Illinois last Midwest state holding out on fall sports as Minnesota allows football, volleyball

The group that oversees high school sports in Minnesota voted overwhelmingly Monday to restart football and volleyball, after deciding earlier to delay both sports until the spring because of the coronavirus.

The Minnesota State High School League board of directors voted 15-3 to begin football and 14-4 to allow volleyball to resume. The board approved a regular season of six games for football and an 11-week season for volleyball.

The decision comes as the state continues to see high numbers of positive COVID-19 tests, with health officials on Monday confirming 937 new cases. However, the state's rate of hospital admissions has dropped to its lowest level in two months.

A survey by the high school league asking its 500 member schools on when football and volleyball should be played drew 394 responses, with 80% favoring fall football and 76% supporting fall volleyball.

Kris Ehresman, infectious disease director for the Minnesota Department of Health, said sports have led to 62 outbreaks or clusters, including 15 associated with basketball, nine with soccer, nine with hockey, nine with football and six with volleyball.

Ehresman said last week she sees "no difference now in risk from earlier in the summer when the MSHSL decided to wait on these sports.''

But Illinois remains committed to postponing football — along with boys soccer and volleyball — until the spring.

lllinois Gov. JB Pritzker upheld the state's sports guidelines Monday at the Memorial Center for Learning and Innovation and dispelled any remaining chances of their return this autumn due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Pritzker said it's a matter of resources and safety.

"I want all fall sports," Pritzker said. "I want fall football in high school to play, I do. And we look to the NFL and the college sports and what they're doing to keep the adults and kids safe. What they're doing is, of course, massive amounts of testing, massive amounts of medical procedures — for example myocarditis is being tested in anybody that tests positive. It's a lot different in high schools across the state of Illinois who can't afford to do that kind of thing."

Dual #LetUsPlay rallies assembled Saturday in Chicago and Springfield, petitioning Pritzker to allow all sports to compete.

Cross country, golf, girls tennis and girls swimming and diving are the only fall activities currently underway because they are determined to be lower risk by the Illinois Department of Public Health guidelines. Even then, they can only compete within their respective conferences and IDPH emergency medical service regions.

Football and wrestling are higher risk while other sports such as basketball, soccer and volleyball are medium risk and are thus prohibited from competitive play at the youth and high school level. The Illinois High School Association postponed football, boys soccer and volleyball into the spring as a result.

"I want very much to see the other sports to begin to play (but) I'm going to listen to the scientists and doctors about that," Pritzker said.

The IHSA has not had any further discussions with Pritzker nor the IDPH either, the nonprofit group confirmed Monday via email.

Illinois remains the last state in the region to withhold high school football this fall. Michigan also reversed course and hosted its first games on Friday.

However, Illinois isn’t alone in the U.S. Connecticut reaffirmed its decision to cancel fall football earlier this month, for example.

Illinois’ seven-day positivity rate dropped to 3.5%, compared to 9.1% in Indiana, 14.9% in Iowa, 3.7% in Kentucky, 2.4% in Michigan, 12% in Missouri, 17% in Wisconsin and 3% in Ohio, according to the latest numbers by the Johns Hopkins University of Medicine.

The Associated Press contributed to this story