PIAA moves forward with winter sports despite pleas from school administrators

By: Chris Harlan
Wednesday, December 9, 2020 | 3:19 PM

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The PIAA will let winter sports start Friday as scheduled over pleas from school administrators asking to delay as covid-19 cases rise.

The Pennsylvania Association of School Administrators and the Pennsylvania Principals Association sent separate letters to the PIAA prior to the board’s online meeting Wednesday. According to the PASA letter, a survey of its members found 83% of responding superintendents wanted winter sports to be delayed.

“PASA believes that operating winter sports during the current surge in virus cases is counter-productive and may put students and staff members at unnecessary risk,” PASA president John Bell and executive director Mark DiRocco wrote in their letter.

That’s a decision for individual school districts to make, PIAA executive director Bob Lombardi said.

The PIAA board didn’t consider a statewide delay during Wednesday’s meeting and instead adopted measures meant to give school districts added schedule flexibility.

“The board took it seriously and under consideration,” Lombardi said. “But the action was not to change (the start date) but to allow people the flexibility that, if they wanted to start, to do so, and if they don’t want to start, to not.”

A number of WPIAL districts and Pittsburgh Public Schools already have made the decision independently to delay the start of their winter sports.

Among its actions Wednesday, the PIAA board eliminated the regular-season deadline. Now, teams not actively involved in the PIAA postseason can play regular-season contests up until the date of the state championship. The PIAA gave teams the same option in the fall.

The PIAA will limit its state team tournaments to champions only, reducing the number of qualifiers.

With smaller tournaments, the PIAA will delay the start of its postseason competition, giving districts addition time to complete the regular season and district playoffs.

“Instead of maybe a 10-week season, now schools have almost a 16-week season that gives them more flexibility than they even asked for,” Lombardi said. “I thought it was a stroke of genius.”

The PASA and PPA both have representatives on the PIAA board. Lombardi noted they voted in support of the measures taken Wednesday to add that flexibility for local school districts.

Lombardi said the PIAA will continue to leave decisions about delays to individual districts but acknowledged a shutdown order from Gov. Tom Wolf remained a possibility. However, the PIAA has had no correspondence with Wolf regarding any pending shutdown, he said.

“We have not seen any data to say why Jan. 1 would be better than Dec. 11, or why Jan. 15 is better than Feb. 1,” Lombardi said. “What we heard from the CDC and everybody is that after the new year, you’re getting into the middle of flu season.”

The PIAA tentatively scheduled its next board meeting for Jan. 6 but agreed to reconvene sooner if the governor takes action in the meantime.

In part, the letter from the Pennsylvania Principals Association said: “A delay of the winter sports season we believe, offers an alternative to losing an entire season. This will allow school leaders the time to implement the mitigation efforts Governor Wolf and (Health Secretary Dr. Rachel) Levine have implemented.”

The letter was signed by association president Jonathan Ross and executive director Paul Healey.

State College superintendent Bob O’Donnell urged the PIAA board to delay winter sports until Feb. 1. He said his district had nearly 50 covid-19 cases in the past 10 days and might consider opting out of winter sports.

“Right now, our county and its neighbors are burning up with covid-19 cases,” said O’Donnell, who spoke during a public comments session in the PIAA meeting.

The PIAA took a similar hands-off approach in the fall by letting individual school districts decide whether to play. Ultimately, an overwhelming majority chose to participate.

“We realize that the PIAA Board has previously established that a delay in the start of an athletic season should be a local and/or league decision,” the PASA said in its letter. “However, the majority of Chief School Administrators want PIAA to make a universal decision to delay the start of the winter sports season.”

A survey taken before the fall was more evenly divided, PASA noted, with only 47% wanting a delay or cancellation at that time. The latest survey drew 333 responses.

Among other board actions:

•If a dispute over mask use causes two schools to cancel a game, it can be declared “no contest.”

The PIAA adopted that policy to avoid conflicts likely to arise in the coming weeks since some schools will require athletes to wear masks during competition and others will not.

• The PIAA approved a revamped format for state wrestling tournaments that reduces the number of teams and athletes. The individual championship tournament will include eight-person brackets with two Super Regionals as qualifiers.

• Teams in all sports that miss more than seven consecutive days of practice because of a shutdown aren’t permitted to immediately resume competition.

Now, if a team is idle for more than seven days, it must have at least two practice days before rejoining competition. A team idle for more than 10 days needs three practices. A layoff longer than 14 days now requires four practices.

The PIAA board suspended protocol and voted 23-8 to enact the proposal on a first reading.

• PIAA swimming championships were reduced from 32 qualifiers to 16.

Here’s the text of a letter the Pennsylvania Principals Association sent today to the #PIAA board asking for a delay of winter sports #HSSN pic.twitter.com/rtB1Qpe0XN

— Chris Harlan (@CHarlan_Trib) December 9, 2020

Chris Harlan is a TribLive reporter covering sports. He joined the Trib in 2009 after seven years as a reporter at the Beaver County Times. He can be reached at charlan@triblive.com.