Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf recommends no high school sports to be played until 2021
Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf on Thursday announced recommendations from his office that high school sports not be played until Jan. 1, 2021.
The announcement was made during a morning press conference in response to a question about whether parents would be allowed in the stands at PIAA sports this fall.
“The guidance is that we ought to avoid any congregate settings,” he said. “And that means anything that brings people together is going to help that virus get us. We ought to do everything we can to defeat that virus. Anytime we get together, for any reason, that’s a problem because it makes it easier for that virus to spread.
“So the guidance from us, the recommendation, is that we don’t do any sports until Jan. 1.”
Wolf’s office — along with the Pennsylvania Department of Health and Department of Education — backed up his comments with a release Thursday afternoon detailing the recommendations. The recommendation to postpone high school and youth sports applies to competition, scrimmages and intramural play. Conditioning and training activities are recommended to continue on an individual basis.
The guidelines do not apply to college or professional sports.
“The administration is providing this strong recommendation and not an order or mandate,” the release reads. “As with deciding whether students should return to in-person classes, remote learning or a blend of the two this fall, school administrators and locally elected school boards should make decisions on sports.”
The recommendation to limit crowd gatherings to no more than 250 outdoors and 25 indoors remains unchanged, according to the release.
The PIAA was unaware of the new recommendation before it was announced by Wolf, an executive board member confirmed. The state’s governing body over high school sports released a statement Thursday afternoon expressing disappointment with the decision and announcing a PIAA board of directors meeting set for Friday afternoon to “review this action.”
“Our member schools have worked diligently to develop health and safety plans to allow students the safe return to interscholastic athletics,” the statement read.
The Pennsylvania House Republicans also responded to the governor’s recommendation, with a statement from caucus spokesperson Jason Gottesman, calling Gov. Wolf “completely off the rails.”
“After repeatedly saying school reopening decisions should be left to local school districts, after the PIAA paved the way for sports to safely resume,” the statement read, “after his own secretary of health said earlier this week that guidance for PIAA events would be forthcoming, the governor today issued another unilateral ‘recommendation’— made without any advance notice or consultation with the General Assembly — that is devastating for student athletes, parents, and communities.”
Wolf’s recommendation comes just over a week after the PIAA announced it would allow schools to move forward with fall sports at their discretion and laid out potential plans for those schools to use. One of the plans — in line with the usual start time of fall sports — would have included football “heat acclimatization” beginning Monday and other sports beginning practice Aug. 17, while the others allowed for a delay to ensure schools could proceed safely with high school sports.
“In addressing the COVID-19 crisis and how it has affected the 67 counties differently, PIAA understands the flexibility needed by school districts to make localized measured decisions, rather than a ‘one size fits all’ approach in addressing interscholastic athletics,” the PIAA said in a release at the end of July. “To aid our school districts who have varied approaches to their return to school plans, PIAA has offered flexibility to schools, leagues, and/or conferences to begin contests after the first contest date.”
One Centre County team has already had its season delayed prior to the announcement. State College had the beginning of its season delayed earlier this week when the Mid Penn Conference delayed the start of practice for fall sports until Sept. 4.
The Mountain League — which includes Bald Eagle Area, Bellefonte, Penns Valley and Philipsburg-Osceola — has yet to announce a plan for fall sports.
This story was originally published August 6, 2020 at 11:48 AM.
