MECHANICSBURG, Pa. — For only the third time since March, the PIAA office opened on Wednesday, as they and the rest of the state received the guidelines to reopen high school sports.
“Don't try to run. Let’s walk,” said PIAA Director Dr. Robert Lombardi. “Let's get this right. These are voluntary activities. Make sure that you follow CDC or the NFHS. We don't want to make a mistake and we don’t want to have a setback. There's a chain reaction here and it will impact our fall and we don't want that to happen.”
In the past week, the PIAA has had input with the Department of Education and the Governor's office, in crafting the much anticipated guidelines.
“We felt that if recreation programs can start doing things like having soccer or field hockey, then we felt it was imperative to push for our schools to be able to start doing those things in a safe and healthy manner,” said PIAA Associate Executive Director Melissa Mertz.
Counties in the yellow and green phases can begin voluntary workouts, after each school district creates a plan with the protocols in place and has the plan approved by their school board.
“On Friday we put out a press release to all our schools saying that you've got to get something ready because if you want to start quickly, do your homework,” added Lombardi.
Leagues and teams must have a point person for all COVID-19 related questions, teams have to educate and screen student athletes, there should be social distancing, coaches have to wear masks, gathering limits must be followed, and venues can only have half the maximum capacity.
“It’s very important that we have a foundation. The good thing is schools will have plans. They'll see what works as they go through the summer, scheduling wise. This worked and this didn't, so i think this also gives us a testing ground,” said Mertz.