CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- The ongoing Chicago teachers strike could turn out the lights on many student athlete's seasonsand careers.
"This is really my last year and I never thought it could come to an end like this," said Rafael Soto, a senior at Solorio Academy High School on the Southwest Side.
Soto, who plays soccer at Solorio, was one of several Chicago Public Schools student atheletes who gathered at Whitney Young High School Sunday to call on the Illinois High School Association to make a unique ruling Monday that allows them to take the field. CPS soccer players from schools across the city came out Sunday morning.
Under the IHSA's strike policy, thousands of CPS student athletes are ineligible for this week's Class 2A and 3A playoff action.
"There's a lot of different technicalities within it. At the end of the day, it shouldn't be this hard. We're adults," said Joe Trost, founder of the PepsiCo Showdown series, which, according to its website, is the largest high school sports tourney in the country. "Adults need to make the right decision and realize that there's a crisis going on for thousands of kids throughout the city of Chicago. We have an opportunity to step up and do the right thing to make sure that we're not impacting the kids that have nothing to do with this."
Trost, who said disqualifying CPS schools will completely alter the entire playoff system, made his points alongside the soccer players at Whitney Young.
"Kids just want to play," he told reporters. "Let's give them the opportunity to."
A final decision is expected sometime Monday afternoon.