Frustration continues for Easton as teams won’t get to play in districts

No one wants to see the pandemic end more than the student-athletes at Easton Area High School because perhaps no area school has been more negatively affected by it.

Last spring, highly successful baseball, softball, girls lacrosse and girls track and field Red Rovers teams were shut down by COVID-19 before the schedule ever started.

Then in the fall, the much-anticipated EastonPhillipsburg football game, one of the great traditions in Lehigh Valley sports, was a victim of the coronavirus.

The latest victims are the Easton boys and girls basketball teams, who have had their chance at winning District 11 championships and advancing to states ended by school rules governing COVID-19 cases.

The Easton boys were 7-2 and on pace to be the No. 2 seed in the District 11 6A bracket. The Rovers girls squad was also 7-2 and in line for a high seed.

Neither were able to compete for an Eastern Pennsylvania Conference championship because the EPC tournament was yet another casualty of the pandemic.

Yvette Johnson, president of the Easton Boys Basketball Booster Club, was upset after a conversation with superintendent David Piperato on Monday could not change the district situation. Neither could a petition that circulated in the community that attracted more than 1,000 signatures.

“It’s extremely disappointing because these boys have worked so hard and were looking forward to a chance to win a championship, which we believe they would have done,” said Johnson, whose son Jaden is one of seven seniors on the Easton roster. “They are healthy according to all rules except for Easton Area School District rules. They’re even allowed to be ... in Easton classrooms. They’re just not allowed to be on the basketball court.”

According to Johnson, the first team exposure to COVID19 was at a practice on Feb. 20.

Because there was no knowledge of the exposure, the team practiced again on Feb. 22 and when they arrived for practice on Feb. 23, they were told there was a COVID-19 case and were sent home.

The Easton Area School District pandemic team had just instituted a policy on Feb. 12 that all student-athletes who were in close contact with a COVID-19 case must remain quarantined from sports for 14 days, but can resume academic classes in seven days with a negative test at 5 days and be symptom free or quarantine for 10 days and be symptom free.

The rationale for the longer quarantine for athletes is that the EASD pandemic team determined that the uptick in cases is mainly due to sports and that sports offer far more risk than EASD classrooms that are socially distanced, sitting 6 feet apart, with masks, and not exhaling abruptly.

Johnson noted that according to Pennsylvania Department of Health guidelines, individuals with negative test results can end their quarantine after Day 7. Also, she said the National Federation of State High School Associations has revised guidelines based on accumulating evidence that the majority of sports-related spread of COVID19 appears to occur from social contact, not during sports participation.

Easton informed District 11 on Friday with a letter sent by Principal Alfredean Jones that it was not participating in either the boys or girls tournaments.

“I understand that you’re trying to address the health and safety of all your children in your district, but when do you bring some human sensibility to these rules?” Johnson said. “If you have players who are healthy and tested negative. You have wrestlers competing, you have spring sports ready to start [March 8], so why do this now? Even a negative test doesn’t allow them to play. It’s all very unsettling to me.”

Piperato, in a released statement, said the district was following standard protocol in issuing the 14-day quarantine for coaches and players and said that period of time combined with four days of required practices before returning to competition necessitated removing the teams from the tournaments.

“Last week, the Easton Area School District boys and girls varsity basketball coaches were notified that both teams were withdrawn from the District 11 basketball tournament due to active COVID cases,” Piperato said. “Basketball is a high risk sport, placing all participants in close contact and making proper contact tracing difficult. At this time, it is impossible to determine which athletes would be safe to participate and when those athletes would no longer place others at risk.”

Johnson said that even though the coaches were notified last week, team members were unaware until District 11 released the brackets on its website Saturday and Easton players and parents saw that they were not included in the 6A fields.

“It’s extremely unsettling for our athletes and their parents and the thing that’s also disheartening is that we were blindsided by this,” she said.