Salem High School Athletic Director Scott Steward says there will be a five-week-long Cahokia Conference boys and girls basketball season beginning February ninth with games three nights a week.
Steward explains the schedule set up by the conference athletic directors on Thursday.
“We will play Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. Whatever school hosted, for example, if we were hosting boys with Carlyle, then our girls would go to Carlyle. Then the second time around, it would flip flop so the boys would travel, and then the girls would be at home. All of those games would be played on the same night except at a different location.”
Under the plan, Salem would play traditional conference rivals Wesclin, Freeburg, Columbia, Carlyle, and Breese Central home and away along with conference newcomer Okawville. Red Bud is likely to be Salem’s seven conference opponent, but that has not been finalized. Okawville wasn’t going to join the Cahokia Conference until next school year, but because of the COVID situation has moved up their entry. The day by day conference schedule is expected to be released on Friday.
There will be three boys games each evening, starting with a freshman game at four, JV game at six, and the varsity contest around 7:30. The girls would play JV and varsity games.
Steward is hopeful of picking up both a boys and girls non-conference game towards the end of next week to kick off the season. He reports both the boys and girls will have in their required seven practices by Friday of this week.
There will not be any type of post-season basketball play.
Under Illinois Department of Public Health rules, only 50 spectators will be allowed in each game. The Cahokia Conference Principals will meet on Friday to determine how those 50 will be selected. If there are cheerleaders or band members, Steward says they would count against the 50 allowed to attend.
Steward says the schedule will likely remain fluid as some teams may go out for periods of time for positive COVID cases and an attempt would be made to find replacement games.
Steward has also announced the start of the football season has been pushed back a week by the IHSA and there will not be just a six week football season. The goal was to reduce the overlap between the football and basketball seasons.
This story updates a quote to say the conference games will be on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday, not on Monday.
