District to trim playoff fields
District 3 announced plans Monday to truncate its postseason tournaments, reducing the fields by at least half in football, boys and girls soccer and girls volleyball.
Whether or not there’s a regular season for fall sports remains in doubt due to the coronavirus pandemic.
PIAA officials are expected to meet with state officials this week to determine a path toward a fall season following Gov. Tom Wolf’s surprise recommendation last week that high school sports are not to be played in Pennsylvania until Jan. 1.
If there is a season, it will start later and end sooner — that much we know for sure.
The PIAA announced last week that it was pushing the start of fall practices back two weeks to Aug. 24.
The Lancaster-Lebanon and York-Adams leagues have each said they won’t start until Sept. 4; some Mid-Penn Conference teams are opting not to start practice until Sept. 8.
The BCIAA has not announced its plans; league directors meet today to discuss and perhaps finalize things.
With the PIAA trimming two weeks from the football season most schools will have to cancel at least two games; some will cancel three or more.
Some District 3 football teams, including many in the Mid-Penn, could play as few as five games before the district power ratings cutoff date of Oct. 26. Others could play six, perhaps seven.
Only four teams will make the District 3 football tournament in the four largest classifications and just two will make it in Class 1A and Class 2A.
Last year eight teams qualified in 6A, 14 in 5A, 10 in 4A and six in 3A. A total of 20 teams will advance; last year it was 44.
Because various classifications enter the PIAA football tournament at different stages, District 3’s championship schedule is staggered.
The Class 1A and Class 2A championship games will be played Oct. 30-31 in what would have been Week 10 (or Week 9 under the PIAA’s Zero Week terminology).
The Class 3A and Class 6A championship games will be played Nov. 6-7 in what would have been Week 11.
The Class 4A and Class 5A championship games will be played Nov. 13-14 in what would have been Week 12.
District 3’s champs in 4A and 5A enter the state tournament in the semifinal round; the champs in 3A and 6A enter in the quarterfinals; and the champs in 1A and 2A enter in the first of four state playoff rounds.
The PIAA football championships are scheduled for Nov. 26-28.
Football teams which do not qualify for districts, or which choose to opt out of them, can continue to play regular season games through the end of the district tournament.
The PIAA has discussed, but not finalized, plans to turn each of its team tournaments into “championsonly” affairs, as is the case in football.
In boys and girls soccer, District 3 has trimmed its playoff field from 16 to eight in Class 4A and Class 3A and from 10 to four in Class 2A and Class 1A.
In field hockey, eight teams will qualify in each classification. Last year, 12 qualified in 3A, 16 in 2A and 14 in 1A.
In girls volleyball, the tournament fields will be half the size of last year, with 16 in 4A and 3A and eight in 2A and 1A.
The power-ratings deadline is Oct. 31 for soccer, field hockey and volleyball.
To reduce expenses, the higher-seeded team will host throughout the district tournament and pick up expenses for game workers and officials.
Team tennis will be limited to four schools in both 2A and 3A. The fields for singles and doubles championships will include only the champs from each of the four leagues: YAIAA, BCIAA, Lancaster-Lebanon and Mid-Penn.
All tennis championships will be played outdoors, if possible, both in order to reduce expenses and for health and safety reasons.
The cross country championship meet will be limited to the top two teams from each of the four leagues in District 3 and the top 10 individual runners from each league in Class 3A and Class 2A. Plans for Class 1A are not finalized.
District 3 spends more than $500,000 each year to host tournaments in the fall, winter and spring. With no spectators allowed, that will severely strain the organization’s finances.