School districts and athletic administrators will have plenty of options to consider as they prepare to potentially reopen schools and resume athletic activities.
The Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association met on Wednesday afternoon to discuss particular guidelines for athletics as schools reopen this fall, and later in the evening released a 25-page document containing return to play guidance for individual sports.
As of today, spectators at these athletic events will not be permitted. The PIAA noted that the Preliminary School Sports Guidance document it now follows states, “The addition of visitors and spectators will be contingent upon future health conditions within the state and local communities.”
The PIAA said in its return to play document, “We anticipate that more information will be forthcoming from the Governor’s Office and Department of Education.”
In addition to the return to play guidelines, the PIAA accepted a motion to allow school districts to begin their fall sports at a later date if they so choose. School districts can also opt out of fall sports if need be.
Among the recommended options for beginning fall sports:
— A regular start to fall sports, with football heat acclimatization beginning on Aug. 10, followed by a first practice date of Aug. 17 for the remaining sports. Contests would begin on time, with golf beginning Aug. 20 and tennis beginning Aug. 24. Football would kick off on Aug. 28, and the remaining fall sports would start on Sept. 4.
— An alternate start in which football and fall practices could begin on time or at a later date, but contests wouldn’t begin until Sept. 14 for all sports except football. Football would instead kick off on Sept. 18.
— A hybrid start in which competitions for fall sports would begin by Monday, Oct. 5, or potentially later with a request to a school’s district committee. Any combination of the established start dates or the alternative schedule must comply with established preseason practice guidelines and may be utilized to accommodate the needs of each local school, community and sport.
THE PIAA noted that these plans can vary from sport to sport.
Additionally, schools opting for later start dates must still fulfill the minimum length of preseason practices before competition — three weeks minimum for all sports except golf (3 days) and tennis (1 week).
In a press release, the organization said, “The PIAA Board of Directors is committed to meeting again prior to the start of fall contests to monitor schools’ preseason participation and any issues that may arise from the start of the fall sports season.”
That meeting is set for Aug. 26, two days before the scheduled start to football season.
In addition to these options, the PIAA approved several motions changing how state playoffs will take qualifiers and on how COVID-19 infections from within a team will be responded to.
Regarding the state postseason, the PIAA reduced the number of qualifiers for fall sports. Official brackets will be released at the Aug. 26 meeting.
The PIAA also took up how teams should deal with outbreaks or positive cases, both in how they deal with it internally and how they report it to other schools.
If an athlete from a particular school tests positive for COVID-19, that athlete and his or her team must cease activities for 14 days. Those schools must “report to their opponent, in a reasonable time frame, any case of COVID-19 within their team members and coaching staff.”
Schools must also inform prior opponents within guidelines from the Department of Health and CDC.
A SCHOOL that does not play in a scheduled contest due to COVID-19 concerns must have its principal report the cancellation to its opponent and to the school’s respective district chairman. District committees may consider these canceled events non-games rather than forfeits.
However, a school that does not play a playoff game due to COVID-19 forfeits any possibility of advancing, PIAA guidance says.
The decision to move forward with fall sports on Wednesday came as no surprise, as the PIAA has said in recent weeks that it is committed to holding fall sports as scheduled unless directed to do otherwise by state officials.
At the start of Wednesday’s meeting, the PIAA approved by a 29-3 vote a recommendation from its Sports Medicine Advisory Committee that fall sports begin on time, so long as guidelines are tightly followed.
“Based on currently known information, the (Sports Medicine Advisory) Committee believes that STRICT ADHERENCE by schools and teams to their school-adopted plans and the Governor’s School Sports Guidance should provide a reasonably safe environment for student athletes to participate in interscholastic athletics as currently scheduled,” the committee said.
Asked earlier this week about fall sports, state Secretary of Health Rachel Levine said during a daily press conference that any approach to the resumption of athletics would be data-driven.
“We’re going to be looking at all of those different pieces of data, not only in terms of return to school, but also in terms of sports,” Levine said. “All of that is being considered. We want to make sure that we have the best data before those decisions are made.”
The guidelines for individual sports can be found at http://www.piaa.org/, and will be reported on in the coming days.
