PIAA will consider relaxing 15-practice requirement for winter sports teams

By: Chris Harlan
Friday, December 18, 2020 | 5:28 PM

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Will the PIAA let athletes skip practice? Some coaches hope so.

Currently, rules require all teams to complete 15 preseason practices before starting regular-season competition, but the PIAA board on Tuesday will consider reducing that number to 10. If not, that practice requirement could become a hindrance for teams that got a late start.

“This change is reflective of some areas of the state moving to a later January start,” according to the PIAA proposal, “and if we use the standard 15 preseason practices, they will probably not be able to get much of a season completed.”

All teams will be required to hold at least four practices after the shutdown ends. But this updated policy would help those schools that barely got started before the shutdown.

“If schools started practice, they need to complete a combination of practices to get to 10 before a contest is played,” the PIAA wrote.

For example, if a team completed two practices before the shutdown, that team would need to complete eight additional practices after the shutdown before beginning competition.

The teams that completed six or more practices before the shutdown would need only the minimum four after.

There is an exception for sports that require the use of off-campus facilities such as bowling, swimming or rifle. They would need only five practices in total.

The PIAA on Tuesday will discuss the status of winter sports in the midst of a three-week shutdown ordered by Gov. Tom Wolf’s administration to mitigate coronavirus spread. The statewide “pause” of interscholastic and recreational sports started Dec. 12 and ends Jan. 4, if the governor doesn’t extend it.

Highlands boys basketball coach Tyler Stoczynski is among those hoping for relief after his team was unable to hold any preseason practices before the shutdown.

If the current 15-practice requisite remains, the Golden Rams won’t play their first game until maybe Jan. 20.

“This is an irregular season,” Stoczynski said. “We’ve been flexible in all different facets of it so far. I just hope they take into consideration we’re trying to give as much opportunity for our kids to play, and that’s definitely one of the things that’s restricting us at this time.”

The PIAA traditionally has resisted reducing the preseason practice requirement as a safety precaution. But Stoczynski said he believes his players safely could be ready for their season opener with a week of workouts and maybe one scrimmage.

“To start the actual season, I’d say we probably need about seven practices,” Stoczynski said. “But realistically, I’m a compromising man in this position that we’re currently in. If they broke it down to 12 or 10 or anything – any kind of breathing room they would allow would make a tremendous difference.”

Teams that completed their 15 preseason workouts before the governor’s shutdown are required to hold only four additional practices once the shutdown ends, under a PIAA policy adopted Dec. 9. Yet, unless the PIAA acts Tuesday, others still must complete their 15 practices.

Some coaches and administrators had questioned the logic behind that discrepancy. Why must one team practice 15 days and another only four when both sat for three weeks?

The PIAA appears ready to address that issue Tuesday.

“I understand the rationale behind that (15-practice) rule being in place,” Ringgold athletic director Laura Grimm said. “When you look at the transition from season to season or the beginning of the fall season, you want to make sure all of these kids have the proper foundation. … But now everybody is equal being shut down for three weeks.”

The Ringgold school board has halted athletics in the district until in-person classes resume. If that doesn’t occur until mid-January, and the 15-practice requirement remained, the school’s athletes wouldn’t compete until February.

Ringgold had only two or three practices before the shutdown.

“At their (PIAA) board meeting last week, they came out and say: ‘If you’re shut down for 14 days, you only need to practice for four before you can resume competition,’ ” Grimm said. “To me, it seems counterintuitive to say, ‘Well, no, except for these schools. You still have to complete 15 practices.’ … Things have changed over the course of the last month. They need to revisit that rule.”

The PIAA board on Dec. 9 added a shutdown policy for teams that miss more than seven consecutive days of practice.

Now, if a team is idle for more than a week, 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.

However, the board left the 15-practice preseason rule in place.

“We’ll follow the rules,” Highlands athletic director Drew Karpen said. “If they don’t reduce (the 15-practice requirement), we’ll do them. If they do, then they’ll put everyone on a level playing field. That would be nice for our teams that are behind, but either way, we just want 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.