While Covid-19 is getting  bad in Illinois, the governor made the decision to call off fall sports.  While cancelling fall sports was a difficult decision, because IHSA and other sports associations all over Illinois wanted to keep the season going, Illinois’s governor, J.B. Pritzker made the choice to call them off without a doubt. Here is what he said about it.

”I’m not willing to sacrifice people’s lives or their health,” Pritzker said at a press conference on Tuesday. “Neither the children nor their parents who would be affected also. We are being careful about it but I’m relying on doctors and researchers to give us the information. This isn’t a political decision. I know that there are people who would like me simply to make a political decision to allow people to endanger themselves.”

Football, Soccer, Volleyball and other fall sports were called off September 16^th, not even days after that, there were many protests against the Illinois governor at his home and other public places. There were even student led protests, occurring mostly in Chicago and the suburbs as shown in the picture.

Here at St. Edward, we were allowed “contact days”.  Boys soccer was allowed a 1-hour practice each week.  The practice consisted of warming up, then just scrimmaging.  The boys soccer coach and teacher, Mr. Brieger, explained, “I really think the practices went very well.  We did not use the practices to necessarily prepare for the Spring season, but to allow the guys to get together and get back to enjoying just playing soccer.  It was all about building the sense of team and camaraderie. “

He also talked about the amount of time we could practice. “Yes, I wish they had extended the contact days to run into the winter (and even in the winter) but I think we made the most of what we had.  Personally, I left each Saturday happy to have gotten to compete with the lads and have some fun!”

I really enjoyed playing, even though it wasn’t much time. It helped me get a sense of the team, and it was definitely fun. I hope we are allowed to have our season in the spring!