Varying mask policies create conundrum for high school athletics

By: Bill Beckner Jr. And Greg Macafee
Saturday, January 9, 2021 | 6:00 AM

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Just before the PIAA soccer finals, Gov. Tom Wolf and Pa. Secretary of Health Dr. Rachel Levine announced ramped-up guidelines that would make sports teams wear face coverings during competition.

The rules later were loosened, and athletes did not have to wear masks during play, only on the sidelines, if their district officials ruled that way.

But that was for soccer.

Basketball players and wrestlers have been wearing masks during practices and could continue doing so in competition, should school solicitors and/or officials require it.

Some say that seems unlikely because the masks can create a dangerous situation for athletes with asthma or other conditions.

There are rumblings some schools won’t play others that refuse to wear masks.

“It takes away a kid going 100%,” GCC girls basketball coach Sam Salih said. “They are being physically challenged when they run up and down the floor.”

Safety is the overriding factor with the masks but not when the masks themselves create a safety issue.

Coaches want their players to play but not at a compromised cost.

“I don’t think the boys could play with a mask on,” GCC soccer coach Tyler Solis said. “You’re talking about a soccer game, where you run six or seven miles with sprints. In soccer, you don’t get a break. A mask would handicap you by 50%. It can probably do the same in other sports.”

Basketball players are adjusting to the face coverings, but there might never be a comfort level with using them on the court.

“It has been different, but it hasn’t affected my game as much,” Yough senior guard Gamal Marballie said. “I just need to stay in shape because it’s hard to breathe with a mask on. It’s all mental.”

In the fall, the PIAA released guidelines before that season started.

It allowed schools to share the same start date for practices, to know the expectations of their athletes and what rules they had to follow in order to play, between August and September.

So far through the early stages of the winter sports season, that hasn’t been the case as school districts have been given the freedom to develop their own guidelines.

That goes for masks, too.

“We checked with our solicitor, and we feel like we should be wearing masks, and we don’t think there is any wiggle room in that policy, and that’s going to be tricky,” Plum athletic director Josh Shoop said. “Our kids are going to be wearing masks, so what happens if we play a team that isn’t wearing masks?”

While Plum will be asking student-athletes other than swimmers to wear masks while competing, Burrell will allow a little more freedom.

Burrell athletic director Drake D’Angelo said student-athletes won’t have to wear masks while actively competing in games. The five players on a basketball court will not have a mask on, and the wrestler participating in a match won’t have a mask on either. Once they return to the bench, they must wear a mask.

“We think that is the best for safety, for everybody, trying to control any type of spread there might be as well as not hurting anybody while they are exerting themselves physically, running up and down the court or things of that nature,” D’Angelo said.

With plans in place, it is up to the coaches and athletes to follow them.

Penn-Trafford uses screening questionnaires through Google Forms. Athletes must fill them out daily, a monotonous yet necessary task to continue play and get ahead of the spread.

If a dispute over mask use causes two schools to cancel a game, it can be declared “no contest,” the PIAA board of directors decided, with neither team being forced to forfeit.

The PIAA adopted that policy to avoid conflicts likely to arise in the coming weeks since some schools.

The WPIAL will have an open playoff tournament for basketball where teams can choose to enter the postseason or not, so teams having schedules with a different number of games will not present a competitive balance problem.