Athletes and coaches associated with the IESA have joined those attached to the IHSA in continuing to wait for a fall sports announcement, with Wednesday’s IESA Board of Directors meeting not resulting in a decision about whether those activities will occur as scheduled.

IESA officials on Thursday posted on the organization’s Facebook page that “an update on the status of fall activities will be sent to the membership no later than July 24.” The fate of the IESA’s 2020 fall sports season, like the IHSA’s fall slate, is in question because of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

The IESA Facebook post reads that a Wednesday Zoom conference call was conducted to “discuss the possibility/practicality of holding IESA activities in the 2020-21 school year and specifically the fall activities of golf, softball, baseball, cross-country, and girls’ basketball.” IHSA executive director Craig Anderson also was on the call, according to the post.

According to the post, the IESA is waiting to hear back from the Illinois Department of Public Health and office of Governor J.B. Pritzker about “guidance regarding interscholastic activity participation and health and safety requirements.”

“The answers that we receive from these agencies will have a significant impact on the type of activity and/or format of the activity that we are able to offer during the school year,” the post reads. “To date, we have not received answers to our inquiries.”

Without an IDPH or governor’s office response, “the IESA Board simply felt … it would not be prudent at this time to make a decision to cancel fall activities knowing that a decision like that is devastating to the very students and schools the IESA serves.”

The IESA actually beat the IHSA to the punch when it came to canceling spring sports state series earlier this year. IESA executive director Steve Endsley announced his organization’s decision on April 3, while Anderson made public the IHSA’s choice on April 21.

The IHSA Board of Directors is next scheduled to meet this upcoming Wednesday, Anderson told member schools via email Wednesday night, though that date is “tentative on the association receiving confirmation from IDPH, the governor’s office, or ISBE (Illinois State Board of Education) of the outlook for the start of the fall seasons.”

IHSA officials on Tuesday announced they would be deferring to the IDPH, ISBE and governor’s office when it comes to making future decisions on its “Return To Play” plan, which currently is in Phase 4.

Colin Likas is the preps coordinator at The News-Gazette. He can be reached at clikas@news-gazette.com, or on Twitter at @clikasNG.