Teachers’ Strike Costs Solorio Academy Soccer Team The Playoffs - CBS Chicago

CHICAGO (CBS) — The week-old Chicago teachers’ strike has already cost a school soccer team the playoffs.

Soccer players at Solorio Academy High School, at 5400 S. St. Louis Ave. in the Gage Park community, showed up to the field for a match Wednesday night even though they had to forfeit during the strike.

Solorio had been favored to beat De La Salle Institute, a Catholic school that remains in session, on Wednesday night.

Coach Adrian Calleros said missing the playoffs could cost a player a chance to get a college scholarship.

“Unfortunately for them, you know, it’s not another team that’s going to beat them. It’s a strike — and a strike and adults that are not letting them play,” Calleros said.

“It’s sad to think that it’s just being taken away from us,” a young man on the team added.

Thursday will mark the sixth day of no classes for Chicago Public Schools students as the Chicago Teachers Union’s strike continues.

Thousands of teachers and their supporters swarmed downtown streets Wednesday morning as the mayor was preparing to present her 2020 budget plan, culminating with a rally across the street from City Hall as Mayor Lori Lightfoot was at the dais inside.

Negotiators were at the table through the day Wednesday afternoon, but CPS said since the union’s house of delegates had yet to schedule a vote on the proposals currently on the table, the district was cancelling classes for Thursday, meaning students will miss a sixth day of class due to the strike.

Meanwhile, an attorney with a son on the cross-country team at Jones College Prep sent a letter to the Illinois High School Association in an effort to get the team to compete in the state regionals despite the strike. Kevin Sterling said the IHSA’s wording about the subject is confusing.

Sterling met with the IHSA on Wednesday to argue that the previous meet should quality, but he said the IHSA won’t budge. Thus, he plans to file a lawsuit as early as Thursday morning.