Athletic directors in tough spot as EPC waits
Randy Atiyeh is a little more than a month into his new job as Allen High School’s athletic director, but he already feels like he’s in a no-win situation.
When the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference voted unanimously to delay fall contact sports, including football, by several weeks on Tuesday, the Allentown School District also made clear that it is not guaranteeing that Allen and Dieruff high schools will play sports this fall.
Allentown is one of the school districts that has decided to open the school year Sept. 8 with strictly virtual learning.
Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf said at a news conference Monday: “If the school is going completely virtual, it seems hard to justify having in-person contact sports being played in the fall.”
So, it was not a surprise that Allentown made clear at Tuesday’s virtual EPC meeting that while it supported a delayed start to several fall sports, it could not commit to playing sports this fall.
EPC plans to announce the schedules for the revamped fall sports seasons next week, but knows the schedules may need to be revamped if Allen and Dieruff never take the field.
That puts Atiyeh and his Dieruff counterpart, David Stoudt, in a tough spot as they try to keep their coaches and athletes on course for at least an abbreviated fall season while knowing the plug could still be pulled.
“The young people in the city of Allentown need sports,” Atiyeh said. “I have dedicated my professional career and sacrificed a lot of my personal life to providing opportunities for our student-athletes in ASD. To now be faced with the reality that we could possibly begin the year without sports, and it is
out of my control, is truly a helpless and empty feeling.”
All school officials have had to wrestle with the decision of whether to play or not play after seeing the end of the winter sports season and the entire spring sports schedule wiped out by the coronavirus pandemic.
The hope was that the situation would improve in the Lehigh Valley, with the start of the heat acclimatization period for football looming on Monday and fall sports starting Aug. 17.
The EPC is one of several Pennsylvania leagues, including the WPIAL, the Lackawanna League and Mid-Penn Conference, to opt for a delay in starting contact sports while golf, tennis and cross country are expected to start on time.
EPC officials were tasked with making the decision while not knowing what’s to come and also knowing that whatever decision was made wasn’t going to be met with unanimous approval.
“None of this was a surprise to anybody,” Northampton athletic director Shaun Murray said. “I felt it was important to keep them in the loop as much as possible and as information, guidance and recommendations broke, they could continue to work toward our goal of returning to competition. All of our coaches understand where we’re at. They’re goal-oriented and want to get the kids back on the field, but understand there’s a way to do this.”
With workouts continuing while the start of games, at least in field hockey, soccer, volleyball and football is weeks away, coaches have a difficult task of keeping their players focused and motivated. So far, keeping them interested hasn’t been a problem.
“The coaches do have a monumental task and up to this point they have met every challenge,” Murray said. “When we came back after being out for a couple of months, no one could anticipate what type of reaction we’d get from the kids. But the participation numbers have been fantastic. Our coaches and kids have adapted to the guidelines and are doing everything they need to do get back on the field.”
It doesn’t matter who teams will play; they just want to play.
In football, Northampton was set to remain in the EPC North, where the Konkrete Kids were champions in 2019.
As part of the divisions-bycounty configuration announced Wednesday, Northampton would play Bethlehem Catholic, Easton, Freedom, Liberty and Nazareth instead of the Monroe County schools they’ve played the past two years.
The league schedule, which begins Oct. 2, will be markedly tougher, but Murray said it’s the least of his worries.
“Discussions with our administration and coaching staff have revolved solely around providing our kids opportunities,” Murray said. “Whoever the opponents are, what name is on the schedule, our guys are going to prepare the same way. They’re going to be excited to get going.”
Bethlehem Catholic athletic director Chris Domyan said it was tough to watch what happened in the spring.
“To see the impact it had on those seniors especially who never got an opportunity, it was difficult,” he said. “So whatever we can do to make it work this fall, we’re all on board with it. We’ll control what we can and make the best of what we have. The rest is up to God, it really is.”
The Colonial League is expected to vote and announce its decision on Thursday morning.
There is a chance that schools that are not playing fall sports could lose players to schools who are getting on the field.
That’s an additional worry in Allentown, which annually loses student-athletes to other schools.
“The unfortunate reality is that many of our kids will fill this void with other things,” Atiyeh said. “It may be a positive replacement and it may not be. Regardless, for a school district that is fighting many obstacles to increase participation, we may never again get these kids back who are being turned away from sports this year.”
At the same time, Atiyeh knows there are no easy decisions for sports programs at any level, especially for school districts where just getting students back into the classroom for in-person learning is a major concern.
“Our administration team is in a very tough place and certainly doesn’t want to see our kids sit out,” he said. “There truly are no good choices. It’s a matter of choosing between what’s perceived to the least of some unfortunate choices. Regardless of what our district decides to do, we will continue to fight for our kids and provide them with any opportunities we are permitted to move forward with.”