Summer Walker had a lot going on during her four years at Pottsgrove.

Along with balancing three sports and a job, she excelled academically, earning a full scholarship to Penn State University’s engineering program.

Though it wasn’t always as easy as she made it look, Walker said she wouldn’t trade her time as a Falcon for anything.

“It was memorable for sure and hard because the level between middle school and high school is completely different, but I wouldn’t have wanted it any other way,” Walker said. “They push you a lot more and it creates more skills that you didn’t even know you were able to do.

“That’s what I really appreciate from the coaches because that transfers from being an athlete but also as a person. I’ve been able to build so many memories with all these people from Pottsgrove because of my being included in sports. My high school career wouldn’t have been what it is without being so involved.”

Walker played multiple seasons on the girls soccer, girls basketball and girls lacrosse teams at Pottsgrove. She said basketball is her favorite of the sports she played. Her father Thomas Walker played hoops for Phoenixville and she’s played competitively since elementary school.

During her freshman year, Walker skipped soccer season as she adjusted to high school and started her athletic career at the varsity level for the Pottsgrove basketball team. Falcons’ girls basketball coach Mike Brendlinger said Walker was one of his top defenders during her four years, often matching up with the other team’s top perimeter player.

Walker added that defense is her favorite part of the sport, preferring to swipe the ball or keep an opponent from scoring rather than put the ball in the hoop.

“She was a really good athlete and she could handle just about anything,” Brendlinger said. “If they were really quick or really strong, she could match up with them. Defense was her strength and she’d come along well, especially in the last year, on offense where she developed a jump shot to help us out on the offensive end also.”

Pottsgrove defender Lana Sorg (16) shields a Villa Joseph Marie attacker from the ball to allow goalkeeper Summer Walker to collect it during Monday’s District 1-3A semifinal. (Austin Hertzog – MediaNews Group)

Walker, who played soccer for two years in middle school as well as ran track, returned to the pitch sophomore year in Fall 2018 as one of the varsity team’s two goalkeepers. She held the starting goalie spot as a junior and senior, earning a 30-9 record.

Pottsgrove girls soccer coach Stephen Mellor said despite only playing the sport for about three or four months each year, Walker impressed him with her play in net, noting her athleticism, size and good hands made her well-suited for the position.

Lacrosse didn’t come as naturally to Walker when she joined the team freshman year in Spring 2018. Though Walker said her defensive skills in basketball translated well to the lacrosse field, it took time to pick up the stick skills needed for lacrosse.

Pottsgrove girls lacrosse coach Kirstin Urie added the fact that Walker is a natural lefty in addition to being a few years behind most of her teammates in experience made things more difficult. Still she managed to turn herself into one of the team’s top defensive players in three lacrosse seasons, earning second team All-PAC Frontier honors as a junior in 2019.

“I was really reluctant to play at first because I had no idea how to play the game at all, but coach (Urie) was really encouraging and she made sure she really helped me out and my upperclassmen helped me out as well,” Walker said. “They even got me a stick and really helped me at practice. I was really reluctant to play but it was something that I enjoyed and stuck with it.”

Walker’s teams have had quite a run at Pottsgrove. From Spring 2019 to Winter 2019-20, Walker had three straight seasons of helping the Falcons make history.

First, she helped the girls lacrosse team win its first Frontier division title, reach its first District 1-2A semifinal and make its first state playoff appearance.

Next, Walker and the Falcons’ girls soccer team put together the best season in program history, tallying a program-best 16-6 record and advancing to the District 1-3A semifinals for the first time.

She continued that momentum with the girls basketball team this past winter, when the Falcons won their first district playoff game in almost 15 years and came one win shy of a state playoff trip.

“Each team was different in their own way, but they had similar components,” Walker said. “They were all together and most of my teammates, because Pottsgrove is a small school, the upperclassmen did transfer between each sport. I think that’s what really helped me.

“Some teammates that I had during soccer season were the same teammates I had during lacrosse season. It was the same thing with basketball. I was meeting new people, but the family component and the friendships were all the same.”

Mellor said it’s no coincidence that success has followed Walker and her teammates in whatever sport or season she is playing. There is another commonality between all three of those history-making teams: Walker.

“She wasn’t the best player on our team, but just her personality, being a good teammate, that success in the fall kind of snowballed a little bit and she kind of guided the basketball team and the lacrosse team,” Mellor said. “She doesn’t do anything flashy. She’s not this dominant voice in the room or anything like that, but she’s just very cool under pressure, she’s a great teammate and she works extremely hard.”

Spring-Ford’s Cassie Marte, right, runs by Pottsgrove’s Summer Walker. (Owen McCue – MediaNews Group)

Urie also noted that Walker’s contributions went beyond her athletic abilities.

“We knew we could count on Summer to set good examples on the field and off the field,” Urie said. “She brought good leadership quality. That’s something that everybody on the team could look up to, even as a freshman she brought that to the team just because her work ethic is so great.”

The COVID-19 pandemic did not disrupt Walker’s senior lacrosse season as she wasn’t set to play in 2020, instead choosing to use the spring to work and catch up with friends and family, who she hasn’t been able to spend as much time with over the last several years juggling her job, academics and athletics.

She plans on getting back into sports at Penn State by trying out for the club basketball team. Even if that doesn’t materialize she plans on staying active by going to the gym, running, hiking and other activities to keep her moving. Her main focus, however, will be on engineering.

“I was really struggling with what I want to do because I’ve always loved science and mathematics, but I was also really into art and design,” Walker said. “I was talking to my guidance counselors and they recommended (engineering). I did some research and got more in depth and it really felt like where I belonged. I’m not really sure what specific engineer I want to be yet, but it’s definitely a path I want to go on.”

Walker said her experiences on the athletic fields and courts with the Falcons shaped her into the well-rounded individual she is leaving Pottsgrove.

Her coaches mentioned she was a player her peers looked up to during her time with the Falcons, and she is poised to continue her successes in other aspects of life.

“She’s just going to be an outstanding person in the future, someone you’d like to see down the road in a couple years,” Brendlinger said. “She’ll do great things.”

The day athletes, coaches and fans throughout Pennsylvania have been waiting for since sports were shut down by the coronavirus pandemic three months has finally arrived.

Gov. Tom Wolf announced Wednesday that professional, collegiate, high school and amateur athletes throughout the Commonwealth can begin the process to return to action under modified health and safety guidelines.

For high school athletes, that means they can start to prepare for the fall season once their school develops a safety plan that meets the Pennsylvania Department of Health guidelines for reopening.

Sports at every level were shut down by the pandemic in mid-March. Schools have been closed, which means athletes have been forced to train on their own without the benefit of school facilities ore instruction.

“It’s awesome because we haven’t been able to do stuff,” Matt Grapin, a junior running back/outside linebacker at Springfield, said when told of the news. “It will be good to be able to do stuff again.”

According to the release, public and private K-12 schools within the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association (PIAA) and the Pennsylvania Independent Schools Athletic Association (PAISAA) located in counties in the yellow or green phase can resume voluntary sports-related workouts. Schools must first develop an athletic health and safety plan in alignment with the Pennsylvania Department of Education’s Preliminary Guidance for Phased Reopening of Schools that is approved by the local board of directors and posted on the school’s website.

“Allowing voluntary activities to commence at PIAA member schools as early as the approval by the local board is a significant move to allow students to be students,” PIAA executive director, Dr. Robert A. Lombardi said in a statement. “We are very appreciative and supportive of the Governor’s staff and PDE for allowing our input and having discussion of opening schools for voluntary workouts and activities.”

The restart will not be like turning on a spigot. It will take time. There are a lot of logistical factors that have to be worked out before athletes and teams can begin to get together to work out or play games.

“We have to develop a plan (for a safe return),” Garnet Valley athletic director Seth Brunner said. “We have to get it approved by our board. We have to get it put on our website.”

“I’m excited @GovernorTomWolf and @PIAASports have set a path for our athletes to return to off-season workouts,” Strath Haven athletic director Pat Clancy tweeted. “We are still developing our local plan and will let coaches and athletes know how and when we can return. Looking forward to getting back to work!”

Brunner said that it would probably take a couple of weeks to devise a plan to have the athletes and coaches return safely.

“If we’re able to get going and hit the ground running July 1, I’ll be happy,” Brunner said.

While many questions have to be answered, it’s a step in the right direction.

“All kind of things are going to change in the way that you prepare, and that’s why we have different contingency plans based on what we’re going to be allowed to do and what we’re not going to be allowed to do,” Garnet Valley football coach Mike Ricci said. “I think the big positive here is that we’re moving in a direction that is moving toward us being able to play. We have to see what that’s going to be as we go along. “

The reopening guidelines are still governed by the three-step process to reopen the state. Since all counties have exited the red phase, only the yellow and green phase guidelines apply.

