Creating and maintaining policies to safeguard the educational values of interscholastic athletics is a hard-enough task, let alone when a rapidly contagious pandemic comes roaring through.
Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf closed schools in April 2020 for the remainder of the academic year, and the PIAA had to follow the next day with the cancelation of the spring sports season. After sustaining the sudden impact of that decision and attempting to come to grips with the current situation, a sharp pivot toward steadfast planning for a fall sports season was soon in order. With the virus ever-evolving, was that even possible?
Executive director Lombardi’s statement to his staff was simple. They had to try.
“The beginning of this whole decision-making process, it was never about, ‘Can we get this championship in?’ It was just that we have to get kids out,” Grassel said. “If we get them out for two weeks, then we get them out for two weeks. As our executive director said repeatedly, it’s a step-by-step progression.”
Data analysis began in earnest. Diligent, regular consultations with the Sports Medicine Advisory Committee were vital, and statistics released by the Pennsylvania Department of Health (DoH) were monitored closely. One important piece of data that the PIAA hung its hat on was the fact that the age group of its athletes (middle school and high school) was not dealing with any cataclysmic effects due to COVID-19.
“By no means are we not saying that we don’t believe in the safety of the community, and the public at-large, but this age group was not having any catastrophic events,” Mertz said. “What this age group did suffer from was depression, isolation, and a lack of socialization. Everything that athletics brings to the table – being involved, being a leader, being a part of a team.”
The psychological and mental aspects of the pandemic were further motivation to the PIAA leadership seeking opportunities to put a fall season into place.
“You’re dealing with an era of teenagers that are in their rooms and on their phones, and we battled that prior to COVID,” Mertz said. “The pandemic comes, and we’re isolating them further, and keeping them from showing up and being accountable. Those were the things we all talked about if not daily, then weekly. This age group needs sports, and we needed to do whatever we could to make that happen.”
Still, an incredibly time-consuming task was being undertaken. Guidance needed to be in place for member schools to have a chance to function, and the repercussion of each decision was very cognizant in the establishment of uniform standards.
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April 01, 2021 at 09:42PM
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