PIAA relaxes preseason practice rule, anticipates restarting sports Jan. 4

By: Chris Harlan
Tuesday, December 22, 2020 | 5:29 PM

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Help has arrived for high school teams that fell behind schedule on their preseason practices.

PIAA rules require 15 preseason workouts before starting competition, but the board Tuesday cut that number to 10 for teams this winter. As a result, many athletes will begin their winter seasons days sooner than expected, assuming the governor lets sports resume early next month.

Currently, winter sports are “paused” until Jan. 4 under an order from Gov. Tom Wolf to limit coronavirus spread, so the PIAA board met online Tuesday to approve plans for next month.

Wolf could keep the shutdown in place longer, but PIAA executive director Bob Lombardi reiterated that the PIAA will take Wolf and his administration “at their word” regarding a Jan. 4 restart.

“I think they used their best judgment to come up with that date,” Lombardi said. “We’re going to work off of that date as an anchor.”

The season was suspended Dec. 12, one day after some teams opened their seasons.

The PIAA board meets again Jan. 6. Lombardi said they will make changes then, if needed.

“If we need to adjust, we will,” he said. “We’re hopeful that it starts (Jan. 4) because it gives schools the most optimum number of days to possibly get a winter schedule in without negatively impacting spring.”

The PIAA has pushed back the start dates for state playoffs and eliminated the regular-season deadline for winter sports, allowing teams not active in the postseason to schedule contests until March 27, if they choose.

But the PIAA doesn’t plan to stretch winter sports into April. Lombardi said the PIAA doesn’t want to interfere with spring seasons in light of what happened last school year. Last March, the entire spring season was canceled.

“By changing all the deadlines that we have, right now we have given maximum flexibility,” Lombardi said. “At this time there’s no sentiment to go past winter deadlines because of what occurred last spring. Nobody wants to negatively impact the spring sports seasons.”

After the current shutdown ends, all PIAA winter sports teams will be required to complete at least four practices. Those practices must be traditional workouts and not scrimmages, Lombardi said.

If sports resume Jan. 4, the first games or scrimmages would be Jan. 8.

Teams that didn’t complete at least 10 practices before the shutdown must reach that total now. For example, a team that held two practices before the shutdown needs eight additional workouts now.

Teams that completed at least 10 workouts before the shutdown need only the minimum four now.

Lombardi said the PIAA Sports Medicine Advisory Committee concluded cutting the requirement to 10 preseason practices “would not compromise the health and safety” of athletes.

“The overwhelming support there was: ‘There’s no research that indicates 10 days is better than 15, or 15 is better than X,” Lombardi said. “Because of that, they supported this typed of tiered return to play.”

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.