Illinois Governor JB Pritzker announced on January 15, 2021, that regions 1, 2 and 5 are being rolled back from Tier 3 mitigations to Tier 2 mitigations. This announcement allows further participation opportunities in low-risk sports for IHSA schools located in those regions that are under Tier 2 mitigations.

Low-risk winter sports include Badminton, Boys Swimming & Diving, Cheerleading, Dance, Boys & Girls Bowling, and Girls Gymnastics. Boys & Girls Basketball are the lone high-risk winter sports, and are still on pause in Tier 2 mitigations. 

“This is certainly positive news for three regions of the state, but we still have a long way to go until we get all of our student-athletes back to being active,” said IHSA Executive Director Craig Anderson. “High school student-athletes are hurting from a mental, physical, and emotional standpoint, so we hope this is the first step toward getting that back to some normalcy.”