Prep football adjusted for a short season
As we creep closer to 2021, the Post-Gazette staff will look back at the strangest year in Pittsburgh sports any of us can remember. Join us each day until the calendar turns to remember what we saw and think about what we learned in 2020.
Like every other sport at every level this fall, the high school football season in Western Pennsylvania was like no other. Sort of.
Go back 102 years and WPIAL football had another season “like no other” because of another virus (Spanish flu). The influenza killed an estimated 675,000 in the United States. In Western Pennsylvania schools were closed in October of 1918 and high school football games were canceled. Some games were played in November, but the WPIAL canceled the championship game.
Fast forward to 2020, and it was the COVID-19 pandemic that drastically altered many things, including high school football. But the WPIAL and City League still had seasons, albeit shortened, and championships were staged. Also, the PIAA still had state
the PIAA still had state championships for the 33rd season.
Still, decades from now, the 2020 high school football season will be viewed as one unique ordeal.
How it started: High school sports in Pennsylvania were paused in March, just before the quarterfinal round of the state basketball playoffs. It was the start of operation shutdown. The basketball tournament never resumed and then all spring sports in the state were canceled. High school football teams were not permitted to have workouts together until late June or July. Parents were in a tizzy. Players were bummed because they didn’t have football workouts. Coaches were worried there would be a season.
When it got weird: On Aug. 31, the day Pennsylvania football teams could begin “official” practice in full pads, one of the premier players in the WPIAL never showed up for practice. Central Catholic defensive lineman Elliot Donald, nephew of NFL star Aaron Donald, had decided not to play because of COVID-19 concerns. At least that’s what he told Central Catholic coaches a week earlier. A big-time player not joining his teammates for his last high school season because of virus concerns? It was another example of a one-of-a-kind season.
Donald had made a verbal commitment to Pitt one month earlier. But Central Catholic moved on without him — and did more than fine. In fact, Central Catholic won the WPIAL Class 6A championship and the defense shined at times.
But before Donald’s decisions, things were already strange. In May and June, many teams were having team workouts virtually, under their coach’s watchful eye. Or at least the watchful eye of Zoom. Players went through conditioning and weightlifting sessions while the coaches watched on a computer. Some players didn’t have weights. Some were using paint cans in their garage or gallons of milk as weights. Ethan Dahlem, a standout quarterback at Upper St. Clair, used a rocking chair to lift.
Want more strangeness? Throughout the entire summer, there was little or no communication between the governor’s office and the PIAA. Then in early August, Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf ended a news conference with a recommendation that there be no high school sports until Jan. 1 — and then walked out of the news conference. One day later, the PIAA decided there would be a delay to the start of the fall sports season for only two weeks. But there would still be a season for all sports, even if it was a shortened one.
“We certainly want support of the administration, but coming out with a general statement ... I don’t see how golf, tennis and cross country, that are also being carried out in every community in public and private facilities throughout the commonwealth — they’re going off safely,” PIAA executive director Bob Lombardi said. “Why don’t we get the same opportunity?”
Some of the other “weird” events of the fall sports season: Football games were postponed or canceled because of a COVID-19 case. WPIAL and PIAA cross country championships weren’t contested in one race. The PIAA had four separate races for every classification, just to limit the number of runners.
In football, visiting teams didn’t use locker rooms. They came dressed to play. Bands didn’t play at halftime or were limited to a group of less than 50.
Biggest challenge: What would be done about crowd sizes? Some schools allowed more fans than other schools. And what should happen with a playoff game when one team says it can’t play because of COVID-19 cases?
Central Catholic won the WPIAL Class 6A title and qualified for the PIAA playoffs. But Central Catholic had to forfeit a PIAA quarterfinal game after the school shut down the team because of COVID-19 cases at the school.
Cathedral Prep of Erie made it to the PIAA Class 5A title game before losing to Pine-Richland. But Cathedral Prep literally had no competition on the road to Hershey for the title game. The team’s quarterfinal and semifinal opponents both forfeited because of COVID-19 cases.
What we learned: High school sports are important. Almost 120,000 high school students play fall sports in Pennsylvania, according to the most recent statistics available from the National Federation of State High School Associations. Not having sports affects them physically, but can also take a toll mentally. But kids are resilient. Give them parameters and an opportunity, and they can make it work. And they often complain less than adults. Kids weren’t happy about wearing masks at practices or on the sideline, but they did it.
And we learned that the PIAA and WPIAL really are in this for the kids because they were willing to try and make concessions just to have a season.
New year resolution: Wolf shut down all winter high school and youth sports until Jan. 4. Many, including the PIAA and WPIAL administrators, are hopeful and optimistic that the seasons will resume. Lombardi said the PIAA has not heard one case where the virus has been transmitted by two teams playing.
Lombardi said it this summer and reiterated it on Dec. 10 when Wolf announced the three-week shutdown: “The only wrong decision would be if we don’t at least try.”