CHAMPAIGN – Roughly 15 minutes before Gov. J.B. Pritzker stepped to the podium last week, the Illinois High School Association was notified the state’s Board of Public Health had moved basketball to a high-risk sport in a pandemic.

Pritzker was shutting down the high school basketball season, a shock to the IHSA, not to mention the coaches and players. Instead of pointing toward Nov. 16 start date, high schoolers were now in limbo. A day later, the IHSA said it planned to proceed with the basketballs season, rather than shifting it into a conflict later this school year with football, soccer, and spring sports.

When the State Board of Education reminded schools state funding could be jeopardized by going against the state leaders, it kept getting crazier.

Please get us out of 2020.

“Control what you can control,’’ said Champaign Central basketball coach Jeff Finke.

That’s hard to say, because nobody knows who’s in control depending on the day. All this political handball left students, coaches, parents, and fans dizzy from getting batted back and forth, while states surrounding Illinois are finishing football and preparing to play basketball.

MORE: QB Coran Taylor sees opportunity | No more moral victories for Lovie Smith | Illini offense needs to spread the wealth | Avoiding coronavirus disruptions a key to success

In a survey of slightly less than 400 prep athletic directors who met online earlier this week, about nine percent said they would go ahead and play basketball this winter, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. The Chicago Public School system has shut down hoops, and so have several mid-sized cities in central Illinois.

Folks are frazzled.

“I was proud of the IHSA for standing up,’’ said Rochester football coach Derek Leonard.

The wrestling match (wait, that season shifted to the summer) between Pritzker and the IHSA left coaches frazzled, players muddled in limbo and administrators reworking desperately to schedule a prep sports season that’s still up in the air.

“Day to day, hour to hour, who knows what happens,’’ said Chicago Brother Rice football coach Brian Badke. “I’m just hoping you see a lot of success around the country. We’re really hoping basketball and the winter sports get at it before the end of the year here. That gives us hope, and our chances are very good as far as spring. It’s going to be an adjustment. We don’t care if it’s 50 degrees below.

“With 43 of the 50 states playing high school football, I feel terrible for the kids, especially the seniors.’’

Badke understood the challenge with a pandemic that’s already killed roughly 225,000 across the country, but he felt players and coaches should be able to make their own decisions. This all might be hitting a bit harder, because Badke’s son, Mick, is a Brother Rice senior safety and long snapper.

Residents can decide if they want to go out to dinner, attend church or get back to some kind of normalcy as the pandemic subsided and then returned over the last few weeks and months, but, in Illinois, high school athletes and their parents can’t make decisions on whether to play or not in sports deemed high risk.

Badke, like his peers, have been watching the rest of the country.

“I’m finally happy someone is stepping up and telling this guy not to tell us what we can and can’t do,’’ he said. “It’s not a dictatorship. I’m not proud to be from Illinois right now.

“I’m trying to be respectful, but it’s been infuriating and disappointing. Our leadership is so poor.’’

Rochester had 90 to 95 percent attendance during the fall workout sessions, but a casualty of pushing football to the spring is recruiting.

“It’s at a complete stop,’’ Leonard said.

The state’s high-profile studs don’t have much to worry about. It’s the players destined for the lower levels. By the time seniors play this spring, any scholarship money or roster spots in FCS programs, Division II, Division III and NAIA are likely going to be gone.

“It’s hurting the seniors, and this is also supposed to be the juniors’ time,’’ Leonard said. “It’s not the big-time players. It’s hurting the D2 or D3 kid. I have two examples. They really needed senior video. By the time the spring comes, the football money will be gone. (College recruiters) can’t wait. If you wait, you’re doomed.’’

Of course, there’s still no guarantee football will ever be played this school year.

“How can you trust this governor right now?’’ Leonard said.

Basketball coaches know the feeling. After spending the fall contact days preparing for a season that was so close it was a tease, the shutdown hit last week after the IHSA took proposals to state government.

With the decision coming so close to what the IHSA had planned as a basketball start date, hoopers were gutted.

“It’s more about managing expectations,’’ said Chicago Whitney Young coach Tyrone Slaughter. “There’s so much information that comes out every day. You have the IHSA doing what they did, the governor doing what he’s done. At the end of the day, the party that’s the most impacted are the young people, in particular the seniors.’’

The basketball season was already cut short last season with Class 1A/2A halted just prior to state finals weekend. The Class 3A/4A schools were in the midst of sectionals.

“Now this season is hanging in the balance,’’ Slaughter said. “Are we going to play? Now as we see, players are leaving the state. That speaks to the magnitude of the desire to play.’’

Down the street from the State Farm Center, Finke knows the feeling, but the unknown has chilled the sport across the state.

“The kids are somewhat hopeless and uncertain,’’ Finke said. “We’re shut down right now, just kind of waiting. It’s the uncertainty of what’s going to happen and when it’s going to happen.

“We can’t instruct. From the IHSA standpoint, that’s not allowed without contact days. From the governor’s standpoint, you can’t compete. Open gyms are impossible.’’

This decision made so close to the expected start of the season already created logistical issues for administrators, who had already juggled schedules toward a 20-game season. For Champaign Central, that was primarily a conference-only season. But that’s probably going to get another overhaul after finishing workouts last week.

Imagine lining up referees, game officials and dates, the doing it over again, then doing it over again.

“When the governor made the announcement, it totally changed the way of thinking,’’ Finke said. “Kids thought we’d get the team together, get rolling, practice and be ready when they say, Go. Now, it’s just stop.’’

If basketball is played later this school year, the spring is getting cluttered. Athletes in larger schools must decide what sport takes priority. Smaller schools might have trouble fielding teams with fewer athletes to spread around.

Finke has two seniors who also play soccer, and another player is a football star. There’s also basketball and track, not to mention his JV coach also serves as the football defensive coordinator.

“We have a few multi-sport kids, and I’d hate for any kids to have to make that decision,’’ Finke said. There are small towns where the basketball coach is also the football coach. For us, we’d have a team. To make the kids choose, that’s a tough thing.’’

At this point, it’s hurry up and wait.

“We don’t control any of it, so it’s wait and see,’’ Finke said.

That’s so 2020.