By Blake Haas
BLOOMINGTON – Due to the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic, the Illinois Elementary School Association is on the verge of suspending operations, a first in the organization’s 91-year history.
With less than 7-months of money left in the coffers, IESA Executive Director Steve Endsley told WJBC’s Marc Strauss that the primary concern is if there are no major winter tournaments in the future.
“That’s what is concerning is that it doesn’t appear as though we are going to be able to have fans in attendance at tournament games if we’re even allowed to hold those games. If that happens, the term that I have said or the phrase that I have used is that at this point in time, we are like a ‘mom and a pop business.’ In order to keep our doors open, we have to have income, and without income, no business is able to survive. We are staring down the barrel of the possibility of having no tournaments, and without tournaments, we certainly would not be able to continue operating in the manner in which we have operated in debt.”
Endsley said the organization only has a debt of less than $40,000 with money in the bank. However, those funds are quickly depleting due to monthly expenses.
“All of our monthly expenses are, in essence, being paid for from our reserves. That’s what we would be doing without the Coronavirus pandemic in an ordinary year. We don’t have a lot of income from July through December. This is not uncommon. The problem is that starting in December, we have girls’ basketball tournaments; therefore, we are receiving admissions money. We then transition to boys basketball and girls volleyball, and boys wrestling, and we have a lot of money that comes in from those tournaments. The money that we, in essence, are using to pay bills and those types of things in the fall we replenish starting in December, but there is where the problem lies is that it doesn’t get a chance to replenish those.”
LISTEN: Steve Endsley, Exc. Director of the IESA spoke with WJBC’s Marc Strauss about the organizations funds during the COVID-19 pandemic.
On Wednesday, the Illinois High School Association (IHSA) and IESA will announce winter sports status as guided by IDPH and the Governors office.
Blake Haas can be reached at [email protected].
