Back in August, the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association defied Governor Tom Wolf’s strong recommendation of putting athletics on hold amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.
On Thursday, however, Wolf didn’t give the PIAA that chance.
Among other restrictions put into place effective Saturday, Wolf paused youth and scholastic athletics across the state — including practices — until Monday, Jan. 4. The action comes just one day after the PIAA opted to continue forward with winter sports at its regularly scheduled meeting, even over objections from the state Principals Association.
Smethport athletic director Rick Woodring wasn’t particularly taken back by the announcement.
“It doesn’t come as a surprise to me at all,” Woodring said. “I was hoping maybe we’d get a chance to start (the season) and get our feet wet, but I certainly understand with cases rising and so forth that precautionary things need to be put in place now instead of waiting. Hopefully things will improve between now and over the holidays to give us the opportunity (to play).”
And that rising caseload is the difference between this announcement and the lack of firm action Wolf took when the PIAA played through its fall seasons.
When Wolf made his recommendation but stopped short of halting fall athletics in late August, the seven-day rolling average of new daily cases had plateaued and remained under 1,000 for the duration of the month, according to data compiled by The New York Times. Since then, that number has grown exponentially. Wednesday’s seven-day average was 9,973.
Woodring added, “We’ll have to wait and see. (The announcement) doesn’t surprise me. I was surprised we got this far.”
It’s a sentiment Woodring thinks was felt across his athletic department.
“It wasn’t spoken. It was never conversed directly, but indirectly I think everybody was waiting on that shoe to fall.”
Smethport’s basketball teams had gotten in about 13 or 14 practices before Thursday’s decision, meaning the Hubbers will need just one more to reach the PIAA’s minimum of 15 practices. In addition, teams across the state will need to practice at least four consecutive days after the pause before playing in a contest, based on a new rule the PIAA approved on Wednesday.
With that new rule in place, games in Pennsylvania won’t begin until Jan. 8 at the earliest.
Some schools, however, won’t even be able to play that soon, and among them is Bradford.
Teams at BAHS had only gotten in three practices before the Bradford Area School District opted to move its schools to virtual learning and halt athletics, among other extracurricular activities.
So, the Owls of each sport will need at least 12 more practices before taking part in any competitions — pushing Bradford’s best-case start date for competitions to Jan. 18 assuming the Owls practice six days per week beginning Jan. 4.
With the varying start dates for individual programs, Woodring says local ADs will have their work cut out for them.
“That will be the craziness of it and the real stressful part. Now we’re going to have to move events against and reschedule, recontract with our officials and find some again. It does become cumbersome,” he said. “It becomes frustrating at times because you’re wondering if you’re just spinning your wheels and not getting traction.”
For now, though, Smethport and all other schools will play the waiting game. In the meantime, perhaps some rescheduling will get done and the state caseload will begin to drop.
“All I can really say is maybe this can get everyone healthy and keep us safe,” Woodring said. “So that way we can get a shot at things once Christmas (break) is over.”
(Joel Whetzel, assistant sports editor of The Bradford Era, can be reached at jwhetzel@bradfordera.com.)
