The PIAA’s vote Friday paved the way for Back Mountain rivals Lake-Lehman and Dallas to play in all sports this fall.
Times Leader file photo
Decision to play
up to each school
There will be a high school fall sports season.
The PIAA Board of Directors voted 25-5 Friday to hold fall sports despite a strong recommendation from Gov. Tom Wolf to cancel scholastic and youth recreation sports until Jan. 1 because of COVID-19 concerns.
Practices can begin Monday for all sports, with football using the first week for heat acclimation.
“I wouldn’t call it a sigh of relief,” PIAA Executive Director Dr. Robert Lombardi said. “I think the board took two weeks to weigh very seriously what their constituents were saying.”
District 3 representative Doug Bohannon made the motion for fall sports, with fellow District 3 rep David Bitting seconding it.
The decision to participate in fall sports will come down to individual school districts. Only one District 2 school, Abington Heights, has canceled fall sports except for cross country, golf and girls tennis.
The PIAA also made sure those schools not playing in the fall have the option to hold those sports later in the school year. The motion, made by District 1 representative Mike Barber, passed 30-0. This was particularly helpful to the Philadelphia Public League, which has canceled all fall sports, and schools in other areas hit hard by COVID-19 that have followed suit.
“I believe the intention behind that was the board recognized that there are areas of the state that may be shut down for a good period of time,” Lombardi said. “And as the board stated all the way back in May, we want to provide as many opportunities for students to participate as possible.”
As for the Wyoming Valley Conference, all athletic directors at a meeting last week indicated their schools are prepared to play a fall season. MMI Prep athletic director Vince Vella clarified in an email that his school isn’t considering canceling boys soccer and girls volleyball, but that the administration has some concerns about the viability of playing the two sports.
District 2 chairman Frank Majikes, who is also president of the PIAA board, voted in favor of having fall sports.
The five PIAA board members voting against fall sports were: Michael Allison, District 7 representative; Karen Arnold, District 8 representative; Nathan Mains, Pennsylvania School Board Association Chief Executive Officer; LeeAnn Wentzel, Pennsylvania Association of School Administrators representative; and Jonathan Bauer, Pennsylvania Principals Association representative. Two board members were not present, but the PIAA did not identify them.
None of the five who cast votes against playing stayed on the Zoom meeting upon its conclusion to answer questions from the media.
When Wolf made his recommendation on Aug. 6, the PIAA board met in executive session that afternoon and held a public meeting the following day where it suspended fall sports two weeks in order to open up a dialogue with the governor’s office.
Although Wolf said nothing would sway him from his position, Pennsylvania Secretary of Health Dr. Rachel Levine said Tuesday that Wolf has no plans to issue a mandate to halt scholastic and youth sports if the PIAA decided to play.
Wolf is still banning spectators at high school events under a still-standing order that limits outdoor gatherings to 250 people outside and 25 inside. Those totals would include teams, game officials, other school personnel and the media. Lombardi is hoping to get those numbers relaxed in the coming weeks.
“That’s coming out of the governor’s office with those guidelines we’ve received,” Lombardi said. “We continue to advocate to have some spectators there, especially at least mom and dad. The 250 outside would include media, so they would have to be part of that 250. Obviously, 25 inside would be tough for (media) coverage that way unless we could figure out a way that we can modify this.
“We’ve asked for consideration, but we have not heard anything back yet.”
The PIAA will monitor any COVID-19 incidents through local district athletic committees daily. Each of the PIAA’s 12 districts has a local athletic committee that is an extension of the association.
“I’m sure everybody is going to be on point,” Lombardi said. “Any information that comes out of schools that may have problems we’re going to monitor closely. And if there comes a time where the district committee or the board deems to be troublesome, then another decision will be made.
“We wanted to do our best to provide a start, and we’ll take it on a day-by-day basis, on a step-by-step measured approach that we’ve done every day since March.”
The PIAA suspended the state basketball and swimming championship in March for two weeks then ultimately canceled them in April when Wolf closed schools for the remainder of the school year.
Lombardi said the main concern is getting in as many regular-season games for as many sports teams as possible. The postseason, including state playoffs, is secondary right now.
“The state playoff issue isn’t going to be the tail that wags the dog,” Lombardi said. “We’re really trying to maximize opportunities and participation for young people. And if we’re lucky enough to get some postseason in, even though it may be shortened, we’re going to try at this date. But that may be something we can’t get in.
”That’s an issue that’s to be determined. We’ll find out more in the weeks ahead when we ascertain how may schools are actually participating.”
Many scholastic leagues and conferences, including the WVC, have pushed back or altered their sports schedules. The WVC will play only eight football games starting Sept. 11.
