Suburban judge rejects attempt to revive high school football during pandemic
A DuPage County judge declined to issue a temporary restraining order that might have helped high school football and other contact sports return this fall, saying the Illinois High School Association is within its rights to delay the sports for safety reasons.
“We are in a pandemic, and I think what the IHSA did was within their authority under (the organization’s) bylaws and constitution,” Judge Paul Fullerton said Thursday.
The parents of four high school athletes had sued the IHSA, saying the group violated its own rules in agreeing to delay football, boys soccer and girls volleyball — sports the Illinois Department of Public Health determined were at medium to high risk of virus transmission — until the spring.
In court, attorney Jeffrey Widman argued that because Gov. J.B. Pritzker hasn’t issued an executive order on sports, the IHSA acted on its own to rearrange its calendar of competition. And to do that, he said, it needed the consent of its member schools, which it didn’t get.
Postponing the season is harming the mental health of athletes who play those sports, he said, and is potentially robbing some of them the opportunity to earn scholarships, especially as most other states have gone forward with their seasons.
“There is no remedy but to let them play,” he said.
IHSA attorney David Bressler retorted that other executive orders issued by the governor cover competitive sports, so the fix sought by the parents was irrelevant. What’s more, he said, no school has challenged the IHSA’s decision to postpone the sports seasons.
In his decision, Fullerton said the IHSA’s decision appears to fall within the bounds of its authority. Though he expressed sympathy for the young athletes who are watching their opportunities vanish, he noted that the country is enduring a once-in-a-century hardship.
“Drastic times, drastic remedies,” he said.
Outside the courthouse, one of the plaintiffs, David Ruggles, whose son plays basketball at Wheaton Warrenville South, said he thought that season will be diminished, too, though he wasn’t sure if he would continue the legal fight.
Though young athletes like his son can move to other states to continue their athletic careers — something a number of Illinois football players have done — not everyone is so fortunate, he said.
“Nobody’s advocating for the kids on this whole thing," he’s said. "We’re making them carry the weight of the entire experience.”
jkeilman@chicagotribune.com
Twitter @JohnKeilman
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