As fall comes to an end and winter approaches the Hillcrest Hawks prepare for their winter sports. The only question that remains is: Which sports will be played on schedule and how will they be played?

Hillcrest bowling tryouts begin on November 16th. The schedule will be from November 16 to February 13th. As a Hillcrest bowler and a senior, I’m just glad we will still have a bowling season. I know that with COVID-19 anything can happen to the season, but I want to be optimistic about our season. My teammate Michael believes that “our matches will be fine but our tournaments will be limited to certain schools.” Our coach, Mr. Fantozzi is preparing us for our tryout date to come by making a google classroom and posting upcoming information as the information comes in. 

Hillcrest basketball is still undecided. That was before the IHSA announced that they had “made the decision to continue with the IHSA basketball season as scheduled in 2020-21.” Hillcrest, on the other hand, after hearing this news still decided to cancel their season. Girls basketball sophomore Jada seemed very upset when she heard the news. “I was looking forward to playing this season and was pretty upset when I heard that Hillcrest decided not to have basketball this year.”

Other schools in Illinois have also canceled their basketball season as well. It’s because Governor Pritzker announced that “some of these sports, we’re not shutting them down, we’re asking that they be moved to the spring, some later in the spring.” With the IHSA’s conflicting opinion on the matter, some Illinois schools took different sides on the matter. In fact, there are less than 34 high schools that are sure they will start basketball in November, this news coming from the Chicago Sun Times. 

At Hillcrest another winter sport that normally begins around this time is wrestling, but wrestling has the highest amount of contact within the three sports. If Hillcrest canceled basketball’s season you could probably guess that wrestling’s season was canceled as well. Wrestling could possibly be played in the spring along with basketball if they decide to play in the spring. I know wrestling coach Keith Franklin isn’t happy that their season can’t be played on schedule, but Franklin knows it’s for the safety of the athletes.

We’ll keep an eye on both wrestling and basketball and see if they get to play their season in the spring, but, as of now, they won’t be playing in the winter. 

As some Hillcrest athletes prepare for their season to begin, I know the athletes that aren’t playing will continue to stay in shape. Some Illinois schools are doing no-contact workouts.

I am very interested to see how some schools will react if the coronavirus gets any worse than what it is now.