Lake County Gazette

The head coach of Boys Basketball at Mundelein High School, Matt Badgley, spoke about continuing the basketball season as planned.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D-Illinois) announced the season start for basketball would be put on hold, but the Illinois High School Association (IHSA) Board of Directors voted against Gov. Pritzker to proceed with the season.

"There's been a number of schools already come out and say that they will not participate due to the threats from Illinois State Board of Education and the governor's office. And due to that, that's going to cause some problems, so if say one school says that they will participate and everybody else says no, you got no opponents to play against anyhow," said Badgley.

Matt Badgley, head coach of Boys Basketball at Mundelein High School | https://www.d120.org/assets/1/18/matt_badgley_17.jpg?2059

A big frustration for Badgley he says is the difference in laws across states and lack of communication.

"How come there's no collaboration or communication between the other states that surround us, that are able to hold all these competitions, that seem to not see a significant increase; and in some cases, maybe a decrease than what Illinois shows. I just don't understand the lack of transparency that is taking place from the Illinois Department of Public Health and the governor's office as to, you know... what information do they have that all these other states don't have that has taken us to this point," said Badgley.

The IHSA is confident with their decision, with practices set to begin on Nov. 16 and games starting on Nov. 30.

"The Illinois High School Association Board of Directors made the decision today to continue with the IHSA basketball season as scheduled in 2020-21," said the IHSA Board in a statement, told by Patch.  

"In August, the Board slated basketball to take place from November to February based on the Illinois Department of Public Health assigning a medium risk level to the sport. The IHSA Sports Medicine Advisory Committee offered additional mitigations, such as masks during play and social distancing on benches, that the SMAC believed would allow basketball to be played safely," explained the statement, as reported by Patch.