockey should be able to be played.”
Standing outside the Mount Prospect Ice Arena while two of her kids practiced, Quinn said teams are already doing what they can to lower the risk. Players dress at home or in the rink parking lot and don’t use the locker rooms. They wear masks off the ice (and sometimes on), bring their own water bottles and practice social distancing on the bench.
She said critics who think hockey parents are being reckless should hold the same attitude about grocery shopping, dining out or attending a small wedding, all of which remain permissible.
“You know the risk tolerance of your own family, and if I thought any of my family members were in a high-risk category then I wouldn’t have my kids play,” she said. “But they’re not, and I’m willing to take the risk because I think the risk is small.”
Dr. David Thomas, an infectious disease specialist at Johns Hopkins Medicine, said while that is a sensible perspective, public health leaders must take into account that some won’t be meticulous with preventive measures and could allow the virus to spread.
“You’re really trusting everyone,” he said. “All it takes is one person to not do it.”
jkeilman@chicagotribune.com
Twitter @JohnKeilman
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