The Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association Board of Directors gave the go-ahead this week for high school teams around the state to begin their official winter sports preparations.
Around District 2 as a whole and the Greater Pittston Area specifically, however, schools were divided on whether or not to get started yet.
Pittston Area teams began their practices Friday afternoon.
Wyoming Area decided at its school board meeting earlier in the week to delay the start of winter sports practices until Dec. 1.
The majority of Wyoming Valley Conference teams took the same approach to Pittston Area, beginning practices.
The conference’s northern neighbors, who make up slightly more than half of District 2, decided to wait.
Superintendents of the schools in the Lackawanna Interscholastic Athletic Association, which oversees Lackawanna League sports, decided Thursday to hold off on starting official winter practices until Dec. 4.
That means any non-league games with Lackawanna schools prior to Dec. 21 had to be called off and all Wyoming Area events prior to Dec. 18 will have to be canceled or rescheduled for a later date.
Pittston Area is listing six events against Lackawanna opponents as canceled. LIAA schools are free to consider them postponed and attempt to reschedule and many of those schools hope to do so with all or some of the events they have lost.
For now, the Pittston Area girls basketball team has had three games removed from its schedule – Dec. 15 against Elk Lake, Dec. 18 against North Pocono and Dec. 19 against Abington Heights.
The Patriots lost both of their scheduled scrimmages and two of their games – Dec. 14 vs. Holy Cross and Dec. 17 against West Scranton – in boys basketball.
Pittston Area’s Dec. 14 wrestling match against Honesdale was also canceled.
Winter preparations became more complicated Tuesday when Gov. Tom Wolf’s office released new mask guidelines, including that athletes now had to wear masks while competing.
The PIAA Board of Directors voted 31-1 Wednesday to advise local school districts to consult their solicitors and school boards on whether they can interpret their athletes as exempt from the latest mask ruling.
PIAA executive director Dr. Robert Lombardi said the organization’s Sports Medicine Committee had concerns about the ruling.
Pittston Area basketball players and wrestlers were instructed to wear masks for Friday’s practices while swimmers wore their masks up until the time they entered the pool.
According to PIAA rules, teams need 15 practice days before being allowed to play basketball games and 5 practices before their first scrimmages. With COVID-19 cases rising and less school districts conducting in-person learning, it is possible for there to be delays or interruptions in season start-ups.
“It is our feeling that if schools are able, they should try to start on the first practice day and get as many practices in as possible,” Lombardi said. “ … What we’re trying to do is set the foundation, so that if we do have a hiccup, we can adjust and adapt.
“What we learned in the fall is that people who started earlier were able to handle interruptions easier than those that started late because they ran against time and did not have any room in the schedule.”
While the regular season was being conducted in the fall, the PIAA adjusted championship procedures to generally reduce state competition to district champions. Similar adjustments could reduce state basketball brackets from 32 teams possibly to 12 or less in each class.
“We haven’t discussed the postseason yet because we’re trying to get it started,” Lombardi said. “Now, we’re going to see what we have to do. Are we going to have a 32-team bracket in basketball? Are we going to have all those qualifiers in swimming?
“We are pretty sure we may be shortening those down because we learned from the fall that having a champions-only tournament allowed us to get something in along with a good regular season.”
The next PIAA Board of Directors meeting is scheduled for Dec. 9. The first basketball game date is Dec. 11 for teams that have completed their 15 practices by that day.
Pittston Area is scheduled to open the boys basketball season at home Dec. 11 against Hanover Area and play at Hanover Area in girls basketball Dec. 14. The match against Honesdale had been the scheduled wrestling opener.
