Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, June 5, 2020
While high school sports teams in the state are still waiting to hear when they are permitted to start offseason workouts because of the COVID-19 pandemic, youth sports and club teams around Pennsylvania can start practicing and playing games this weekend.
That situation has high school athletic directors frustrated.
“Not knowing is the frustration,” Upper St. Clair athletic director Kevin Deitrick said. “We’re not mad at anyone, but it’s hard to explain to our high school athletes and coaches that you can’t come here to school and work out, but they might see their little brothers playing baseball, soccer or whatever.”
A number of other athletic directors have similar feelings. About 50 ADs around the state have a meeting via Zoom every Friday morning to discuss ideas and challenges they face about the startup of high school sports. Frustration was a word used often in Friday’s meeting.
The office of Gov. Tom Wolf declared earlier this week that youth and non-school teams could start practicing or playing, provided they were in counties in the “green phase” of reopening. Most of Western Pennsylvania, including Allegheny County, is in the green phase. But high school teams are still not permitted to have any group workouts. June is when many high school teams start offseason workouts.
The PIAA, under direction from the governor’s office, made a ruling in April that no high school teams could have team workouts, including weightlifting sessions, until July 1 at the earliest. Since then, the PIAA ruled that executive director Bob Lombardi could lift the workout ban earlier if the governor gave the PIAA guidelines to restart.
The PIAA had hoped to receive the guidelines from the governor’s office this week, but the PIAA issued a statement Friday afternoon saying it is “optimistic that such guidelines will be issued in the near future.”
During Friday’s Zoom meeting, North Allegheny athletic director Bob Bozzuto said he is frustrated because some baseball players in Pennsylvania have been going to Ohio to play games or practice. He also said such actions are “wrong.”
Bethel Park athletic director Dan Sloan said: “I don’t know frustrated is exactly the right word, but we’re surely in a tough position because parents and coaches are now asking questions almost daily. The answer before has been a steadfast ‘No.’ Even though we’re in the green phase, the answer is still no.
“But now, people are saying, ‘My little 10-year-old is playing, why can’t we have high school workouts?’ The answer is I don’t know, but I wish I could give an answer.”
Some community baseball and softball organizations around the Pittsburgh area are starting practices this weekend at community fields. Travel teams are doing the same. Games will start for some next weekend.
BSA, a Pittsburgh-based AAU basketball organization, is offering workouts to players (for a fee) starting this weekend. The workouts will be in gyms,but not at schools.
“We’re not mad at the youth groups. We completely get it,” Deitrick said. “But as high schools, we have to abide by PIAA rules and guidelines.”
Some community baseball organizations have come up with their own guidelines. For example, one organization will not permit exchanging catcher’s equipment and is suggesting one catcher play the entire game.
The PIAA is expected to issue some sort of guidelines next week, with input from the governor’s office. But the onus of complete guidelines will probably fall on the individual schools. It’s also likely that some schools will have stricter rules than others. In Friday’s release, the PIAA said “schools need to be assessing appropriate return to play protocols for them to be able to open up their campuses.”
Pat Mannarino is the vice president of the WPIAL but also the superintendent of schools for the North Hills School District.
“Each sport is going to have its own set of guidelines to follow, so this isn’t one brush paints all,” Mannarino said.
But Mannarino also said high school coaches, athletes and parents need to understand the place of high school athletics during this situation. On Wednesday, the Pennsylvania Department of Education issued guidelines for the reopening of schools.
“The startup of schools is where the focus has been of the governor’s office,” Mannarino said. “What does instruction look like, and what do we need to do to get people back to schools? We’ve got to have our come to school plan before we have our come to play sports plan.”
Mike White: [email protected] and Twitter @mwhiteburgh