The Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association will be meeting with Governor Tom Wolf’s staff to discuss the ongoing situation regarding fall sports in the state, according to Tom Reisenweber of the Erie Times-News.
This comes after statements from both sides regarding the matter over the past couple days. PIAA executive director Robert Lombardi sent Wolf a letter Tuesday, while Wolf’s comments came during a news conference that took place on Thursday.
Lombardi began his letter to Wolf by requesting an opportunity to discuss with Wolf’s office possible options for fall sports this year at PIAA member schools and understanding and supporting Wolf’s objective to reduce the risk for a COVID-19 outbreak this fall.
He then went on to explain that sports will be played regardless whether that’s through the PIAA or recreationally.
“Come fall, if schools are unable to engage in sports, and absent another mandatory shutdown, families and students will not stop playing,” Lombardi wrote. “They will simply find other outlets. Halting interscholastic athletics will not eliminate the risk, it will simply shift it to other venues that lack sufficient oversight.”
Lombardi also cited in the letter the many community and recreational programs that have taken place throughout the state over the course of the summer across different age groups. These include tournaments for golf, tennis, field hockey, volleyball, basketball, baseball and soccer as well as road races hosted by charitable organizations.
“To our knowledge, none have reported problems with coronavirus breakouts,” Lombardi wrote.
He also explained how playing sports this fall “within the educational umbrella may provide the safest means for that to occur.”
“Our Sports Medicine Advisory Committee, in conjunction with our individual sport steering committees, have developed guidelines and practices that go even beyond those that your office has developed,” Lombardi wrote.
“One particular advantage of PIAA (versus recreational) sports is that school officials can ensure compliance with their locally adopted Athletic Health and Safety Planning Guide and enforcement of our comprehensive Return to Competition Guidelines which have been shared with your office.’’
Last Thursday, Wolf made a recommendation for there to be no scholastic or youth sports played until at least Jan. 1, 2021. The Department of Health and Department of Education later released a joint press release that offered a “strong recommendation” that Pre-K through 12th grade school and recreational youth sports be postponed until the new year to protect children and teens from COVID-19.
In response, the PIAA delayed fall sports two weeks on Aug. 7 with the intent to work collaboratively with Wolf, the Department of Health and the Department of Education. The PIAA Board of Directors will reconvene on Aug. 21 and fall sports practices will now begin on Aug. 24. In the meantime, voluntary workouts can still be held.
During a news conference on Thursday, Wolf doubled down on his recommendation, but he maintained that it’s not a mandate or law and school districts have the power to decide what to do regarding fall sports.
“This is my recommendation,” Wolf said. “I also recommended this summer Pennsylvanians avoid going to the Jersey Shore. I’m sorry, that’s my recommendation. You do what you want, and school districts are going to do what they want. This is my recommendation. It was then and still is.”
And that is unlikely to change based on Wolf’s answer to a question asking what it would take the PIAA to present for him to change his recommendation.
“I do have concerns,” Wolf said. “I’m not sure what they could say that would make me change my sense of what I believe is the right thing to do. Again, they have the decision to make on their own. I recognize that I’m just one person. Maybe I’m governor, but I’m one person that has an opinion on what we ought to do here.”
In regards to the letter sent to him by Lombardi, Wolf said at the time he had received it but hadn’t looked at it.
Pennsylvania Secretary of Health Dr. Rachel Levine also spoke during the news conference and said the recommendation from Wolf’s administration also includes recreational leagues and not just the PIAA.
“We don’t have a lot of granular data or quantitative data from the contact tracing,” Levine said. “There hasn’t been that much activity. There’s been some but not like where we’d see in the fall and so kids aren’t back at school and they’re not in school sports, so I can’t have the data about that until it would happen.”
She also referenced the recent fall sports cancellations by the Big Ten and Pac-12 Conferences and said the recommendation from Wolf was based on “the same data about the contagiousness of the virus (and) about the impact on children.”
Wolf’s primary focus regarding this topic is students’ education and getting them back to school.
“I think what we oughta be focused on is trying to get our kids back to learning and to get an education,” Wolf said. “And anything we do that interferes with that in the short run we oughta be careful about doing that and so transporting people for whatever reason across county boundaries to congregate together for whatever reason to the extent we do those things, whether it’s a directive or a recommendation, to the extent we do those things we make it harder and harder for our kids to get the education we need them to get.
“We need them to be in school, we need them to get back to learning and every time we do something that interferes with that, we’re doing all us, all of Pennsylvania a disservice.”
