Mayor Lori Lightfoot and Chicago Public Schools CEO Janice Jackson held a press conference Wednesday morning to announce that CPS schools would go to all remote learning in the school year’s first quarter, which begins on Sept. 8.

Fall sports are scheduled to start almost a full month earlier. The Illinois High School Association allows practices to begin on Aug. 10. Under the IHSA’s revised sports calendar fall sports include boys and girls golf, girls tennis, boys and girls cross country and girls swimming and diving.

The IHSA allows schools that are remote learning to participate in sports. The final decision rests with each school district. It appears that CPS is going to opt out of fall sports, but the announcement wasn’t exactly definitive.

Early in the press conference, Ald. Michael Scott Jr. (24th) said his children all play sports and “their seasons have been canceled.”

The IHSA hasn’t canceled any sports, it has redone the sports calendar hoping that every sport will get at least some sort of season despite COVID-19. So that was a bit of a surprise.

Later in the press conference Jackson was asked about sports directly.

“I believe our sports programs are no longer practicing,” Jackson said. “I believe it is safe to say that is what the fall is going to look like.”

Many teams have been practicing.

“I haven’t received any notification that we needed to stop practicing,” Mather cross country coach Joe Sullivan said. “We have been practicing since July 14 under the social distancing guidance [CPS] sent out. We take every kid’s temperature and submit a form for them every day. The IHSA allows 20 contact days and today was our last day. We met like four days a week. We’ve been following that guidance.”

Jackson mentioned the IHSA’s revised sports calendar but ended with: “We need definitive guidance from [the Illinois State Board of Education] on [fall sports]. “

CPS has not responded to a request to clarify things. No coaches or athletic directors contacted by the Sun-Times has received any word on whether or not practices will begin on Monday.

“We’re just going to wait and see what comes out,” Sullivan said. “If they pull the plug and say it is not safe to go with the season that is what we do. We’ve been social distancing and wearing masks. We haven’t had any cases on our team. We are ready for anything. Whatever they tell us we will try and do it safely.”

Lane has 200-300 cross country runners most seasons. Coach Kris Roof has no idea what is going to happen on Monday.

“This is what we deal with all the time,” Roof said. “There has been zero communication. I’ve had parents calling me and I had to tell them I know nothing. We are the largest team in the city and one of the largest in the state. We need to prepare for Monday and we don’t have any guidance.”