Ryan Hornaday possessed more knowledge than maybe any other athletic director in the area about what IHSA officials announced Friday.

That’s because the Tuscola AD is part of the IHSA’s Sports Medicine Advisory Committee, a unit filled with “doctors and athletic trainers” but also carrying a few high school representatives such as Hornaday.

The group’s recent task: coming up with guidelines for IHSA programs to return to action amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, which halted all IHSA activities in mid-March.

“At the end of the day, I’m beyond relieved that our kids get to officially get back together,” Hornaday said Friday. “I know it’s not on a grand scale, so the obvious benefit is physical. But I’m really excited for them, emotionally and socially, to get back together.”

Athletes and coaches around the state can reconvene as early as Saturday in a strength and conditioning format after Friday’s release of “IHSA Stage 1 of Return to Play.”

The announcement was delivered a little more than a week after the delay of a scheduled May 28 meeting between IHSA officials and state athletic directors that was expected to precede a summer contact days announcement.

That meeting was postponed multiple other times leading up to Friday’s announcement as the IHSA awaited Illinois Department of Public Health approval of its first return-to-play plan.

“IHSA Stage 1 of Return to Play,” according to an IHSA press release, was created in coordination with Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s “Restore Illinois” plan.

Friday’s press release said these guidelines “are aimed at student-athlete acclimatization and general physical fitness, and will not include any skill of sport training elements,” such as activities involving a football, volleyball or the like.

“I commend the IHSA SMAC for crafting a plan that fits within the framework provided by state leadership and refuses to compromise safety,” IHSA executive director Craig Anderson said in a statement. “The IHSA Return to Play guidelines offer some important first steps in allowing student-athletes to re-acclimate both physically and mentally to athletics, but more importantly they allow each school to assess their own individual situation and determine if and when they want to proceed.”

A major caveat exists, though, within the IHSA’s guidelines, as the press release notes a “member high school may not conduct workouts under the Return to Play guidelines unless they have local school district approval and are located in a health region that is currently in Phase 3 (or better) under the governor’s ‘Restore Illinois plan.’”

All schools within The News-Gazette’s coverage area currently meet the second half of that criteria. But multiple ADs told The News-Gazette on Friday that the guidelines’ late-in-the-week reveal means their schools’ athletes are unlikely to get back in action until sometime next week, at the soonest.

Unity AD and football coach Scott Hamilton said the Rockets’ hope is to be following return to play guidelines by Monday. This was corroborated by a Friday tweet from Unity football’s account showing a picture of the school’s refurbished weight room with the caption, “We finished up the weight room today just in time to return on Monday!! Look forward to seeing our guys on Monday!!”

“That’s our hope right now,” Hamilton said. “We have sent this out to our board of education. … With us not getting this info until about 2 (in the afternoon), it makes it a little bit trickier. I’ve got a meeting (Saturday) with my coaches, and I hope to have some information back from our board of education.”

Hamilton said he and other Unity officials previously were optimistically planning for a June 1 return to activities, so the school already has taken steps to follow many of the health and safety measures required by the IHSA.

“I had already worked with our maintenance department,” Hamilton said. “We had already gotten … a thermometer for every coach. All of our cleaning supplies are designated and put in place.”

Mike Allen, Gibson City-Melvin-Sibley’s AD and football coach, said it’s been difficult to plan for a moment such as this because of all the rumors surrounding these guidelines prior to their release.

He still feels the same way after their Friday reveal because of a planned Monday virtual meeting between IHSA officials and the Illinois Athletic Directors Association to iron out further details of Stage 1.

“Is there going to be more guidelines than they gave out (Friday)?” Allen asked rhetorically. “Is this approved by the governor? Because the schools are run by the state, so you have to make sure you’re in (accordance) with that.”

Hornaday said he’s not sure what exactly that meeting will entail, but he posited it would be used as a chance for ADs “to bounce ideas off one another” with regard to meeting IHSA guidelines.

Danville athletic director Mark Bacys oversees The News-Gazette coverage area’s largest student body with an enrollment of almost 1,500. He said the Vikings may have a different way to handle this situation than some other local schools with smaller enrollments because of previously announced restrictions on athletic activity.

“I know our … policy was if we’re not in school then all activities and extracurriculars are off, too,” Bacys said. “We’re technically still not back yet. … We may be one of the districts that says, ‘Hey, look, we’re not going forward with it.’ I don’t know where that’s going to fall.”

IHSA officials’ edict comes after last month’s release of National Federation of State High School Association Sports Medicine Advisory Committee guidelines for reopening prep sports across the nation.

Hornaday said the IHSA SMAC’s goal was to “condense the (NFHS document) into something simple and streamlined, put it in the coaches’ and administrators’ hands and say, ‘Now go run with it.’”

The IHSA’s first stage for reopening events closely follows NFHS suggestions, though Friday’s document does not address any future stages nor offer a sport-by-sport breakdown for return to competition. The NFHS document touched on both of those topics.

The IHSA document also doesn’t address the potential for limited spring sports competitions, a topic included in the IHSA’s late-April announcement that 2020 spring sports state series had been canceled because of the pandemic.

Hornaday said the IHSA SMAC meets again later this month, at which time discussions will begin regarding the next phase of reopening prep sports at some point in 2020.

“The hope is that, when we unveil the next piece, that’ll involve equipment, balls,” Hornaday, “and being able to do some more things that involve team and sporting-type activities.”