Illinois Right to Play Act would allow student-athletes to play on more than one team
Student-athletes juggle a lot between homework, practice, games, and other responsibilities.
So who should decide how student-athletes spend their free time? That question is getting a lot of play thanks to a bill pending in the Illinois General Assembly in Springfield.
Xamiya Walton used to shoot hoops at Butler College Prep, at 821 E. 103rd St. in Chicago's Pullman neighborhood, where she estimated she spent hundreds of hours on the court. She also used to play basketball outside of school for a club team.
Walton was not allowed to compete for both teams at the same time — or else she would have been suspended from the high school team.
"I think that would be devastating for me as an individual," Walton said. "I would hate to put my teammates in that position."
Illinois state Rep. Janet Yang Rohr (D-Naperville) is sympathetic. She has heard from everyone from upset dance moms to frustrated soccer dads.
"A lot of my constituents, they were getting caught up in that rule," Yang Rohr said.
Yang Rohr's Right to Play Act (House Bill 3037) would allow kids to compete for whomever they want, whenever they want. It would toss out the old policy, and its penalties that come from the Illinois High School Association — or IHSA.
"They're making these decisions that say whether a student can do this or that in their free time," Yang Rohr said. "Like it doesn't make a lot of sense."
Currently, a teen basketball player can't be on two courts at once — but an actor can be in the high school musical and community theatre with no problem. Supporters of the rule, as is, say the difference comes down to risk of injury.
"Stress fractures, in particular, is an overuse injury," said Teri Rodgers, who spent 27 years as head girls' basketball coach for New Trier Township High School in the north suburbs.
Rodgers worries changing the current policy will affect teen stress and anxiety levels.
"Yes, it would give kids control," she said. "At the same time, you know, they are also answering to two different coaches, and I think that would be really, really difficult for the majority of kids."
The IHSA also warned about coach retention issues in a recent letter to schools opposing the Right to Play Act.
Yang Rohr noted that the push for the changes the act would bring about are far from new.
"In 1985, they tried to pass this exact same bill," she said.
As the decades-old debate rages on, Walton is thinking of younger players — who she hopes will get more freedom than they had.
"Not being able to participate in those events in the long run can definitely hurt an athlete," she said.
For Walton's own part, she turned out all right. She now plays Division I basketball for Northwestern University.