Under the yellow phase, which includes Delaware County and Southeastern Pennsylvania, gatherings are limited to 25 people. Indoor activities are limited to 50 percent of total occupancy. Yellow phase activities are restricted to athletes, coaches and staff. Gatherings are limited to 250 once an area enters the green phase.

“Pennsylvania has some of the best athletes and teams in the country and they can now begin to safely return to organized sports,” Gov. Wolf said in a statement. “This guidance balances keeping student athletes safe from COVID-19 while allowing them to participate in an important part of their lives.

“This is another step toward reopening our state and getting things back on track. As students and teammates get ready to train and compete, it’s important that they follow precautions to protect each other and their community from the risk of COVID-19.”

Wolf said that as more public health information becomes available, his administration will work with impacted entities to release further guidelines which could impact fall, winter and spring seasons.

Under the reopening plan, college athletes and coaches will be allowed to return to campus in compliance with the Department of Health guidelines.

Professional sports team can practice provided they abide by their league and state health guidelines. To reopen, a team’s plan must include a process for testing and screening for COVID-19 and monitoring of all on-premises attendees. No spectators will be allowed in or directly outside of the site during the yellow phase.

Amateur and recreational sports not affiliated with K-12 school teams can hold games and practices once their area reaches the green phase. Youth sports are required to follow the guidelines set by the Centers for Disease Control.

All spectators are expected to follow social distancing guidelines. That includes wearing face coverings and not entering the field of play or bench areas. Parents should monitor their children for signs of the virus.

“I think it’s a huge step in the right direction,” Brunner said. “We have to be able to start doing stuff so that we can provide a safe space for these kids with protocols and guidelines so that they can do the things that they want to do in a safe environment.”

For the first time in three months, there were high school athletes out on athletic fields this week. Many others will soon join them.

After getting their Athletics Health and Safety plan approved by the school board last week, Owen J. Roberts High School began voluntary summer workouts Monday.

Though OJR is the only Pioneer Athletic Conference school to officially begin offseason athletic activities, the rest of the PAC is currently working on their proposals, most shooting for activities to begin in early to mid-July.

“I stopped by and looked at some practices,” OJR Athletic Director Randall Cuthbert said. “It’s different. I think just everyone’s happy to be back doing something. We’re in yellow so it’s pretty restricted. It’s a total of 25 at a time, including coaches and players so some of the bigger teams have had to stagger their workouts and it’s all non-contact, agility and conditioning stuff like that. You’re limited in what you can do, but I think people are just happy to be able to do something at this point after being at home for so long.”

The PIAA announced June 5 that schools would be able to engage in voluntary out-of-season activities by July 1 as restrictions are relaxed amid the coronavirus pandemic. Governor Tom Wolf and the Pennsylvania Department of Education posted preliminary school sports guidance on June 10, adjusting that time frame and allowing schools to return to play when they developed their own Athletics Health and Safety Plan and had it approved by the school’s governing board and posted to the school website.

On June 18, the PDE announced more clear guidelines, posting a template for proposals to give schools a guide of how they should plan the actions needed to take place and procedures to follow.

Each school is tasked with formulating its own specific return to play plan using those guidelines and get them approved by the school board — or the Philadelphia Archdiocese in the case of Pope John Paul II — before athletes are allowed to participate in voluntary offseason activities.

Schools are then tasked with ensuring coaches and players are properly educated and trained to safely carry out their workouts while adhering to the guidelines put in place.

“There’s a lot of layers to this process,” PJP athletic director Joe Trainer said. “When the Governor said high school athletics can resume play, I think everyone was kind of like, ‘Great, I’ll see you tomorrow at school.’ It’s not that easy. You have to have protocols in place. Certainly we’ve been talking about these protocols for a month prior too, but now there’s an immediacy to the situation.”

“Everybody’s working to make it happen if we can,” Pottsgrove AD Steve Anspach said. “We would love for our kids to be out there participating and doing something, but with all the regulations out there it’s a serious deal that we have to put together the right plan for the health and safety for everybody.”

According to the PDE guidelines, gatherings are limited to 25 people in the yellow phase of the state’s reopening process and 250 in the green phase. Berks, Chester and Montgomery counties were set to move to the green phase on Friday.

The facility as a whole must not exceed 50 percent occupancy during both phases. No spectators are allowed for the time being as sports-related activities for schools are limited to student-athletes, coaches, officials, and staff.

Other safety measures mentioned include coaches and adult personnel to wear face masks, athletes maintaining social distancing on and off the field and screening and monitoring athletes for COVID-19 symptoms prior to games and practices. Those with a temperature of 100.4 degrees or higher, or are sick, must be sent home.

Coaches and athletes must bring their own water bottle as communal coolers are not permitted. Chewing gum, spitting, licking fingers, and eating sunflower seeds are not allowed. Equipment should not be shared when possible and if it must, it needs to be properly disinfected between uses. Athletes are also asked to avoid unnecessary physical contact like shaking hands, fist bumps or high fives.

“As of right now, it’s just how do you follow all those guidelines out there to make it work?,” Anspach said. “That’s the challenging part. You read from the Pennsylvania Department of Health, the Return to Play guidelines from the state, the CDC guidelines. The focus is trying to blend it all together so our athletes can get back on the field and our coaches can get back on the field. That was kind of the focus because with everything going on there’s a lot of recommendations and a lot of advice out there. How do you make it work for us?”

At the moment, the proposals are only for allowing athletes to participate in voluntary offseason activities. Schools will need to get another plan approved before fall sports officially begin in mid-August.

“It’s just for the summer, the voluntary workouts and things like that,” Cuthbert said. “Districts are going to have to submit another plan in August for the school year. We’re kind of approaching this as this is our plan, we’re adapting things kind of as they come up and it’s kind of like a trial period. What’s working? What isn’t? Then the next plan in August we’ll kind of be reviewing that stuff and looking how things went, what we can do better, what worked and stuff like that.”

Communication has been invaluable in putting the proposals together. Athletic Directors have worked with coaches, trainers, principals and other administrators at their respective schools to figure out the safest way to return to sports.

Trainer said he has gotten on a few national calls to talk to athletic directors around the country to see what measures they are putting in place to ensure a safe return to high school sports.

There has also been a large amount of communication between the PAC schools with athletic directors and administrators from the league getting on conference calls with each other multiple times a week.

“How are we going to do the little things to make sure our kids have as little exposure to any potential threats as possible?” said newly appointed Phoenixville AD Don Grinstead, who doesn’t officially begin his duties until July 1. “There’s a lot of little details in here and it takes a lot of thought process. In our conference, we’re all sharing ideas and we’re all trying to find different things. We’ll be on a conference call and someone will say something and it will be, ‘Oh, I hadn’t thought about that.’ … There’s a lot of things we take for granted in a normal life situation that now we have to start to process.”

“I’m pretty happy and pretty proud that all of our administrators, all of our ADs and all of our superintendents, it’s like we’re all in this together,” Grinstead added. “The fact that we’re having so much dialogue and so many meetings right now, I think that speaks to the cooperation we’re all showing with each other and the respect and the care that we’re putting in for our kids.”

The consensus among the area’s athletic directors and many others trying to plan for a return to athletics is that the biggest challenge is not knowing what the future holds.

While lots of time and communication have been put into each school’s planning, it’s apparent that those plans will have a lot of give and take as more information comes and counties move between the red/yellow/green phases of reopening.

“Obviously we want to get the kids to work and get out there, but at the same time safety is still the priority,” Cuthbert said. “Things could change quickly either way. Everyone is just going to have to be ready to be flexible and change between phases if that’s what’s going to happen.”

“It’s a very fluid situation,” Grinstead said. “Nothing’s concrete right now. We’re getting new guidance from the state every day.”

Each AD made sure to note the safety of their students, coaches and others was paramount in all decision making. While the planning can only look so far down the road, it’s fairly clear that high school sports will look a lot differently for the indefinite future.

“The big thing is that these are new normals,” Trainer said. “It’s not like there’s a return to any state. It’s kind of like we’re basically forging new territory here whether it’s face masks or temporal scans, taking temperatures. At the end of the day, until you get a vaccine, you’re talking about policies. … I just think the consensus is that we want to go slower rather than faster because what we do in the fall potentially impacts what happens in the winter and the spring.”

In a public, four-plus hour Zoom meeting this week, the school board and superintendent in my home district discussed many important issues.

One stuck with me while lying in bed a few hours later.

On the two days a week my 6-year-old daughter goes to school, can she have class outside? It’s a simple question with a not-so-simple answer.

In the world of social distancing, it’s safer to have 20 first-graders sitting criss-cross applesauce, six feet apart, in the fresh air. But for security reasons, teachers can’t just see the sun and decide to move outdoors.  

