The 2019-20 high school sports year ended too early for some and never really got started for others.
The Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association announced Thursday afternoon that it was canceling all remaining high school sports competition in the state for the remainder of the school year.
Following Gov. Tom Wolf’s announcement earlier in the day that all state schools would remain closed through the end of the academic year, the PIAA conducted a Board of Directors meeting via videoconference.
When the meeting ended, the PIAA announced its decision.
The move brings and end to the state basketball tournament in the quarterfinal round, eliminates the Class 2A state swimming championships and wipes out all spring sports competition around the state.
Basketball tournament play was suspended between the second round and the quarterfinals.
Scranton Prep’s undefeated team, which includes players from the Greater Pittston area, and Old Forge are among the girls basketball teams that had their seasons end with eight teams left in the state in their class.
The Dallas boys were the only Wyoming Valley Conference basketball team still playing.
Like the rest of the state, Pittston Area and Wyoming Area’s entire athletic programs for the spring will miss out on the season. Baseball, softball, boys and girls track and field, boys and girls lacrosse, boys tennis and boys volleyball teams were going through preseason preparations in March when they were required to stop as part of stay-at-home orders during efforts to fight the coronavirus.
“It’s devastating,” Old Forge girls basketball coach Ron Stachiotti said, “but the kids understand that the health of everybody is the most important thing.
“We have to stand by the governor’s decision.”
The PIAA came to the same conclusion, as executive director Dr. Robert A. Lombardi explained in the press release announcing the decision.
“Today’s decision by the PIAA Board of Directors was difficult for everyone,” Lombardi’s statement read. “Their thoughts remain on the thousands of student-athletes, coaches, officials and family members affected by this decision.
“However, the Board’s position reflects a steadfast priority of keeping our student-athletes, officials and member schools’ staff and their communities safe, while following the guidelines provided by the Governor, the Department of Health and the Department of Education.”
The PIAA decision came after 17 other state high school athletic associations had already announced similar decisions.
“We had maintained hope for a continuation of our Winter Championships and an abbreviated spring season to help bring a sense of normalcy to our communities,” Lombardi said.
Scranton Prep girls coach Bob Beviglia, who grew up in Old Forge, had met with his players via Zoom, a videoconferencing program, Wednesday. He texted a copy of the PIAA’s announcement letter to them and set up a final videoconference for Saturday.
Junior Meredith Purcell, the starting center, and sophomore Avery McNulty, a contributor off the bench at forward, are both Pittston Area School District residents. They are part of the team that repeated Lackawanna League Division 1 and District 2 Class 4A titles.
“The thing that got taken away, that I’m going to have to use Saturday for, is that last time in the locker room,” Beviglia said in a Thursday interview. “You kind of say the things you need to say that close up the season the best that you can. For most teams, it ends with a loss, but for us it didn’t, it ended with this.
“All of those things that I feel and my coaches feel that we need to say that last time, we’re going to do that virtually.”
While 98 basketball teams, across six classes of boys and girls state tournament, and the smaller school half of the state swim meet qualifiers missed out on their chances to continue championship pursuits, entire spring teams never got a chance to compete.
For some, it is a lost season. For seniors, it was the last season.
“I’m really disappointed for the seniors because they’ll never get another shot at this,” Stachiotti said. “And, for the rest of the kids, too. We were playing our best basketball at the end of the season.
“We really felt that we could win it this year. After watching film of the other teams that were in the tournament, we thought we had a great shot at getting down to Hershey this year.”
Old Forge, the district Class 2A champion, was unbeaten against schools of its own classification and had won its four playoff games by a total of 99 points.
With winter cut short and spring sports eliminated, the PIAA and the local organizations that run high school sports, including District 2 and the Wyoming Valley Conference, will eventually begin planning for the fall or what’s ahead. For now, uncertainty remains.
“The PIAA Board of Directors will meet in the coming months to address any concerns that arise from the membership from the COVID-19 pandemic,” the organization’s release said. “While PIAA remains hopeful that summer activities will be able to commence July 1, it is still too early to reach any decisions or offer guidance at this time.”
