MAC ON SPORTS: IHSA BOARD OF DIRECTORS WILL FIND THEMSELVES IN ‘NO WIN’ POSITION AFTER THEIR MEETING JAN. 27

J. Thomas McNamara
Abraham Lincoln once said, “You can please some of the people all of the time, all the people some of the time, but you can’t please all the people all the time.”
He was right and that’s the position the Illinois High School Association Board of Directors will find themselves in after their meeting Wednesday (Jan. 27) when they decide how to schedule the sports and if there is enough time left to schedule them before the 2021-22 sports calendar takes effect. Regardless of what they do, some will be unhappy because of the number of sports they’re trying to cram into the remaining months.
The state helped considerably Monday, Jan. 18, when it moved most of the regions into Tier 1 and the Springfield region 3 into Phase 4 which allows schools to do more practicing and scrimmaging against each other, but no games.
“It’s a start,” said succinctly Maroa-Forsyth’s Josh Jostes after the Illinois Department of Public Health moved the Decatur/Champaign and other areas of Region 6 into Tier 1. As Jostes indicates that it’s a huge step in the right direction to get these seniors and their teammates onto the field to prepare for the season that is scheduled to begin with practices in February with games the first weekend in March.
I will have more on this developing story in a future print edition of the Decatur Tribune.