Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf on Thursday recommended that no high school or youth sports in the state be played until at least Jan. 1.
The governor followed that recommendation with an official statement.
“The Pa. Department of Health and Dept. of Education today jointly recommend that Pre-K-12 school and recreational youth sports be postponed until at least Jan. 1, 2021, to protect children and teens from COVID-19,” read the release.
“The administration is providing this strong recommendation and not an order or mandate. As with deciding whether students should return to in-person classes, remote learning or a blend of the two this fall, school administrators and locally elected school boards should make decisions on sports.”
The statement reiterated the following previous recommendations:
• Applies to team and individual, school and non-school recreational youth sports.
• Includes competitions, intramural play and scrimmages
• Continue conditioning, drills and other training activities on an individual basis
• Does not apply to collegiate and professional sports. • Gathering limits remain unchanged – no more than 25 persons may gather indoors and 250 outdoors.
The PIAA issued a response late this afternoon. The following is from the PIAA press release.
Today, Governor Wolf issued a statement of strongly recommending no interscholastic and recreational sports until January 1st. We are tremendously disappointed in this decision. Our member schools have worked diligently to develop health and safety plans to allow students the safe return to interscholastic athletics.
The PIAA Board of Directors will meet tomorrow afternoon, Friday, August 7, 2020, to review this action. PIAA will have an official statement tomorrow afternoon.
Join Indiana in the Morning on Friday morning as we discuss this issue with State Rep. Jim Struzzi at 8:10 am and State Senator Joe Pittman at 8:45 am.
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