Winter sports get boost from board

PIAA reduces number of required practices to resume

While waiting to hear whether high school sports will be allowed to resume Jan. 4, the PIAA board of control voted unanimously Tuesday to reduce the number of required preseason practices from 15 to 10, giving teams a chance to get back on the basketball court, wrestling mat or swimming pool sooner.

Teams that have already completed 15 preseason practices must complete four days of practice before being allowed to have games or scrimmages.

Sports that often require the use of off-site facilities such as swimming, gymnastics, bowling and rifle would only be required to complete five practice days before returning to competition since there are often scheduling conflicts at nonschool sites.

“Ten days of practice seemed to be a standard that would not compromise the health and safety of the student-athletes,” PIAA Executive Director Bob Lombardi said. “We ran it by sports medicine and they supported this tiered return to competition. So, if a school had no practices until now, they will need to get in 10 practices after Jan. 4 before competition. If they had completed one, two, three, four or five days of practice previously, they will need to add the number of practices to that

total to equal 10 in order to start competition.”

Lombardi added that those schools that got in at least six days of practice will need just four more practices to start scrimmaging or playing games.

So, if the green light is given to resume winter sports Jan. 4, the earliest date for anyone to play is Jan. 8.

Lombardi said the reduction in number of practices, combined with allowing basketball games to be played up until the last date of the basketball championships March 27, gives schools “some flexibility to get some type of winter sports season in without totally upsetting the apple cart.”

Lombardi said that if sports don’t resume Jan. 4, more adjustments could be made. The next PIAA meeting is set for Jan. 6.

Asked about the possibility of restructuring the rest of the PIAA sports calendar and moving back the winter and spring seasons, Lombardi said he felt it was unnecessary to make any decisions based on conjecture at this time.

“By changing all the deadlines that we have, wehave given ourselves the maximum flexibility and at this time, there’s no sentiment to go past the winter deadlines,” he said. “Because of what occurred last spring, no one wants to negatively impact the spring sports season.”

All high school sports were shut down March 12 last year and spring sports teams never played.

Practice for 2021 spring sports are scheduled to begin March 8 with first competitions March 26.

District 11 Chairman and Whitehall athletic director Bob Hartman said the reduced number of required practices will be beneficial to many area schools, some of which have not been able to practice at all.

“A number of District 11 and Eastern Pennsylvania Conference schools will be able to get started sooner and that’s a good thing,” Hartman said. “We just try to find more creative ways to extend the season and open up more opportunities for the kids to play games.”

In another unanimous vote, the PIAA board voted to postpone the team wrestling championships from Feb. 11-13 until sometime after the individual wrestling championships are held March 11-13. The move was made to accommodate schools by expanding the number of weeks for competition in the regular season.

Lombardi said the team championships could be held between the individual wrestling and basketball championships (March 25-27) or they could be held March 29-30, depending on site availability.

Asked whether or not he thought sports would be allowed to resume Jan. 4, Lombardi didn’t want to speculate.

“The best answer I can give you at this time is this and that’s we’re taking the information we’ve received at their word,” he said. “I think they used their best judgment in coming up with that date and we’re going to work off that date as an anchor.

“If by chance the Jan. 4 date moves or becomes fluid. we’ll be able get the most current information on Jan. 6 when wenext meet, and if we need to adjust, we will,” he said. “We’re hopeful of starting on Jan. 4 because it gives schools the most optimum number of dates to get a winter schedule in without negatively impacting spring.”