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PIAA official hangs on to hope for fall sports season

On WITF's Smart Talk, executive director says protocols are in place

  • Sam Dunklau
The Keystone Oaks football field is the home of the Golden Eagles; one of many teams whose fall seasons are up in the air.

 Kiley Koscinski / WESA

The Keystone Oaks football field is the home of the Golden Eagles; one of many teams whose fall seasons are up in the air.

(Harrisburg) — An executive for the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association said the governing body for high school sports is still making efforts to allow teams to play this fall as long as they adhere to coronavirus protections.

Earlier this month, Gov. Tom Wolf’s administration recommended schools “pause” all scholastic competitions until Jan. 1, though Wolf says he will let individual school districts make the final decision.

Speaking on WITF’s Smart Talk Monday, PIAA Associate Executive Director Melissa Mertz told host Scott Lamar that school sports programs should be allowed to mitigate coronavirus risk themselves.

“We’re not naive to think that we’re not gonna have cases. You know, we’re gonna probably have them, and I think our point is, we really don’t know actually if…the kid [got] it from being out on the football field or [if] he got it in chemistry class?”

Mertz said sports are already happening in communities across Pennsylvania, and argued those events would be much safer if they were school-sanctioned.

“There’s lacrosse, there’s softball, baseball, soccer. It’s happening. We even had a wrestling tournament a couple weekends ago. We feel that the school environment is a little safer because of all these standards we’ve put in place for our schools to abide by.”

Should fall seasons go forward, the PIAA has a whole host of new rules for student athletes and schools. For instance, teams aren’t allowed to shake hands after games. Spitting and removing mouthguards are banned. All of that is designed to keep the field COVID-safe for students, coaches, and officials.

A sticking point for the PIAA has been whether parents would be allowed to watch in the stands. Previous guidance from the Wolf administration limited outdoor sporting event attendance to 250 people in all, but also said that number should only include teams and other relevant people on the field. 

The governing body had been hoping to meet with the governor’s office to see if the administration would withdraw its recommendation to cancel the fall season altogether, but so far that hasn’t happened.

Pennsylvania House Majority Leader Kerry Benninghoff (R-Centre & Mifflin counties), meanwhile, told a Harrisburg TV program that school sports can go forward safely. House Republicans have routinely criticized Wolf over his administration’s handling of the pandemic.

“Frankly, I think the PIAA’s whole mission is about protecting children and I think they’ll make the right decision here,” Benninghoff said. “If the governor thinks it’s good enough to make decisions about opening schools at the local level, we can do the same thing with sports.”

The Association’s Board of Directors is expected to make its final recommendation on fall sports by Friday. A rally supporting the fall season is scheduled for Thursday morning at the state capitol building in Harrisburg.

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