Metro East Sun

A former Republican candidate for state representative says he’s disappointed that one of his daughters will miss out on tennis practice due to Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s COVID-19 restrictions on high school and youth sports.

“This has impacted our family in that my daughters are involved in dance and tennis,” said Don Moore, who is current chairman of the finance committee for the Madison County board. “One of my daughters plays tennis. When she went to practice just last week, she was told practices are going to be discontinued. ... To me, it’s ridiculous. Tennis is not really a close contact sport.”

The Moore family is just one of many who oppose Gov. Pritzker’s COVID-19 restrictions just as the Illinois High School Association board of directors was preparing to issue a schedule, according to a July 29, 2020 Chicago Sun-Times article.

“I'm not sure what the next steps are going to be for tennis but that was disheartening to hear that practice is discontinued. I don't think it's a good idea. We have to live our life,” Moore told the Metro East Sun. “We can't hide inside our houses because we might catch a virus. I have trouble accepting that COVID-19 is much different than the flu. I had the flu when I was a younger man and I thought I was going to die. That's how bad it is. So, I know how serious it is but if you catch it, you catch it.”

Football, boxing, wrestling, competitive cheerleading and dance are limited to no-contact practice and training, according to state COVID-19 guidelines. 

Activities are classified into either higher risk, medium risk or lower risk and Levels 1, 2, 3 or 4.

For example, high-risk sports can play at Level 1 while medium risk sports can play at Level 1 and 2. Medium risk sports include basketball, soccer, water polo, flag football, wheelchair basketball and volleyball. Tennis is classified as a lower risk sport but did not have levels of activity assigned to it on the document.

As of Aug. 6, the State of Illinois has reported 186,471 cases and 7573 fatalities, according to the Illinois Department of Health.

“Ninety-nine plus percent of the people who get COVID-19 are either asymptomatic or they get through it and then they've got an antibody in their body,” Moore said. “I'm not a young guy anymore but I get out and I'm not going to live my life inside my house, not go to work and not be a productive citizen of the state. So I'm very strongly against the government telling me how I need to go about living my life.”