PIAA: ‘Don’t use COVID as an excuse to duck superior opponents’

Eighteen months after the PIAA was forced to shut down its basketball and swimming championships due to a raging pandemic the state’s high school governing board is still wrestling with the long tentacles of COVID-19.

Last fall, in order to mitigate the affect of multiple cancellations, the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association relaxed its rules regarding forfeits. It gave schools unable to compete because of COVID shutdowns the option of declaring a “no contest,” rather than a forfeit.

Now, with growing concern that some schools are using COVID as an excuse to “duck” stronger opponents, the PIAA is reminding its members that if it doesn’t, or can’t, play a scheduled contest it may be in danger of forfeiting, thus taking a loss that could be detrimental to its playoff chances.

“It has happened enough that there’s concern from board members, who are hearing from their constituents that they think schools might be ducking somebody,” said Dr. Robert Lombardi, executive director of the PIAA. “We needed to get something in writing to give some guidance. Some people say they have too many players out so they cancel the game but then they practice, which seems to fly in the face of canceling the game.”

Board members wrangled over the issue for more than 30 minutes during Wednesday’s virtual meeting before settling on issuing a “guideline” concerning postponements, rather than make it an official “policy.”

The PIAA rule remains that teams must make every effort to reschedule a game that is postponed for whatever reason.

That becomes more difficult in football, which plays only once per week, than in soccer or field hockey, sports which often see teams play three or more times in a given week, and on back-to-back days.

“Last year we gave (schools) a lot more leeway,” Lombardi said in regard to games that were postponed but never made up.

“Under our rules and regulations, a cancellation for any reason is a forfeit,” Lombardi said. “We’ve had that on the books for decades.

“Some circumstances can lead to cancellations if teams can’t find time to make up the games or both schools agree to it being a no contest. We gave some guidance to districts so they can also have input on if games will be forfeits or not.”

The PIAA also relaxed its minimum games policy last year, dropping it to 40 percent; football teams needed only to play four games to qualify for the playoffs.

For the 2021 season — at least for now — football teams are required to complete at least six games to be playoff-eligible.

COVID issues dominated the marathon three-plus hour meeting.

Lombardi clarified the PIAA’s stance on insisting that officials be fully vaccinated if they want to work state-level games in the postseason.

“For inter-district playoffs, which we assign from our office, one of the conditions we are putting in the contract is that officials are requested to be vaccinated,” Lombardi said. “If you aren’t vaccinated, we won’t assign you games.”

Assistant executive director Patrick Gebhart, who is in charge of officials, doesn’t anticipate a shortage because of the ruling.

“The officials shortage we are experiencing across the state is based on the volume of events in the regular season,” Gebhart said. “We have much fewer events in the playoffs so we shouldn’t have any problem.”

Lombardi explained why making vaccinations a requirement now makes sense.

“If you go back 18 months, we didn’t have a vaccine, we didn’t have a vaccine that was FDA approved and we didn’t have a vaccine that was accessible to everyone,” he said. “All of that has changed, and it has changed the landscape of athletics. The department of health and the governor are recommending everyone that is vaccine-eligible to get the vaccine.”

The National Federation of State High School Associations issued a statement in August encouraging all high school student-athletes to get vaccinated against COVID-19.

The PIAA’s Sports Medicine Advisory Committee followed that with its own recommendation.

Other news

• The Board of Directors approved, on a second reading, a proposal to modify its success formula, giving teams that moved up due to success in the postseason with transfers a chance to move back down again if they don’t accumulate points in the ensuing cycle. The proposal needs to be approved on a third reading to become a rule.

• The board approved, on a second reading, a proposal to reduce required preseason practices from 15 to 10 in all sports except football, tennis and golf starting in the fall of 2022. That will give sports such as soccer, field hockey and basketball a longer regular season, by one week. The proposal needs to be approved on a third and final reading basis.

• The PIAA announced that Oct. 3-9 will mark the first of three “PIAA officials appreciation weeks,” with one week in each season dedicated to acknowledging and celebrating the contributions made by PIAA officials.

• The Board rejected York Vo-Tech’s appeal, asking that its student-athletes being allowed to play sports which the school does not sponsor — swimming, lacrosse and boys volleyball — for schools in their geographical home district. The school saw its inital appeal to District 3 rejected by a 6-0 vote.