Illinois high schools could start basketball practice Monday, but hundreds of schools are still waiting to see what will happen as COVID-19 surges across the state.
The Illinois High School Association has invited Governor Pritzker's office and the Illinois Department of Public Health to its meeting on Thursday.
Monday during his daily COVID briefing, the governor said he will not attend the meeting and the state's guidance remains in place that basketball is a high risk sport, meaning its limited to no contact practices and training.
"We've relied on the best experts we could to come up with a plan for the winter. By the way, since then, COVID's gotten a lot worse."
But, the IHSA Board went against the state's guidance last month and voted to allow basketball this winter as long as players, coaches and officials wore face coverings.
The IHSA will also seek representation at Thursday's meeting from the Illinois Principals Association, the Illinois Association of School Administrators, the Illinois State Board of Education and a coalition of nearly 200 school superintendents to try to reach a consensus on how to move forward.
The IHSA Board had 546 out of 813 schools respond to a survey recently. Nearly 300 IHSA schools did not plan to start basketball on Monday, and another 212 schools remain unsure of their status.
