PIAA’s decision leaves local coaches frustrated

The PIAA’s big announcement on Friday ended up having no impact on the Ches-Mont League.

The PIAA pushed back heat acclimation week to August 24th and opening week for football back two weeks into early September.

But the Ches-Mont had already set September 7 as the start of heat week and September 25 as the first game date, so reaction to the PIAA decision was one of frustration from coaches anxious to get something definitive from the PIAA.

The PIAA announcement came one day after Gov. Tom Wolf’s comments at the end of a daily briefing, where he said he and the Pennsylvania Department of Health were recommending that scholastic and recreational sports should not happen before Jan. 1, 2021. This sent the high school sports world into a frenzy and the PIAA called a special meeting on Friday to address the governor’s comments.

Area coaches reacted swiftly to the PIAA announcement to push the season back two weeks and not take a firmer, more complete plan.

“It has been very tough on the kids,” Coatesville head football coach Matt Oretga said. “The constant back and forth is driving the kids and the parents nuts. We have a lot of two sport athletes that are up in the air about football and whether it is going to happen or not or if they should pursue the other sport. We thought that Friday they would make a decision and this is really frustrating.

“We thought that Friday we would have clarity and now it looks like the decision may come down to every school district,” Ortega said. “The kids have been walking a tightrope and this twoweek delay really frustrated them even more.”

The sentiment was the same from West Chester Henderson head football coach John Lunardi, whose Warriors are coming off a bounceback season that saw Henderson reach the District 1 Class 5A playoffs last season.

“I mean, it is really frustrating for the coaches and kids,” Lunardi said. “We, as coaches, tell the kids all the time to just worry about the things you can control and then they get more frustrating news on Friday. It has been very tough on the kids especially the seniors. We were hoping for a firm decision Friday and we did not get that.”

Paul Meyers, the head coach of defending District 1 Class 4A champion Bishop Shanahan, was perplexed by the PIAA decision to push things back two weeks after most school districts have done that and more.

“I am not sure why the PIAA decided to push everything back only two weeks,” Meyers said. “I wish they would have given their thought process on why the two weeks. Almost every league around here has already made that decision and more. I’m afraid the governor’s comments yesterday scared some superintendents and school boards. We could see more districts pull the plug.”

Three District 1 schools have pulled out of football and fall sports, all from the Pioneer Athletic Conferehce: Phoenixville, Norristown and Pottstown.