For years, I’ve been saying it was only a matter of time until a parent took the IHSA to court or that the IHSA needed to form a completely independent board to deal with eligibility. Now, Illinois state government is getting involved, and the #IHSA is panicking. The IHSA has been hammered in court this year over eligibility issues - at the state and federal levels - and a number of families banned together to speak with lawmakers about how they were treated by IHSA executive director Craig Anderson and team. Over the past few days - including again this morning - the IHSA has mass emailed school leaders begging for their support to shoot down #HB334, which went to committee this morning at 9 am. The bill will remove IHSA by-laws when it comes to transfer eligibility. For years, in my humble viewpoint, these by-laws have discriminated against kids and families…and honestly, they’ve allowed adults with egos inside schools to hurt kids. Example: You transfer from a private school to a public school, and you receive every school benefit - including playing sports right away. But if you decide to go public to private, you receive every benefit - except being eligible to play varsity sports for a year. For DECADES, there have been high school basketball players transferring nonstop throughout #CPS like nothing. No issue. Look at suburban school districts, too. But public to private…you have to sit unless you moved. Why? So-called recruiting and also public schools want to control the privates. It’s 2024: There is recruiting everywhere, and public schools are just as bad. In California, a high school student sits one month of the season if they transfer schools. In other states, they are allowed one transfer during their high school career. One public school principal recently told me a story of a football player going public to private, and they decided to not fight it. “Why should we? The student doesn’t want to go here. It opens another opportunity for a student here. Life goes on.” For far too long, some school leaders have thought IHSA membership allows them to do whatever they want. Wrong. Rich Piatchek, the former longtime Andrew AD, famously said in quote to the Chicago Sun-Times that former Illinois attorney general Lisa Madigan couldn’t get involved with the old South-Inter Conference Association, because it was like a “private country club. Its members decide.” Other ADs have publicly made that same comment over the years. Each time I see that, I shake my head. Well, Rich couldn’t have been more wrong, as the #ILAG office did get involved. And in this case, Illinois state government can and very well may get involved to stop discriminating practices against some students and not others. Remember: Discrimination is the unfair or prejudicial treatment of people and groups. Just because a student and their family elect to go public to private or private to public, that shouldn’t mean that one student gets more benefits or is penalized. I’ve helped the IHSA over the decades, and I’ve been very critical of the IHSA. But like an AD said to me last night, “If this bill goes through, what do we need the IHSA for anymore?” I’ve been saying that for a long time.
