CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- Mayor Lori Lightfoot missed an easy layup Monday when asked at a news conference about sports like basketball returning for Chicago Public School students.
Thousands of Chicago Public Schools athletes and coaches have been waiting for weeks to get the approval to resume play. They have watched as the rest of the state has started playing again, but they haven’t been told when they can start — or why they haven’t yet, the Sun-Times reported.
A reporter asked Mayor Lightfoot on Monday at a news conference why CPS hasn’t resumed high school sports. She appeared unaware that the Illinois Department of Public Health and the Illinois High School Association (IHSA), more than a week ago, blew the whistle to allow the start of play for all sports, including high-contact sports like basketball.
“That’s not really our call,” Lightfoot said. “Obviously, we’re going to follow the guidance of the Illinois State Board of Education, but also the Illinois High School Association. We’ve been anxiously waiting for further guidance from them. As an unrepentant sports fan myself, I’d like to see kids get back. There’s some loosening of the guidelines to let some non-contact sports happen. But, as far as I know, we haven’t seen anything that’s specific to, for example, high school basketball. So I’d like to see us move in that direction, but the state really controls the play, no pun intended, on that issue.”
IDPH announced Jan. 22 that regions would be allowed to play basketball and other higher-risk sports in Phase 4 of the Restore Illinois plan. On Jan. 27, the IHSA started the basketball season, and announced Monday that CPS will be allowed to play basketball until March 20, one week longer than the rest of the state.
Related
Dozens of Catholic and suburban public high school basketball games took place in the Chicago area just last week.
Now, a spokesman for the Mayor said CPS will have a statement later in the week on the start of sports.