Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Decision day for the PIAA
As August nears its close, Pennsylvania is the only state without a concrete plan for high school sports in the fall.
That is finally expected to change.
The Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association (PIAA), the governing body of high school sports in the Commonwealth, will hold a Board of Directors meeting Friday to vote on the fate of fall sports. The Zoom meeting is scheduled for 3 p.m.
The PIAA and the governor’s office have been at odds since Gov. Tom Wolf offered his “strong recommendation” earlier this month to cancel organized interscholastic and youth sports until January. Wolf’s advice stunned PIAA leaders, who held an impromptu emergency Board of Directors meeting the same day. One day later, the PIAA announced no further update on fall sports, instead calling to have an open dialogue with the governor’s office for a plan to move forward with sports. Although Wolf reiterated his recommendation last week. Pennsylvania Secretary of Health Dr. Rachel Levine said Tuesday that there will be no mandate from the state ordering schools not to play sports, in the event PIAA votes to move forward with sports.
“The governor has been very clear about that,” Levine said in a press conference. “There are no plans to do that.”
PIAA Executive Director Dr. Robert Lombardi testified before the Pennsylvania Senate Athletic Oversight Committee Tuesday. In a 20-minute address, Lombardi discussed the reasons why the PIAA feels strongly that sports can proceed in the fall. It’s worth noting the PIAA in July left the decision up to individual school districts, while other states insti
tuted statewide plans for every school.
“Although we cannot guarantee that problems will not arise, we believe we have developed a reasonably safe environment for competition at the interscholastic level,” Lombardi testified to the Athletic Oversight Committee. “We believe based on information currently known to us, it is worth at least attempting to pursue a fall sports program.”
Other states, including Delaware, have opted to move fall, spring and winter sports until 2021, beginning in January. Under that model, each sports season will play a truncated, twomonth campaign.
One outstanding issue worrying Pennsylvania schools concerns the PIAA’s insurance policy, which fails to cover viral diseases such as COVID-19.
“We don’t think it will
be a determining factor in tomorrow’s vote about fall sports,” said Melissa Mertz, PIAA’s associate executive director, in a statement to FOX43 in Harrisburg. “We will continue to explore more options and address the issue as the season grows close.”
In Delaware County, the Del Val League cancelled fall sports last week.
“While the schools worked diligently to consider numerous pathways to find other alternatives to save the 2020 fall season, no satisfactory plan materialized,” the league said in a press release. “Our concerns for overall safety aligns the schools in the Del Val League with other Pennsylvania universities and colleges who have decided to make similar COVID-19 precautionary cancellation procedures.”
Del Val League president Rap Curry, who is the athletic director at Penn Wood, said the league will continue having open discussions about potentially resuming athletics during the
2020-21 school year. Several schools in Delaware County, including Academy Park, Penn Wood and Upper Darby (Central League), will have all-virtual learning to begin the school year. Gov. Wolf said earlier in the summer that it would not be feasible for all-virtual schools to host athletics and other extracurricular activities.
The Central League is moving forward under the assumption that fall sports practices will begin this Monday, with a week of heat acclimatization for football, followed by all other fall sports beginning the week of Aug. 31.
The Philadelphia Catholic League, which includes Archbishop Carroll, Bonner-Prendergast and Cardinal O’Hara, committed to delaying all fall sports until Aug. 31. The Ches-Mont League, which includes Sun Valley, voted to begin practices Sept. 7.
In New Jersey, the NJSIAA announced Thursday its plans to delays its fall season until mid-September.
“We all need to take it day-by-day, but I’m confident that we have the resources in place that if New Jersey continues to stay healthy that we will successfully be able to provide seasons for our student-athletes,” NJSIAA’s Colleen Maguire said in a Zoom meeting with media, including Daily Times sister paper, The Trentonian. “If you look at this and take away the emotion and the politics and look at the data, kids under the age of 18 are the least likely to get this infection, they are the least likely to get sick from this infection, they are the least likely to die from this infection and they are the least likely to spread this infection. We have to sort of look at this globally and understand that we’re really talking about a very safe population of people that get a tremendous benefit from exercise and sports and staying healthy.”
The NJSIAA does not plan to test student-athletes.