Emergency motion denied, football state finals will be played this weekend

A Cook County Circuit judge has denied an emergency motion order to hear the Simeon Alumni Association’s case against the Illinois High School Association.

“The judge believed there wasn’t an emergency,” Shay Allen, an attorney for the Simeon alumni said. “We are still going to pursue the injunction as soon as we can. We are going to argue it as a motion and not an emergency motion.”

That means there is no chance that the lawsuit will hold up this weekend’s state football finals in Champaign.

The Simeon Alumni Association and parents of Simeon football players sued the Illinois High School Association on Friday. The lawsuit claims that a Nazareth parent dressed as a football official, stood on the sideline and influenced the referees in the Roadrunners’ 34-27 win against the Wolverines in the Class 7A state quarterfinals on Nov. 10.

Nazareth won in the semifinals last weekend and is scheduled to play St. Charles North in the state title game on Saturday in Champaign.

The lawsuit calls for the IHSA to strip Nazareth of the win and refrain from employing the officiating crew that worked the game.

The IHSA finally commented on Tuesday evening, breaking several days of silence.

“The IHSA declined to comment as we awaited the opportunity to exonerate the officials who worked the contest in open court,” Craig Anderson, the IHSA executive director said in a statement. “It now appears that no hearing will take place prior to this weekend’s state championship games.”

Anderson says the IHSA has investigated the matter and “has uncovered no impropriety on the part of the officials assigned to work the game as well as no influence over the referees by any individual in attendance. We look forward to providing more clarity on the situation following the resolution of the litigation.”