PIAA: No delay to start of season
Formats of state tournaments will be altered, however
While positive COVID-19 cases continue to rise across Pennsylvania, with even Gov. Tom Wolf announcing he has tested positive, the PIAA voted
Wednesday to start the winter sports schedule on time, but postseason basketball and wrestling tournament formats will be altered.
The PIAA didn’t delay the sports season during its monthly board of control meeting, even though one superintendent addressed the board and the Pennsylvania Principals Association sent a letter to the PIAA asking for a delay.
The PIAA did change the formats of the state basketball and wrestling tournaments to allow for more flexibility for each school. It moved back the start of the basketball tournament and reduced it to district champions only.
In wrestling, the state’s team tournaments will include only district champions. In previous years, District 11 received two berths each.
In the individual wrestling postseason tournament, there will be a super regional tournament added after regionals. Only the top eight in each of the 13 weight classes will qualify for the one-day state tournament in each classification.
The length of the winter sports regular season was extended to give schools an opportunity to get as many competitions as possible. For example, basketball games can be played, if teams desire, until the state tournament concludes on March 27, even if they have been eliminated from district or state playoffs.
“The board has taken the [coronavirus] concerns we have received very seriously,” PIAA executive director Bob Lombardi said. “The board acted and gave the schools the greatest amount of flexibility they could and they did it in reverse. Meaning, we wiped away the regular season deadline and now you can play up until the end of the state tournament on March 27.
“The second part is that they moved the district deadline and that also gives districts more flexibility in setting up any postseason tournament they may have. And by reducing the post season to district champions only, it allows districts more flexibility in how they want to organize their tournaments. They may want to short en or truncate it to fit their needs. So, instead of maybe a 10-week season, now schools can have up to a 16-week season to play games. I thought it was a stroke of genius.”
The previous deadline to finish district basketball was March 6 and the state tournament was slated to start the weekend of March 12-13. The district deadline and the start of states will both be moved back and the number of rounds and games will be drastically reduced.
In wrestling, the team tournament’s first two rounds in Class 2A and 3A will be held Feb. 8 and 10 at local sites. The 2A semifinals, finals and consolation finals will be held at Hershey’s Giant Center on Feb.12. The 3A competition will be Feb. 13 in Hershey.
In the individual postseason, there will be two super regional tournaments in each class.
In 2A, Districts 1, 2, 3, 4, 11 and 12 form one super regional. Districts 5, 6, 7, 9 and 10 are in the other. The top four from each super regional qualify for the one-day state tournament.
In 3A, Districts 1, 2, 11 and 12 comprise one super regional. Districts 3, 4⁄9, 6, 7, 8 and 10 make up the other. Again, top four from each super regional in every weight class advance to states.
The schedule:
Class 2A: District tournaments, Feb. 20; regionals, Feb. 27; super regionals, March 6; State championships, March 12.
Class 3A: Districts, Feb. 20; regionals, Feb. 27; super regionals, March 6; State championships, March 13.
The board of control meeting came just two days before the scheduled start of interscholastic sports throughout Pennsylvania.
Last week the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference voted 17-1 to delay the start of winter sports competition until Jan. 15. On Tuesday, the Colonial League voted 7-6 to push back the start of winter competition until Jan. 11, assuming all teams have completed their 15 days of preseason practice.
At the start of Wednesday’s PIAA meeting, State College Area School District Superintendent Bob O’Donnell asked the PIAA to delay the start of winter sports until Feb. 1.
O’Donnell said if the PIAA moved forward now with winter sports, State College would seriously consider opting out of some competitions.
“Our belief is that we should shift the winter and spring competition seasons so that these student-athletes still have the opportunity to compete, but hopefully in a safer environment ,” O’ Donnell said.
The letter from the principals association asked that the PIAA delay the winter sports seasons and not leave it up to each individual school district.
According to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, which obtained a copy of the letter, the principals said: “Instead of creating a statewide solution, PIAA is pushing the decision to the local level, requiring school boards to make decisions for their individual school district, which may be diametrically opposed to decisions made by neighboring districts. A delay of the winter sports season we believe, offers an alternative to losing an entire season. This will allow school leaders the time to implement the mitigation efforts Governor [Tom] Wolf and Secretary [Rachel] Levine have implemented.”
The extension of the winter sports season could be especially important to many Lehigh Valley boys and girls basketball teams, since the number of scheduled games has drastically been reduced from previous years. Both EPC and Colonial League schools will likely be limited to 10 regular season games, less than half the usual total.
Lombardi said that the PIAA, and the districts and leagues that control Pennsylvania scholastic athletics have a better shot of minimizing the spread of COVID-19 than nonschool programs that go on outside PIAA jurisdiction.
“With them, there aren’t the safety controls and there isn’t an oversight or a plan in place that protects the kids,” he said. “You see it every weekend across the commonwealth. We think our schools are doing an excellent job. They have proven it in the fall and the lesson we learned was to take a step-by-step, measured approach and to keep an eye to the sky and what’s going on around you and making decisions on a day-by-day basis.”
In addition, the board voted to restructure the required number of practices a team needs after a shutdown before it can play a game.
If a team was shut down for at least eight days, it must practice two straight days before playing. If a team is shut down for at least 11 days, it must practice three straight days and if the shutdown goes for more than 14 days, it must practice four consecutive days before being allowed to play.
District 11 chairman Bob Hartman voted against the measure and expressed previously that the winter sports schedule might be so tight due to weather and other factors that schools should be allowed to resume competition immediately without additional practices required after they have been shut down.