What happens if there’s a school shooting?

—

One month from now, if the PIAA’s pipe dream comes true, I will be starting my 15th season of high school football.

There is nothing we love more than fall Fridays. Each season, there are fewer folks who earn paychecks covering high school sports. None of us take that for granted.

In 36 days, our dwindling, but dedicated, staff should be banding together for our first 2020 Football Friday.

I don’t think it will happen.

And I don’t think it should happen.

—

As the son of a teacher, I’ve always had tons of respect for that profession. And with my evening schedule, I’ve had the good fortune to volunteer often in my kids’ classrooms. 

Until you’ve seen someone say “1-2-3, Eyes on Me” and have 22 sets of 5-year-old eyes snap around to respond “1-2, Eyes on You!”, it’s hard to fully appreciate.

Trying to act as a substitute teacher last spring — and usually serving as iPad tech support and short-order cook — moved me into the “pay teachers whatever they want” camp.

If we, as a society, cannot provide those teachers — not to mention our kids — with a safe environment to continue their work, then we should not be playing high school sports.

Period.

—

In that meeting Tuesday night, experts presented the best of a bad batch of options, all while facing truly life and death decisions.

My wife and I now get to choose whether we want our kids to stay home and learn on an iPad, or if we want them to mask up and head to school two days a week.

Angry parents logged on to ask “did you think of this?” or “what will you do if my kindergartener won’t wear his mask?”

I understand the frustration. I’m frustrated. We’re all tired. We’re all dreaming of our “normal” lives. 

I am one of the very lucky ones. I work nights, while my wife often works remotely. So I am exceptionally fortunate to not have childcare worries, or my own safety at work to worry about. 

So I am not going to join the chorus of stay-at-home parents on the Internet who think there are better options no one has thought of, or that a cyber charter school is the answer.

These administrators, teachers and board members are trying to make the best of an impossible situation that comes once in a lifetime (hopefully). 

And while my heart breaks for athletes who may miss another season, the musicians who won’t get to perform, and especially seniors who may lose a chance at a college scholarship, there is a reason they are called EXTRA-curricular activities.

In a time that’s forced us all to focus on what truly matters — to reduce things to their essentials — we need to prioritize the ‘curricular.’ Only one element of school is actually required by law: the part where you learn, in a classroom, from a trained teacher, five days a week.

And if that can’t happen without risking lives, then neither should high school sports.

—

There are two major reasons why high school sports shouldn’t return this fall. 

One is scientific, and the other is moral. 

For the scientific part, I listen to my wife. The latter is more my speed.

First: Outside of semi-solo sports like golf, tennis and cross country, there is a real risk to playing sports in the COVID era. 

My better half is a virologist with a Ph.D. in immunology, who creates vaccines in a lab that help fight cancer. So when she speaks about viruses (and, well, most other things), I’ve learned to shut up and listen.

She believes the well-thought out school plan for our two kids is worth the small risk, so they can get some semblance of normalcy, maintain their sanity and keep learning the amazing things you pick up in elementary school. 

But two teams of football players smashing their sweaty, slobbery faces into each other 100 times a night? Twenty-two soccer players going up for headers and spitting out mouthguards?

Sure, studies seem to indicate that children are less at-risk of major illness, and may even “catch” the virus at a much lower rate. But no one knows what the long-term effects are yet.

And what about the coaches they share the locker rooms with? 

Or the 70-year-old science teacher they see the next morning. 

Or the 65-year-old woman driving the bus idling in the parking lot. 

Or the parents and grandparents waiting for them back home? 

There is just no reason to risk all of that for sports. 

And this is coming from someone who may very well be out of a job in a sports-free world.

The second reason is less about science and more about a moral compass.

Pretend for a second you’re a high school principal, superintendent or school board member. 

Now, look a parent in the eye (on a Zoom meeting) and tell them the following things.

• No, I can’t provide full-time education for your children.
• No, I can’t guarantee their safety.
• No, I can’t provide the full-time care you rely on to keep an essential job at the grocery store, factory or firehouse.
• No, I don’t have money in the budget to reduce class size and guarantee social distancing.
• Yes, the football team can practice every day and hop on a bus for a road game at Oxford.

It’s an unconscionable sell as an educator, administrator or even a parent.

—

No league or sport in this country has been able to protect its players yet, and each of those has one important thing that high school sports don’t: Money.

Major League Baseball, Major League Soccer and others can afford thousands of tests for players and staff. They can buy out entire hotels to quarantine players. Private planes and medical care in case of emergency.

But it’s not just money that separates the big boys from the Friday Night-lighters. 

It’s a voice.

If Bryce Harper, Carson Wentz and pros with big contracts want to weigh the risks and make a decision, then so be it. If Joel Embiid is worried about the NBA’s protocols, he simply needs to tweet about it. The NBA players’ union would have his back.

But what about a high school quarterback with a sick grandmom? Or a lineman with an autoimmune disorder? Or a receiver who just does not feel safe enough?

Even at a “big” football school like Penn State, players don’t have a voice.

If they speak up, they will simply be replaced by a kid who is willing to play. The “warrior” mindset works when you’re trying to get over bumps and bruises from training camp. Not a deadly virus.

There will be no college sports played in Chester County this fall. All three NCAA schools have cancelled their seasons. 

But sure, let’s play high school soccer and field hockey.

—

My two kids want nothing more than to go back to school. I want nothing more than to send them. Selfishly, I want a break. 

Fortunately, they are young enough to hopefully look back on this in a few years and laugh, with most of their education still in front of them.

I know that isn’t the case for most high schoolers, especially the athletes, many of whom are depending on a scholarship as a ticket to college and a life better than their parents’. 

But in a world where full-time, in-person education is impossible, and we’re deciding between protecting first graders from a deadly virus or a school shooter, sports should be a non-starter.

To be frank, I’d take an even money bet that no student — my two included — sets foot in a Pennsylvania classroom before 2021.

The last few years, mid-July has marked the end of our “slow” summer season. It’s when we start planning our Pa. Prep Live Football Preview — the project I’m most proud of each calendar year.

Other than the kids who are actually strapping on the football pads, running through the grass, swinging clubs on the links or kicking a soccer ball, there is NO ONE who wants to see high school sports return more than I do.

My job quite literally depends on it. 

But, I don’t think it will happen.

And I don’t think it should.

Steven Moore is the sports editor of the Daily Local News and an editor for Pa. Prep Live. You can reach him at smoore@21st-centurymedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @smoore1117.

In what was probably one of the most anticipated announcements in Pennsylvania high school sports history, the state’s governing body voted Wednesday in favor of moving forward with plans to play sports this fall season.

In the throes of a global pandemic, and with heat acclimatization set to begin in less than two weeks, the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association (PIAA) Board of Directors voted 29-3 in favor of ‘Return to Competition’ guidelines, outlined in a two dozen-plus page plan.  

“We’ve really been working at this because we feel it is vitally important to give our students every opportunity to be student-athletes,” said PIAA Executive Director Robert Lombardi. “We are advocates for them. Educational-based athletics are vital to growth, health and development of student-athletes and their ultimate success.

“There are a lot of what-ifs. But the biggest what-if is this: what if we don’t try? If we don’t try to get something out of the (fall) season for students, I think we are failing them. We need to do our darnedest to help them become successful.”

Board members representing the Pennsylvania Principals Association and the Pennsylvania School Boards Association were two of the three dissenting votes.

It’s important to note that the fate for high school athletics for 10-PIAA sanctioned fall sports ultimately rests with local school districts and state government – principally Governor Tom Wolf and Secretary of Health Rachel Levine.

“We are hopeful that we can work together and use metrics to see if we can give these students an opportunity to play,” Lombardi said.

“We will do what we’ve done from the start and work cooperatively with the Department of Education, the Department of Health, the Governor’s Office – they make the determination whether schools play. And we will adhere to that.”

The news was received across Chester County with cautious optimism, at least from several head coaches who are directly affected — like Oxford football mentor Mike Means.

“My guys and our coaching staff are thrilled,” he said. “One of the biggest struggles through all of this was not knowing. Now, we can get started and get ready for what’s next. There is still a lot of uncertainty, but this is a huge step.”

The PIAA approved a fall sports schedule to begin as already outlined, but also offered two options to start at a later date with alternate and hybrid plans. In football, for example, the first date contest is set for Aug. 28, but the alternate plan has a first date of Sept. 18. The hybrid plan starts no later than Oct. 5 for all sports.

“I’m happy it now looks like we are going to have a season, but it is a moving target right. We are taking it week-by-week,” said Villa Maria field hockey coach Katie Evans.

“We are very excited,” added Downingtown West girls soccer coach Katelyn Phillips. “It’s such an uncertain time, but our players are all back with their club teams and now they have the hope that they will have some type of (high school) season this fall.”

