IHSAA Limits Tournaments To Just Teams, Direct Families
INDIANAPOLIS – IHSAA Commissioner Bobby Cox held a press conference at noon today updating the procedures for the high school basketball and gymnastics state tournaments, as well as the lead-in to spring sports.
BOYS BASKETBALL
The commissioner stated the boys basketball tournament will go on as planned, with each tournament site maintaining its three games for this weekend’s regional. The semi-states and state finals will also be held as planned, as of Thursday at noon, per Cox.
The IHSAA, however, is limiting attendees to 75 admissions per school. Those attendees, coined by Cox as “essential staff and immediate family”, will be screened by the principals and athletic directors. Immediate family are defined as parents, grandparents and siblings of players. Student staffers (managers) and coaches for the team are also permitted. The maximum 75 admissions is separate from the team, and is exclusively monitored by the principals and athletic directors of each school.
Cox noted those who have purchased tickets for the regional games can return them to the point of purchase for a full refund. You must present the ticket for a full refund. Anyone who has purchased a ticket in advance for the IHSAA Boys Basketball State Finals will be refunded by the IHSAA.
The IHSAA will look to stream and broadcast each remaining tournament game at all sites as available prior to the state finals. The state finals will be produced by the IHSAA Champions Network and Fox Sports Indiana.
There is no charge for those 75 admitted into the games. Those who are admitted are being asked to spread out throughout the facility rather than gather in one location. No pregame or postgame handshakes will be permitted by teams or with officials.
No cheerleaders, pep bands, dance teams or any spirit groups at the contests.
“Kids like to play in front of people,” Cox said during the press conference. “I think it will impact the game. It will feel like a scrimmage. You are going to have three officials out there and two teams sitting on the bench, but there aren’t going to be very many people in the gym. I think it’ll affect play. I don’t think there’s any doubt that it’ll affect play. But at least they are getting to play right now.”
About the potential of just cancelling or postponing, Cox stated, “We discussed that as a staff and we decided at this point that’s not the direction we are going to go. If we receive different information from the Department of Health or other health organizations we may make a determination that we may need to do something different.”
Cox said the IHSAA has had discussions with its board members and school administrators on what measures may need to be taken if an actual player or team official comes down with the COVID-19 virus. He stated none of the schools have reported an issue as of the press conference, and 15 of the 16 counties that are conducting regionals have not reported a case.
Area teams that are currently in regional contests include NorthWood at New Castle, Northridge and Culver Academy at Michigan City, Mishawaka Marian at South Bend Washington, Churubusco and LaVille at North Judson, Rochester at Lapel, Elkhart Christian, Argos and Caston all at Triton, and Southwood at Frankfort.
GYMNASTICS
The IHSAA Gymnastics State Finals is also being conducted at Ball State University.
No spectators will be admitted into the contest due to the high number of workers, teams and participating individuals. Because the CDC has deemed 250 as the number of people allowed to gather in one location, those numbers are being met by the workers and athletes, which is eliminating spectator opportunity.
Individuals who have purchased tickets for the finals will be given a refund by the IHSAA.
The state finals will be streamed on ihsaatv.org.
“We acknowledge these are unprecedented measures and we are sympathetic to our loyal fans that have supported education-based athletics in our state,” stated Cox. “We appreciate your understanding and support during these challenging times.”
SPRING SPORTS
Cox was asked about how this leads into spring sports, which are scheduled at some schools to begin in the coming days. Spring sports would include boys and girls track, baseball, softball, girls tennis and boys golf.
“Member school contests, the regular season contests, are totally up to the member schools on whether they want to contest those or not,” Cox said. “As you may know, we have had a few schools in our state that have already suspended school and are going to come back after an extended spring break. We are going to let those schools determine if they are going to come back and compete.
“We are not going to suspend any of our health and safety rules respective of spring sports. We have a 10-practice rule that all students must complete 10 separate days of practice before they participate in an inter-scholastic contest. We’re not going to suspend that if the school decides to take three weeks off and then they have a contest in four days. If they miss the practices, they are going to have to make those up. If that’s the case, the member schools are going to have to reschedule those events. They may have to cancel some events. We’ll work through it.”
Cox noted in total, these decisions as of noon on Thursday are subject to change as the CDC and health organizations continue to update and review information. The commissioner also noted the IHSAA is subject to lose in the area of half a million dollars as a result of the attendance losses and community spending.