Schools not waiting for decision on fans
The legislative bill that gives Pennsylvania high schools the power to decide the number of fans at sporting events is still up in the air.
But some schools around the WPIAL are not waiting for a decision on the bill. They’ve already made their own decisions on attendance.
High school football started in the WPIAL Friday. While some schools did not allow spectators because of COVID- 19 concerns, some games had more people than the state’s gathering limit of 250 for outdoor events.
Upper St. Clair and West Mifflin were among the schools that had more than 250 fans, not counting the players, coaches and officials. Upper St. Clair played at home against Bethel Park, and Upper St. Clair athletic director Kevin Deitrick said about 390 fans attended. A total of 410 tickets were given to only Upper St. Clair players, cheerleaders and
40- memberpep band.
West Mifflin played host to Thomas Jefferson and fans from both schools attended. West Mifflin athletic director Scott Stephenson told WTAE- TV that the crowd was about 500.
McKeesport played a home game against Belle Vernon and about 200 fans watched. Fans were on opposite sides of the stadium, with about 130 on McKeesport’s side.
Also, Montour’s district decided late last week that it would give two tickets to every football player, band member and cheerleader. Montour has 50 football players, 80 band members and 15 cheerleaders.
It should be pointed out that representatives of the schools that had more than 250 people in attendance did not believe they were breaking any orders from Gov. Tom Wolf or health departments. The Allegheny County Health Department’s rules for sporting events are for outdoor facilities to have no more than 250 people, with pods of a maximum of 100. Some schools were considering the two sides of a stadium as different facilities.
“We thought our place as having four different groups — the home side, the visiting side, the field and the press box,” Upper St. Clair’s Deitrick said.
The state House and Senate recently both passed a bill that allows school to decide on crowd sizes for sports. The bill now goes to Gov. Wolf, who has said he will veto it. But because the House and Senate passed the bill by two- thirds majority, they can override Wolf’s veto.
The whole matter might not be cleared up until next week.
Upper St. Clair originally was not going to allow fans, but the school district changed its plan last week. Deitrick pointed out Upper St. Clair’s stadium holds a
little more than 6,000.
“We didn’t do this halfcocked,” Deitrick said. “We took the plan to our solicitor, the upper administration was involved. We went under what we thought was allowed and not allowed. We worked hard on this. Everyone was socially distant. Everyone had a mask. The place was still pretty empty.”
Upper St. Clair, McKeesport and West Mifflin marked bleachers for fans to seat at least 6 feet apart. I think all parents should be allowed,” Thomas
Jefferson coach/ athletic director Bill Cherpak said. “Everything was fine. I thought West Mifflin did a pretty nice job with it.
“Their stadium is so big and I think they did every possible thing they could. There was an announcement about every 10 minutes about a mask.”
McKeesport school superintendent Mark Holtzman said there was one big reason the school allowed spectators.
“It wasn’t done to be uncooperative with the state or anyone else. The effort we’re trying to make in our stadium was for our families, our parents and the kids. Everything we did was for the children,” Holtzman said. “If we exceeded the total number of individuals by maybe an extra 50 people, it wasn’t done as an act of defiance.”
Shrubb for history?
Keystone Oaks’ Logan Shrubb was one of the few WPIAL quarterbacks to throw for 200 yards and rush for 100 in the season opener. But his running and throwing is close to putting him into one of the most elite quarterback clubs in WPIAL history.
Shrubb, a 6- foot- 1, 190pound senior, needs less than 400 yards passing to become only the fifth WPIAL player to throw for 5,000 yards and run for 2,000 in a career.
Shrubb, a starter since his freshman year, has 4,612 yards passing and 2,279 rushing. The only four QBs in the 5,000- 2,000 club are Sto- Rox’s Lenny Williams ( 11,559 total yards from 2010- 12), PineRichland’s Phil Jurkovec ( 11,144 from 2015- 17), Washington’s Zack Swartz ( 8,387 from 2016- 19) and Neshannock’s Frank Antuono ( 8,214 from 2013- 16).
Cadin Olsen. Maybe you should get used to the name. You could be hearing it much more in the future.
Olsen is a sophomore quarterback at Armstrong who threw for the most yards in the WPIAL on the opening weekend, completing 20 of 33 for 396 yards. Olsen grew 5 inches from last season and is now 6- 3.
Armstrong coach Frank Fabian said of Olsen, “He has a big- time arm and is extremely smart.”
Olsen’s father, Ryan, is Armstrong’s quarterbacks coach. Ryan Olsen was a quarterback at Mechanicsburg High years ago and was once a defensive back at Pitt.
Check this out
• Gamal Marballie of Yough was a receiver as a freshman and sophomore, but switched to quarterback last year as a junior because of an injury to Yough’s No. 1 QB. This season, Marballie is playing another position — and apparently is pretty good at it. Marballie is a running back and ran for a WPIAL- leading 256 yards on the first night of the season.
• Among the seven WPIAL quarterbacks who threw for the most yardage on the first weekend of the season, two were sophomores ( Olsen and Highlands’ Chandler Thimons) and one was a freshman ( Jeannette’s Brad Birch).
• Butler dropped out of the WPIAL in football only this season in hopes of being more competitive. The Golden Tornado had games scheduled against a number of teams from District 10. But due to COVID- 19, District 10 changed its schedules. Butler now has six games scheduled — against three District 10 teams from Erie. Butler will play two games each against Cathedral Prep, McDowell and Erie High.
Quoting ’ em
Belle Vernon coach Matt Humbert on how COVID- 19 affects a team’s outlook: “It’s funny because we always talk about how we’re short term, goal- oriented from week to week. But we’re day to day right now, hour to hour almost.”
Quoting ’ em II
Pine- Richland coach Eric Kasperowicz, who said he receives a good luck call almost every Thursday during the season from Bob Junko, who was an assistant coach at Pitt when Kasperowicz played there: “I wonder if I’ll get that call this week?”
Pine- Richland plays Upper St. Clair Friday — and Junko’s son, Mike, is Upper St. Clair’s second- year coach.