In addition to the regular schedule for postseason tournaments, the PIAA has a plan for a reduced format for its playoffs in all fall sports except golf and cross country. If instituted, the scaled-back plan calls for a state tournament of only league champions.

And because the state is limiting outdoor gatherings of 250 or more people, it is highly unlikely that any fans will be allowed at any high school athletic events in person.  

“It seems to be out of our hands right now,” Lombardi said. “We are anticipating, in most instances, of having no spectators.”

The PIAA Sports Medicine Advisory Steering Committee recommended, for example, that a single positive COVID-19 test by a student-athlete would require the entire team to quarantine for 14 days, and the Board of Directors approved the move unanimously. The committee also released detailed sports-specific protocols that address issues like masks, distancing, equipment restrictions and what to do if an athlete has a temperature of 100.4 or higher.

“I love field hockey and sports, so part of me is happy we are playing and that the PIAA thinks it is safe enough to proceed,” Evans said. “But ultimately, at Villa Maria, we are adamant about keeping the girls safe, so we will be using our best judgment to decide what is the safest route to take.

“Field hockey is an easier sport to make sure everyone is socially distancing, and we have our own protocols where the coaches will all be in masks, the girls won’t be able to pick up equipment, and the PIAA will come out with sports-specific direction as well.”

As it stands now, heat acclimation week starts on Aug. 10, and practices can commence on Aug. 17. Golf and girls tennis will be allowed to begin competing on Aug. 20 and 24, respectively. The rest — field hockey, soccer, cross country, volleyball and water polo – can start Sept. 4.

Under the alternate plan, all sports other than football would get underway on Sept. 14.  

“The last six months have been about nothing but being flexible,” Means pointed out. “The only thing we can get ready for is what is in front of us, so we are planning to come back on August 10^th. If that gets moved back, then it gets pushed back. If that changes, we will change along with it.”

At Downingtown West, the athletic department has been offering Zoom agility workouts, as well as individual training sessions, all in preparation for a season that may, or may not, take place. There is, of course, the scenario where a season starts but is postponed or eventually cancelled, which is what happened to the tail end of the winter season and all of the spring season in 2020.    

“From what I am getting from our parents and athletes, they are ready even with the restrictions to do whatever they can,” Phillips said.

“We are ready for the unexpected,” Evans added. “We will keep moving forward until we get more direction, and keep planning as if there will be a season and keep using our best judgment to keep everybody safe.

“I think if we have a season, the teams that can adapt best to this uncertain period right now, they will be the ones that will succeed.”

As it pertains to the potential 14-day team quarantine, Lombardi explained that the PIAA is giving more flexibility to schools to work cooperatively on scheduling complications, but that is just for the regular season.

“However, if it is a district game and a team cannot play, it would be a forfeit because of advancement,” he said.

Most coaches understand that as they move forward with plans to practice and compete this fall, there will be many who disagree with the PIAA guidelines, and some parents and players who decide not to participate.

“I haven’t seen it in my community yet with my parents and players,” Means said. “They have been very positive about wanting to have a season.

“There is absolutely going to be push-back, but no matter what (the PIAA does), it will be the wrong decision for like half of the people. And usually the ones who disagree are more vocal than the ones that agree. I’m not worried about that.

“If a kid is in a compromised position, and it’s in the best interest of his family not to play, then that’s obviously the direction we would go with that family and that kid.”  

The next PIAA Board of Directors meeting is slated for Aug. 26, and Lombardi said that adjustments to the plan could take place in accordance with the medical recommendations at that time.

“This at least gives our kids a little bit of hope,” Phillips said. “And with the majority of fall sports taking place outdoors, it’s kind of an advantage because the restrictions aren’t as strict.

“There might be a shortened, or a hybrid, but they just want to have something to remember from this season.”

The PIAA Board of Directors on Wednesday approved its ‘Return to Competition’ guidelines for all fall sports.

The state’s governing sports body, using current Pa. Dept. of Health and CDC guidelines, as well as recommendations from multiple in-house committees, issued its sport-specific considerations in a 25-page document.

“Based on currently known information, the PIAA Sports Medicine Advisory Committee believes that STRICT ADHERENCE by schools and teams to their school-adopted plans and the Governor’s School Sports Guidance should provide a reasonably safe environment for student-athletes to participate in interscholastic athletics as currently scheduled,” states the PIAA in the Return to Competition guidelines.

Return to Competition Guidelines – Protect Yourself, Protect Others, Protect the Season: https://t.co/1l4yQOc4uT

— PIAA (@PIAASports) July 29, 2020

Below are the most notable takeaways from the guidelines:

• Along with daily health assessments, hand washing/sanitization requirements and social distancing, the ‘general considerations’ call for all coaches, athletes and spectators (if permitted) to wear face coverings unless maintaining consistent six feet separation. Athletes are not required to wear face coverings while actively engaged in workouts and competition.

• Consider conducting workouts in “pods” of same students always training and rotating together in practice to ensure more limited exposure if someone develops an infection.

• Coaches should limit game day squad sizes for social distancing purposes.

• At this time spectators for K-12 events are not allowed. The Preliminary School Sports Guidance document which was released by the Governor’s Office states that, “The addition of visitors and spectators will be contingent upon future health conditions within the state and local communities.” The PIAA states that it expects additional information from the Governor’s Office and Department of Education on the subject.

Cross Country

• Schools are encouraged to limit team participants to 12 or fewer for meets involving four or fewer teams.

• Staggered, wave or interval starts are encouraged, and schools should look at widening courses by 6 feet at the narrowest points.

Field hockey

• The PIAA encourages more bench space, no handshakes, ball individuals using gloves or extra balls placed around the field of play, and a designated space for players who are carded that is socially distant from the officials table. Pregame introduction lines are discouraged.

• Face coverings, gloves and goggles are allowed, but players should not share masks for penalty corners.

Football

• The team box on each sideline can be extended to both 10-yard lines for increased social distancing, and teams should reduce game rosters as much as possible.

• The PIAA recommends teams promote the use of clear plastic face shields on helmets. Cloth face masks are also permitted.

• Encourage fewer offensive and defensive huddles and encourage coaching staffs to utilize other methods of communication with players (such as signals, cards, signs) to minimize grouping.

Golf

• Normal golf group sizes are permitted, but social distancing must be maintained. It is also recommended the number of golfers in a match be limited, start times be staggered at least 12 minutes for groups of three and 15 minutes for groups of four, and everyone tees off from the same starting hole.

Soccer

• As with football and field hockey, any ball boys or girls should be socially distanced and wear gloves.

• Teams bench areas may be expanded to increase social distancing.

• There is to be no introduction line prior to games, and players should head immediately to their starting positions on the field. Any halftime, pre-game and post-game team meetings should be conducted off the field, and there are to be no post-game handshakes.

Tennis

• The PIAA encourages using 4-6 balls per match with player/team-specific sets, returning the ball to the opponent with use of the racquet or foot.

Volleyball

• Teams are not to switch sides between sets, and bench areas can be expanded for social distancing purposes. Substitutions are encouraged close to the attack line, with 6 feet of distance between players and the official.

Water polo

• Team benches should be placed on opposite sides of the pool. For social distancing, substitute players can be in the water behind the goal line if there is space, and coaches can be behind the goal line in the team area when the team is on defense.

Every year, in early August, West Chester’s head football coach Bill Zwaan is typically prepping for an upcoming season. But thanks to the coronavirus pandemic, that streak is ending after 43 consecutive summers.

“Everything just feels so screwy,” he said.

“I started coaching in 1977, so you are talking about a long time where I haven’t been in a preseason camp.”

Nearly three weeks ago, WCU’s league — the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) — announced that all fall sports would be suspended, and that plans were being developed to play those seasons in next spring. Two weeks later, the state’s high school governing body recommended that the 2020 fall season would move forward with a plan to start on time. The PIAA also added a couple scenarios for a delayed start.

“We want to do what’s best for our kids in Pennsylvania with the best and current information that we have, at the latest possible date, to save as much activity as we possibly can,” explained PIAA Executive Director Robert Lombardi.

“All these summer recreational leagues are playing. We’re seeing softball and soccer games, and tournaments every weekend. They’re playing, so why can’t we play?”

During a subsequent question and answer session, it prompted this question: if the PSAC has ruled out athletics this fall, why is the PIAA not following suit? 

“We don’t want to be the PSAC,” Lombardi said. “We don’t want to be the ACC, or the NAIA, or the jucos, or Maryland, or Virginia, or New Mexico. All of those states have other (needs).”

Lombardi went on to explain that the PSAC — like all NCAA programs from Division I to III – has a much different situation than what is facing high school’s this fall.

“(The critics) don’t understand that kids in college are coming from all different states,” he said. “And when they play contests, they travel across numerous state lines or across the country. Our kids are sequestered basically, by going to mom and dad … or a guardian every night, hopefully studying, getting a good night sleep and going back to school in their local communities.

“With the exception of our state championships, our contests are all within a very short commute. So they are totally different.”

It is a distinction that Zwaan agrees with. 

“Obviously the number one thing everybody is concerned about is the safety of the kids,” he said. “(The PSAC) couldn’t guarantee that because of our campus atmospheres. It would be nice if we could control what the kids do off the field – and we can control certain things – but we can’t.

“In college, the kids are going back to the dorms or their apartments every day after practice or games. At the high school level, the kids live at home with their families that they have been quarantined with, to a certain extent. So they may be able to control things a little bit better.

“It may be easier for them to keep the disease under wraps at the high school level than at the college level.”

When asked, however, about his gut feeling on whether there will be high school athletics in Pennsylvania this fall, Zwaan said: “No.

“I think everything is in serious jeopardy, to be honest.”

The ultimate decision isn’t in the PIAA’s hand. It will come down to mandates by state government and/or local school districts. And with heat acclimation week set to begin on Aug. 10, time is of the essence.

According to Zwaan, high schools and non-Division I athletic programs share a similar hurdle that is very difficult to clear: testing.

“Division I (programs) have been on campus since June, so they’ve had a couple months to iron out problems they are going to see,” he pointed out. “So they may be able to push forward.

“The biggest issue for us is the testing piece. We can’t afford to test kids twice a week, and at the high school level they are going to run into that same problem. At the Division I level, they can have people on campus testing kids, paying for it and having the availability for it to happen. That’s not happening at our level – no way in the world.”

Zwaan actually doubts that there will be any college sports played this fall, even big-time football, which has the resources that everyone else doesn’t.

“What happens when four or five kids get it?” he asked. “When people really dive into that scenario, it makes them say, ‘it’s not worth us trying.’ So I really wouldn’t be surprised if they decide not to do anything in the fall.”

And those daunting questions don’t just apply to fall sports. Unless some unforeseen good fortune comes along in the next few months, all of these problems extend into the winter and spring of 2021.

“The likeliness of us coming back (next spring) is probably tied to a vaccine,” Zwaan acknowledged. “When you sit down and have discussions, you can talk yourself out of everything because anytime you bring something up, it’s completely negative. What happens if this happens? What happens if that happens?

“It gets to the point where you say, ‘I don’t know if we can protect these kids.’”

If you looked at Wednesday’s declaration by the PIAA about the future of fall high school sports and wondered what’s next, you’re not alone. Many school administrators are in the same boat.

The PIAA’s determination ceded scheduling control to school districts in the face of whatever the COVID-19 pandemic looks like in their part of the state. But the line between flexibility and lack of guidance is thin. And while the PIAA’s guiding ethos is “maximizing the athletic opportunities for students across the Commonwealth,” many districts are left to figure it out with limited guidance.

“It’s frustrating because you look at the PIAA and you would think that the PIAA would want to create a level playing field for all and equity across the state,” Garnet Valley athletic director Seth Bruner said Thursday. “And I understand where they’re coming from and why they’re doing it and that it’s not an issue in some parts of the state. But speaking for me at Garnet Valley, I look to them for guidance. And it’s easier if we’re on the same page as a league or a county instead of on our own island. Because if something happens at Garnet Valley, it affects all of our opponents.”

“As a parent, it didn’t really do any good for us,” said Penncrest AD Chip Olinger, who has three kids, including a high school junior, in the Garnet Valley district. “There’s really been no clarity. Things change weekly … Yesterday was just basically in my mind, putting all of us in a really difficult position. These are guidelines. They’re not rules.”

The PIAA’s plans were basically a, “whatever works for you” menu of options. There’s the regular start date, with heat acclimation for football starting Aug. 10 and practices Aug. 17. That would make football’s infernal Week 0 Aug. 28. There’s the alternate start, which set the first football contest date as Sept. 18, provided there are a minimum of three weeks of preseason for contact sports. And there’s the hybrid start, which is basically, start before Oct. 5 … or after it, maybe.

The PIAA’s response is to the varied conditions on the ground. While the southeastern corner of the state and the Lehigh Valley, with their denser populations, have been hit hard, while more scantly populated counties have registered limited numbers of coronavirus cases. Those areas that went into the “Green Phase” of recovery as soon as possible would rather not be held back, to put it lightly. The PIAA showed the same inclination last spring when it cancelled winter postseason tournaments but left handling spring season up to local districts, control that was taken over by Gov. Tom Wolf’s closing of schools.

Norristown Area School District, with one of the larger high schools in District 1 and the state, opted Thursday to cancel athletics for the fall. Two District 10 schools, Wilmington and Sharpsville, have suspended school/athletic activities for two weeks after positive tests of staffers or students.

Private schools like Cardinal O’Hara have some strength in numbers. Athletic director and head football coach BJ Hogan anticipates that a decision on the fate of their fall will be made as a league. The Catholic League athletic directors will meet next week. While there are complicating factors – members span all five counties in the Philadelphia suburbs; three (Devon Prep, St. Joseph’s Prep and La Salle) are non-Archdiocesan schools – a decision is likely to apply league wide.

“We’re going to discuss some things and try and see what we can do best to keep our kids safe and hopefully still be able to play some games within the season,” Hogan said. “I think the biggest question is making sure we can keep the kids safe, with all the protocols for all our sports at O’Hara.”

O’Hara athletes have had summer activities cut down due to safety, but Hogan is aiming for the Aug. 10 date to restart.

Garnet Valley approved a plan in late June, when Delaware County went green, to allow voluntary off-season workouts on campus with social distancing, masks, temperature checks, student waivers, etc. Its decision will ultimately go through the school board. Penncrest has undergone numerous changes since instituting return-to-practice guidelines in late June.

But while the decision is smaller than a blanket PIAA option, it’s also larger than any one school, as long as two teams are still going to be required for a game. And Garnet Valley’s decisions are being made with an eye toward what others in the Central League are doing.

“Those are things we are going to have to look at as a league and hopefully come to some common ground,” Bruner said. “Even among the league, there’s a lot of disparity.”

It’s looking more and more like the fall high school sports season is going to start later than usual thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Penncrest High School pushed the start of its fall in-season practices back to Aug. 24 for safety, the school announced on Twitter Tuesday. That includes the heat acclimation week for football.

“We still have a lot of work to do,” athletic director Chip Olinger said.

Olinger has asked the school board to extend its OTA health plan/practices through Aug. 23. It is supposed to end Sunday. He said the board is expected to vote on that issue Thursday and make a determination on fall sports on Aug. 20.

Under PIAA regulations, teams must have three full weeks of practice before competition can begin. That means the earliest games can begin for Penncrest is Friday, Sept. 11.

Last week the PIAA announced that it was moving forward with fall sports as scheduled but gave individual schools the option for alternative or hybrid starts. The decision by Penncrest would fall into the hybrid category.

According to the PIAA calendar, football is allowed to start Aug. 10 with the heat acclimation week. All other sports can start practice on Aug. 17. The first contest date for football is Aug. 28. The first game date for all other sports, with the exception of golf and girls tennis, is Sept. 4. Golf can start on Aug. 20 and tennis on Aug. 24 (both require less practice before the first competition date).

The decision by Penncrest pushes that timetable back two weeks for football and one in all other sports.

“I wanted to let my people know what’s going on,” Olinger said. “It’s our decision right now.”

That could change. Olinger said the Central League administrators are scheduled to meet next Monday to finalize a plan for the fall season. That could hinge on what Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf has to say. He is expected to announce further guidelines for high school sports on Wednesday.

“What happens in schools should be consistent with what happens on the playing fields,” Wolf said Monday. “In other words, if the school is going completely virtual it seems hard to justify to have in-person contact sports playing in the fall. If the school’s going to be open and feels it’s safe, teachers, parents, administrators feel it’s safe to reopen then that’s a different proposition for contact sports.”

“Things are moving rapidly,” Olinger said. “I think by Friday you’re going to see a lot of shoes dropping big time.”

Penncrest is the first individual school in Delaware County to push back the start of its fall season, but not the first to have its schedule altered. On Monday, the Inter-Ac League — which includes Agnes Irwin, Episcopal Academy, The Haverford School and Notre Dame — said it is delaying the start of fall practice until Sept. 14 and will play league-only competition in all sports.

Schools can continue to hold strength and conditioning activities through Aug. 21, but then must suspend those activities for a minimum of two weeks, which will be determined at each school’s discretion. Games will begin at the end of September. Football will play a seven-game schedule with some schools playing twice to fill out that schedule.

“The idea is to get school up and going and then start sports after that,” said Todd Fairlie, the athletic director and head football coach at Episcopal Academy.

Several schools and leagues throughout the state have pushed back the start of the fall season. The WPIAL announced that football games will start on Sept. 10, while the first competition date for soccer, field hockey, volleyball and cross country is Sept. 14. Golf and girls tennis will start on Aug. 24.

The Eastern Pennsylvania Conference, part of District 11 in the Lehigh Valley, announced Tuesday that competition in soccer, field hockey and volleyball will begin on Sept. 25 and football games will start Oct. 2. Other individual schools have delayed the start of the fall sports season.

“There’s no playbook for this,” Fairlie said. “Nobody knows. We’re making an effort to get the kids back in school, and I think this sports decision is in line with that. What we were fearful of is coming back for sports next week or in two weeks and then cases pop up and the schools shut down.”

The Philadelphia Catholic and Ches-Mont leagues Wednesday made the call to delay the start of their fall sports seasons.

In a statement on the league’s website, the PCL Board of Directors voted unanimously to push back fall sports until Aug. 31, which would mark the start of heat acclimatization week for football teams.

“The PCL is committed to a safe return to competition, but the safety and welfare of our student-athletes, coaches and athletic staffs is the primary focus,” said Joseph McFadden, who is the chairman of the PCL Board of Governors and principal at Archbishop Ryan. “We hope our student-athletes can enjoy a competitive and safe athletic experience this fall if the opportunity presents itself.”

According to the West Chester Daily Local, the Ches-Mont League has revised its fall sports schedule, as well. Athletic directors voted Wednesday to begin heat acclimatization Sept. 7 and no football games will be played prior to the weekend of Sept. 24-25. Sun Valley is the Ches-Mont’s only Delaware County member.

The Del Val League, which has not announced plans to delay its season, is in the middle of a two-year scheduling partnership with Ches-Mont schools. The Ches-Mont’s decision to delay sports will no doubt have an impact on the Del Val, which consists of only five members — Academy Park, Chester, Chichester, Interboro and Penn Wood.

In the Catholic League, the opening week of football contests will take place the weekend of Sept. 18-19. Strength and conditioning workouts for football players will continue through the end of this week.

Student-athletes competing in cross country, golf, soccer, tennis and volleyball will begin practice Monday, Sept 14. Games will get under way Oct. 2-3. The Catholic League has opted to play a league-only schedule in all sports, mimicking the decision the Inter-Ac League (a non-PIAA conference) made earlier this week.

Cardinal O’Hara athletic director and football head coach BJ Hogan believes all non-football sports could have a complete District 12 and PIAA postseason, provided the PIAA votes to move forward with postseason championships. The PIAA steering committee will meet Aug. 26 to decide the fate of state tournaments in the fall.

“With the two divisions (Blue and Red), the Blue Division is where it’s going to get jammed up with all the sports because we’re going to lose the first two weeks of competition. It’s going to depend on the PIAA. They’re going to come out on (Aug.) 26 whether they’re going to have districts and states (playoffs) or whether they’re going to move up the state championships so we kind of won’t know until then,” Hogan said. “We’re planning on district and state playoffs for field hockey, soccer, volleyball. We feel we can start them on Oct. 5 and still be done in plenty of time to have playoffs. I think the district deadline is Nov. 18 or 19. Football is the only sport that gets a little crazy because you can’t play more than once a week.

“The key is going to be the PIAA on Aug. 26. If they say there’s no state playoffs, but you can do districts, at least we can figure that out. How does District 1 in football go on (with playoffs)? They have 16 teams (in Classes 6A and 5A). How do they figure that out if there is a state playoff? You’re going to have to play four league games and go right to playoffs. How do you sort that out.”

Athletic directors from the Central League are expected to meet Monday to decide the league’s plan for fall sports. Penncrest was the first Delco school to push the start of its fall practices back to Aug. 24. Because teams must have three full weeks of practices before competition can begin, the earliest that Penncrest teams can play games is Friday, Sept. 11.

Chester was the first Delco school to announce that it will operate virtually in September. Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf said last week it would be unfeasible for virtual schools to have sports in the fall.

“If the school is going completely virtual, it seems hard to justify having in-person contact sports being played in the fall,” Wolf said.

Tom Quintois, the athletic director and girls soccer coach at Archbishop Carroll, is happy the PCL came to an agreement on a plan instead of just an outright cancellation to the fall sports campaign.

“To be honest, I’m thrilled to death that we’re having a season at all. All that matters is that kids are healthy and playing sports, and quite frankly, I’ll take whatever they’re going to give us,” Quintois said. “In talking to parents, we were saying, it’s going to be a delay, let’s get the kids into school, let’s show everybody that we can keep everybody healthy and safe, and then let’s get back at it and try to get this season in. My only concern is getting the kids healthy to play sports.”

Needless to say, plenty has yet to be decided regarding high school sports in Pennsylvania. And the top priority remains the health and safety of the students.

“I’m scared out of my mind for our athletes at O’Hara,” Hogan said. “We need to be in school and we need sports just because we’re a tuition-driven school, but how are we going to keep our kids safe?”

Daily Times assistant sports editors Matthew DeGeorge and Terry Toohey contributed to this story.

High School student-athletes, parents and coaches in Chester County will have to wait at least one more day to receive a definitive decision on whether the 2020 fall season is going to take place in the midst of a global pandemic.

Or things could continue to remain in limbo as state officials and the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association (PIAA) take turns addressing the issue with ambiguous statements, seemingly waiting for the other to make the ultimate call.

During a Thursday press conference, when asked about the fate of the upcoming season, Gov. Tom Wolf said that all high school sports should be pushed back to the 2021 calendar year.

“The guidance is that we ought to avoid any congregate settings,” he said. “And that means anything that brings people together is going to help that virus get us and we ought to do everything we can to defeat that virus. So any time we get together for any reason, that’s a problem because it makes it easier for that virus to spread.”

A later joint press release from the state’s Department of Health and Department of Education said that the Wolf administration is providing a strong recommendation, but not an order or mandate, and that school administrators and locally elected school boards should make the decisions on sports.

It prompted the PIAA Board of Directors to issue the following statement: “Today, Governor Wolf issued a statement of strongly recommending no interscholastic and recreational sports until Jan. 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 (Friday) afternoon to review this action. PIAA will have an official statement (then).”

On July 29, the PIAA approved a fall sports schedule to begin on time, but also offered two options to start at a later date with alternate and hybrid plans. Five days later, the Ches-Mont league announced that the start of the fall season would be pushed back from Aug. 28 to Sept. 25, but that each school in the league would have an opportunity to approve the plan.

Another local conference, the Central League (Conestoga), also recently announced plans to delay the start of the season by several weeks.

“It’s all extremely frustrating,” said Unionville girls’ soccer coach Joe Ratasiewicz. “Everything’s in limbo.

“Unionville chose to go with a hybrid of virtual and in-person classes this fall. But it’s different with athletics because most of the sports are outdoors where you can keep distances and you have enough coaches, administrators and training staff to monitor it.

“It seems to me that we should be able to put something together.”

Tensions now appear to be building between state officials and the PIAA. In a statement by Garry Cathell, the executive director of the Pennsylvania Football Coaches Association (PSFCA), he said that the PIAA was given no prior notice of Wolf’s recommendation.

“If all sports are cancelled, the PSFCA will immediately begin conversations to have spring football,” Cathell added in the statement.

“That’s the problem with leadership today, no one wants to stick their neck out and make the decision for the group, they want to pass the buck and point fingers,” added Coatesville head football coach Matt Ortega.

“I think that is what is going on here. All we want is some guidance and a decision.”

When asked if Wolf’s recommendation could signal the end of hopes to compete this fall, Downingtown West tennis coach Justin DePietropaolo said: “I can’t give you a definitive answer. I hope that (the state officials and the PIAA) work together and we can come to an agreement.

“My gut feeling is that they will do what is best for all of the athletes.”

DePietropaolo has been running summer tennis camps in Chester and Delaware counties for the past eight weeks, and believes that protocols adopted through the United States Tennis Association have been successful so far.

“I’ve been working with a lot of kids and we haven’t had any issues,” he said. “Tennis is one of the sports, like cross country and golf, where you can social distance. The tennis community has had some pretty good protocols in place for a while.”

When asked about his gut feeling for the prospects of fall action, Ratasiewicz said that he believes Unionville will be fielding a girls’ soccer team in 2020. But he sees some potential scheduling challenges.

“The Ches-Mont Athletic Directors chose to play league games only, but the problem is what if only half of our league teams are playing?” he said. “I don’t see a problem with crossing over and playing schools from, say, the Central League.”

Another option that has been bandied about among administrators and coaches is the prospects of a piecemeal approach. The idea is that fall sports that are inherently easier to self-distance — like tennis, golf and cross country — would move forward as planned, while others like football or indoor volleyball take a more cautious path. “It would depend on the area you live in,” Ratasiewicz explained. “If you have high percentage of positive cases, you may want to limit it to golf and tennis. If it is a medium range — whatever that may be — you could extend it to soccer and field hockey. And if you are in a pretty clean area, it seems to me that you should be able to do most sports with the safeguards that a required per sport.”

Ortega has heard some of those ideas, but just like the coronavirus itself, there are a lot of questions that are difficult to answer right now.

“What we thought we knew about the virus two months ago is different than what we know now,” he said. “That’s the perplexing thing about this.

“As a football coach, it’s hard for me to say what the outcome would be if we played, but I do know that all of the school districts have done a good job of formulating plans in such a short time period.

“For the last month in a half, we’ve kept it pretty safe but it still hasn’t involved the full-contact piece, which we don’t know how that would look.”

There are also other ideas, like moving all fall sports to the spring, which may end up being the last resort.

“There have been several states that have successfully coordinated that, and I think it can be done,” Ratasiewicz said.

It is all, undoubtedly, a complex challenge to maneuver through, and the only guarantee is that there will be plenty of public push back when the dust settles.

“Last spring was cancelled and if you cancel the fall, the psyche of these kids really starts to be affected,” Ratasiewicz said.

“From the start, it’s been a roller coaster,” Ortega added. “There are days where you feel confident and there are days, like (Thursday), where you get brought back down.”

Ortega is not only a coach but also a parent of a student-athlete. His son, Tommy, is a rising junior at Coatesville who lost his sophomore lacrosse season last spring, and is now faced with an uncertain future in football.

“I can’t imagine what the players are going through, especially the seniors,” he said. “It’s been rough because it’s been very cloudy from the start. I really felt we could have better leadership from day one because things never seemed aligned between the governor and the PIAA.

“I hope it gets resolved soon so that everybody knows what we are dealing with and not have it keep playing out and strung along.”

The ongoing saga between Governor Tom Wolf’s administration and the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association (PIAA) concerning the future of athletics this fall is showing no signs of abating.

A day after Wolf unveiled a “strong recommendation” that all high school sports be postponed until 2021 due to safety concerns from the COVID-19 outbreak, the PIAA convened an impromptu board of directors meeting on Friday.

In a vote of 30-2, the PIAA approved a two-week delay in the start date for practices and contests in order to “… continue to seek a dialog with the administration, the legislature and all athletic stakeholders to obtain clarification on the possibility of safely conducting athletic activities in conjunction with the start of the school year.”

Under the new plan, heat acclimation week for football, as well as the start of workouts for all other fall sports programs, can begin on Aug. 24. The opening date for contests has been moved from Aug. 28 to Sept. 11.  

“We have spoken with a member (of the governor’s staff) and we seem to be going back and forth,” acknowledged PIAA Executive Director Robert Lombardi. “The impetus of the request made is to ask the governor to reconsider.

“The next two weeks we are going to do our darnedest to meet with as many stakeholders as we can, including the (Pennsylvania) General Assembly, and hopefully the staff of the Department of Health, the Department of Education, and the Governor’s office to see if we can collaborate about supporting fall activities.”

For the vast majority of Chester County student-athletes, the PIAA’s latest move is inconsequential because Ches-Mont league athletic directors voted to delay the season nine days ago, with practices to start on Sept. 7 and games to begin on Sept. 25.

“Nothing really changes for us in the Ches-Mont,” said Bishop Shanahan volleyball coach Greg Ashman.

“It really has no impact on us, we are good for (Sept. 7),” Unionville football coach Pat Clark agreed.

“To get to the 11th hour and for this to be the outcome, it is disappointing, and it’s most unfair to the kids. You would think the PIAA would be in contact with the health department and the governor’s office on a regular basis, so nobody should be blindsided. That part is frustrating.”

Lombardi said that Governor Wolf’s Thursday announcement “caught people off-guard.” He said that the PIAA had received numerous phone calls and about 7,500 emails in a 24-hour period since, and described them as intense and from the heart.

“What’s comforting is the amount of intensity, emotion and vigor that people have responded with,” he added.

“I don’t know what (the Wolf Administration) believes. That statement came at the end of a (press conference) and there were no follow-ups. We need to have dialog on where the (Jan. 1, 2021) date came from.”

It appears that the core of the impasse is that neither side seems willing to make the ultimate call. On Thursday, Wolf said that school administrators and locally elected school boards should be making the final decision.

“I’m hopeful in the next two weeks we can have some good dialog with the administration and see if we can make a case for some of our activities,” Lombardi said.

“I don’t think the (PIAA) is kicking the can down the road at all. In a little more than 24 hours, you’re asking a board of directors to make a decision that could negatively impact hundreds of thousands of student-athletes.

“We would like to have full support (from state government), but it was a recommendation, not a mandate. If it was an order, we probably wouldn’t be having the discussion we are having now.”

Like just nearly all local coaches, Ashman would like see a definitive course of action, but he also understands that the decision on whether to play high school sports during a global pandemic is highly problematic.

“I don’t think anybody wants to be the bad guy if a decision is made,” he said. “And I see both sides. Health and safety is the biggest concern and nobody wants to be responsible for any outbreaks. But I also know how important it is for kids to participate in sports.”

Ashman’s program started summer volleyball workouts in early July, but about a week in, a player tested positive for the coronavirus. Ashman decided to shut down the workouts indefinitely. The good news was that nobody else tested positive.

“What that tells me is that everything we were doing worked because the girl that tested positive, she contracted it outside the program,” he explained. “She was unable to bring it into the program because of the protocols we had in place.  

“At some point I think we will do voluntary workouts before tryouts and keep our fingers crossed.”  

With the hopes for a fall season seemingly changing daily, Clark said that even though the uncertainty is disheartening, he believes that the student-athletes are handling it all better than the coaches.

“As coaches, we look at the calendar and try to roll with it,” he said. “But I think that young people are very resilient.”

When asked why there have been so many delays in making a final determination, Lombardi said: “I think you are asking the wrong person.” He also discussed the possibilities of moving fall sports to the spring of 2021, and mentioned the possibility that certain lower-risk sports like golf, tennis and cross country could move forward this fall without the higher-risk sports like football, soccer, field hockey or volleyball.

“Golf, tennis and cross country are being carried on in public and private facilities throughout the commonwealth, and are going off safely,” Lombardi argued. “Why don’t we get the same opportunity? That’s part of the discussion.

“If two or three sports may be having some angst for some folks, then let’s have a discussion so we can address those issues.”

On the subject of a spring model, he said: “(The state legislature) would like to have a discussion to see if they can be of assistance for what we think we can do to get fall sports started. If we can’t, what can we do to hopefully have three sports seasons in some fashion before the end of the (2020-21) school year?”

The next move in what has become a ping-pong match that nobody wants to see now moves the state government. The PIAA Board of Directors next meeting is scheduled for Aug. 21.

“With indoor volleyball, it’s tough to social distance on the court but we can certainly keep kids apart and make sure they are following rules like cleaning hands and wearing facemasks when they are not participating,” Ashman pointed out.

“My gut feeling is that we start the fall season and then at some point we have to stop. But if I had a crystal ball, I wouldn’t be a volleyball coach – I’d be playing the lottery.”

Just as some clarity began to form on the status of high school sports in Pennsylvania and the Mercury area this fall, another wrench was thrown into the attempt to return safely to scholastic extracurricular activities amid coronavirus concerns.

While the Pioneer Athletic Conference and multiple area schools made decisions regarding their prospective seasons, Governor Tom Wolf’s recommendation Thursday to play no sports through Jan. 1 — which came as a surprise to many, including the PIAA — cast doubts about any plans in place.

Those Mercury-area players, coaches and administrators in favor of playing sports this fall are doing their best to prepare for a future that remains unclear and uncertain.

“It’s definitely tough because it’s something that we don’t have any control over what’s going to happen, which is a weird experience,” Spring-Ford senior boys soccer player Matt Dunne said. “The PAC thing we kind of knew it was coming and the Governor thing I think came out of nowhere. To have the PIAA ‘blindsided’, it’s just kind of confusing how they didn’t have the dialogue between each other, especially since they’re supposed to be working with each other the whole time.”

As permitted by the PIAA and state guidelines, area high school teams have been participating in voluntary workouts since as early as the beginning of July under safety protocols put together by their school districts without knowing whether they would have a season or not.

Some measures include athletes wearing masks when not on the field of play, using their own ball during activities and keeping their distance from each other on and off the athletic surfaces when possible.

“They’ve been going very smoothly,” Pottsgrove senior field hockey player Riley Simon said of voluntary workouts. “All athletes are respecting and following the safety guidelines. I think that’s definitely a step in the right direction that we’re proving that we can have sports if we do it in a safe way, if we do it in the correct way.”

