There’s much less fanfare going into the winter athletic season, to be sure.
When the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association pressed on with its fall sports season, it was after weeks of going back and forth with the office of Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf.
The PIAA was ready to begin its fall season on time, before Wolf countered by suggesting during a press conference that scholastic athletics don’t take place until after Jan. 1, 2021.
Of course, we all know how it ended. The PIAA delayed its seasons by two weeks before ultimately deciding to go forward with athletics in their entirety. The ultimate decision came down to local school districts.
Those fall seasons are coming to a close, with the remaining sports in the state playoffs.
And that shifts our attention, at least locally, to winter. Not much has been said about the upcoming athletic slate, at least on the state level.
But don’t mistake the quiet lead-in to the season as though there isn’t uncertainty once again.
The PIAA meets Wednesday — the governing body’s final meeting before winter athletic practices can officially begin on Nov. 20.
A quick glance at the agenda for the meeting shows that whether or not to hold winter sports was omitted, but it’s probably safe to say the topic will come up.
And why shouldn’t it? When the PIAA opted to hold its fall athletic seasons against Wolf’s wishes, cases of COVID-19 in the state were plateauing for the most part. As a result, the governing body of PA’s prep sports left the decision up to individual school districts.
Locally, our schools opted into a quasi-bubble that consisted of each school from McKean, Cameron, Elk and Potter counties. Those schools played each other during the regular season and did not leave the four-county area until the District 9 playoffs.
That’s the same approach the counties are taking into winter. Earlier this week, Bradford opted into winter sports within the bubble, and the expectation is all of the other schools that did so during the fall will do so again.
But, of course, that’s all dependent on one major condition: the PIAA opting to host its winter sports season.
Things look a whole lot different now than they did in August. Cases of the novel coronavirus are continuing an uptick in the Keystone State here in recent weeks, and locally, schools have gone virtual for a day here or a day (or even days) there as the need arises.
It’s entirely within the realm of possibility that the PIAA looks at the situation and opts to postpone the start of winter sports. An outright cancellation doesn’t seem likely, based on how the PIAA has gone about things in recent months after canceling the end of last year’s winter sports seasons and spring sports in their entirety.
Or, perhaps the PIAA decides to do what it did a few months ago and continue forward while leaving the ultimate decision up to individual school districts. That was something that, for the most part, ended up working out.
And based on what PIAA executive director Dr. Bob Lombardi has said, we may very well still be on track. He described the PIAA as “cautiously optimistic” about starting winter sports, though that was back on Halloween.
Against all odds, the PIAA (and more so local schools) pulled off a fall season.
Will it happen again this winter? Wednesday will — or at least should — be the first step in determining that.
(Joel Whetzel, assistant sports editor of the Bradford Era, can be reached at jwhetzel@bradfordera.com.)
