PEORIA, Ill. — Many Illinois families have been asking for high school sports to be played this fall, but Gov. J.B. Pritzker doesn’t have any plans to allow that to happen.
“I’m not willing to sacrifice people’s lives or health,” said Pritzker Tuesday. “We are being careful about it, but I’m relying on doctors and researchers to give us the information.”
The only high school sports allowed to play this fall in Illinois are cross country, golf, girls tennis and girls swimming and diving. Football, soccer and volleyball have been pushed to the spring season.
However, #LetUsPlay has been circulating social media throughout the state. The movement has two rallies planned this Saturday in Springfield and Chicago.
Peoria High School Football Coach Tim Thornton says many of the factors of high school sports aren’t being considered in the decision.
“It’s more than just sports and being on the field in the actual competition,” said Thornton. “It’s what the sports do for the kids.”
“Sometimes kids use [sports] as a vehicle to put themselves in a better situation.”
Thornton said coaches aren’t seeing the number of players they used to due to the situation, saying they’ve lost some of the players who “get more out of football than football gets out of them.”
In such a fluid situation, Thornton says his team is ready to play whenever it may be.
“We’ve got a plan to play in the spring, and we’ve got a plan if they say two weeks from now you need to be ready to go,” said Thornton.
Thornton applauded the players’ resiliency in the situation, but he did say it was “scary” how many players the team is missing.
“Football has always provided that family environment for those that didn’t have it,” said Thornton. “When that’s gone, it gets tough for some of them.”
During Gov. Pritzker’s Tuesday press conference, he cited Illinois having too high of a positivity rate to allow contact sports to resume.
The full interview with Thornton:
