Local High Schools Making Decisions on High School Basketball Season

Bolingbrook’s Morgan Tuck, left, encourages teammate Ariel Massengale, right, at the foul line in the Illinois High School Class 4A Girl’s Basketball Championship game against Whitney Young Saturday, March 6, 2010, at Redbird Arena in Normal, IL.(AP Photos/B Corbin)

The Illinois High School Association is inviting Governor Pritzker and the state health department to attend its board meeting next week. The board said it hopes to create a dialogue and build a more collaborative relationship with all the entities involved with developing sports policy in the state during the pandemic. The IHSA announced last month that basketball practices could start November 16th and games could begin November 30th. That announcement came a day after Pritzker said winter sports have been put on hold. The board is also recommending that schools planning to begin basketball practice on Monday should adhere to the health department’s Level 1 restrictions until at least November 19th.

WJOL has learned that Joliet Township District 204 has suspended all in-person athletics until further notice due to the rapid transmission of COVID-19. Also, the Southwest Prairie Conference and Southwest Suburban conference have announced that several of their schools will not be moving forward with a basketball season. Local schools that are members of those conferences are both Joliet Central and West, all four Plainfield High Schools, Romeoville High and Minooka.