Pottsgrove’s Riley Simon (24) is hoping to suit up for the Falcons for the first time since her girls basketball season ended in February. (Austin Hertzog – MediaNews Group)

The first major decision on the status of fall competition came July 29, when the PIAA released its ‘Return to Competition’ guidelines, announcing its plans to move forward with the fall season and putting decisions on when to start the season in the hands of individual schools, leagues and/or conferences.

Governor Wolf’s statement Thursday, which was later jointly recommended by the Pennsylvania Department of Health and Department of Education, disappointed those who have worked on following guidelines and recommendations set forth by the Center for Disease Control, Governor Wolf, the Department of Health, the PIAA and school districts to prep for a return attempt for safe competition.

In response to Wolf’s statement, the PIAA approved a two-week delay on Friday to the start date for practices and contests (originally intended to begin with heat acclimatization Aug. 10) in order to ‘continue to seek a dialog with the administration, the legislature and all athletic stakeholders to obtain clarification on the possibility of safely conducting athletic activities in conjunction with the start of the school year.’

“We were given a directive by the administration and we followed that directive,” Spring-Ford football coach Chad Brubaker said. “We were wearing masks, we were distancing, we were spraying down things and abiding by all the protocols that not only were local from Spring-Ford but also from the state level. We were abiding by all those things and really did not have any issues.

“From that standpoint, it’s a struggle for our kids who did the right thing, and our coaches who are working without a salary, working without any promise of a salary, things like that. Governor Wolf’s matter of fact statement (Thursday), which was not even the question he was asked, kind of felt like the rug was pulled out from under us and that’s kind of how our kids and most of our staff feels.”

After the league’s principals met Wednesday, the Pioneer Athletic Conference announced Thursday it was pushing back the start of its fall season to Sept. 7 for practices and Sept. 25 for games, giving schools more time to make decisions on the status of their fall seasons.

The Norristown Area School District opted out of fall sports July 30 and the Pottstown School District did the same Thursday, while the Phoenixville Area School District suspended competitions in fall sports, excluding golf, singles tennis and marching band (if it adheres to 20-feet social distancing).

Other school districts like Methacton, which released a statement that it would administratively ‘not support a decision to postpone school and youth athletics until January 2021,’ have plans in place to play sports this fall. Some like Pottsgrove are still waiting to back a definitive decision as they continue to get guidance from the PIAA and the state.

“It’s been a roller coaster. That’s for sure,” Pottsgrove Athletic Director Steve Anspach said. “Things change daily. You get your guidance, then you get your plans approved. Then you get additional guidance or something else is said from the state level or from the government and you adapt and go again. We’ve been fortunate as far as working with our coaches. Our coaches have been great, our student-athletes have been great, our parents have been great, regarding following the voluntary procedures.

“Secondly I would say working with the ADs in our league has been fantastic. We’ve got a tight-knit group of people. We work together and we thrive in saying we turn over every stone and we do our due diligence. We’re constantly learning and adapting to see if we can make it work for our students with focusing on health and safety for them.”

States around the country have made varying decisions on whether to return to scholastic competition or not.

Some have decided to push back fall sports to the winter like the Virginia High School League, which announced July 27 that it postponed all sports until at least Dec. 14 with the intention of playing modified seasons later in the academic year. For example, football season would start in March. The Delaware Interscholastic Athletic Association announced Thursday it’s plans to postpone sports until late December, with the fall season being played in mid-February 2021.

In Colorado, the Colorado High School Activities Association created four seven-week sports seasons, swapping several sports from their typical seasons. Softball teams will take the diamond starting later this month, while football teams will kickoff games in March.

Other states have taken a similar approach to the PAC and PIAA in delaying some or all their fall seasons to start dates in late August or September. The New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association’s ‘Return to Play’ plan involves a Sept. 28 start date for fall competition and a shortened and localized, postseason.

In its press release Friday, the PIAA said it ‘believes that STRICT ADHERENCE by schools and teams to their school-adopted plans and the Governor’s School Sports Guidance should provide a reasonably safe environment for student athletes to participate in interscholastic athletics as currently scheduled.’

“We feel safety is paramount, so I respect how difficult a decision this is for everyone involved, but we certainly feel for our student-athletes and their parents, especially the seniors,” Methacton Athletic Director Paul Spiewak said. “We have a plan that was approved that we are prepared to implement if our conference and the PIAA and the Governor’s office give us the go ahead. As of today, we have a plan to participate under the guidelines that were approved by our school board. We all believe as a conference that we have to prioritize safety for our student-athletes, coaches and game personnel in everything that we do.”

“The patience of our coaches and students throughout this process has been amazing,” he added.

Spring-Ford High School head football coach Chad Brubaker said his team has been strictly adhering to the return protocols put in place. (John Strickler — MediaNews Group File

Though there is an understanding that the safety of student-athletes is at the center of the decision making process, waiting for an official decision to be made has been frustrating for athletes.

The PIAA Board of Directors will meet again on Aug. 21. PAC President and Pottsgrove High School Principal Bill Ziegler said Thursday the league principals will also reconvene within the next two weeks, meaning area athletes will still have to continue to wait for a definitive decision on fall sports.

“I think there’s just a general disappointment with, not anyone specifically because I think it’s such a tough spot,” Dunne said, “but the fact that it seems it’s meeting after meeting and the results of each meeting are another meeting and nothing’s really changing virus-wise. I’m just kind of hoping to get to a point where we have an understanding of what’s going to happen and maybe adapting a plan like they have in Virginia.”

“Yeah it’s hard because all of us together just want a yes or a no answer,” PJP junior football player MJ Petro said. “But I for one, same with everybody on my team, just want a yes answer because I want the oncoming seniors to feel what the seniors felt last year.”

Finding a way for the senior athletes to conclude their careers in some way, shape or form, unlike the 2020 spring athletes who were unable to compete, seems to be right behind safety in terms of utmost importance to all parties involved.

Brubaker, who was part of a Pennsylvania High School Football Coaches Association subcommittee that gave recommendations to the PIAA, is determined to make that happen for his players.

“At the end of the day, we’re going to continue to advocate for some type of season for our seniors,” Brubaker said. “Whether that in two weeks the PIAA comes out and says we’re going to move forward and force Governor Wolf’s decision making or go to the spring and have a two-month season.

“We’re going to continue to advocate for our players because they deserve it. People wait 16, 17, 18 years to get a senior year, which is supposed to be really special. You can have a certain opinion about the level of this pandemic, but ultimately we owe that to our kids somehow, some way to have some type of season.”

Simon, a three-sport athlete who hasn’t played an official game since the Pottsgrove girls basketball team was knocked out of the district playoffs in February hopes that she’s able to start her senior season sooner rather than later.

“You have these athletes have that play all year round and if you take it away from them until Jan. 1 that’s basically an entire year without sports,” Simon said. “Mentally, emotionally, physically and socially for all of us, that’s just not going to be good.”

They were riding a balloon of excitement and anticipation.

The players and coaches on Pottstown High’s football team were looking forward to both the 2020 season, and a return to activity and personal interaction put on hold by the COVID-19 pandemic in the spring. They had been participating in conditioning workouts since the first full week of July, in advance of the opening of practices for fall sports Monday, Aug. 10 and their first game of the season Friday, Aug. 28, at home against Kensington.

But the balloon, for football and other fall sports, got deflated over the past week. The Pottstown School Board, in a Zoom meeting Thursday evening, voted 8-0 to cancel all athletic activities this fall and through Jan. 1, 2021 amid coronavirus caution with the school reopening with an all-virtual model.

“The coaches were under the idea we were good to go,” football head coach Jeff Delaney said, referencing the Pa. Interscholastic Athletic Association (PIAA) posting regulations for the startup of the season a week prior. “There was supposed to be a planning meeting for the start of practices as the next step.”

The board last week indicated its intent to discontinue sports. It had, however, sought a delay for the administration to put together an alternate activities plan for students.

“The kids are devastated,” football head coach Jeff Delaney said.

Pottstown joined fellow Pioneer Athletic Conference member Norristown among schools opting out of fall sports. Phoenixville also decided Thursday to not participate in a majority of its fall sports, two of them (girls tennis, golf) allowed to go on.

The decision by the school board came after the Pioneer Athletic Conference announced a postponement of the fall season Thursday. The letter, addressed to all PAC principals and signed by PAC President Dr. Bill Ziegler, changed the dates for the start of fall practices to Sept. 7 and the first day of athletic events for Sept. 25.

In conjunction with it pursuing an all-virtual return to school for the first semester, the Pottstown school board members were in agreement over the possible mixed messages over allowing sports with no in-person schooling.

“The school board decision guides the district for the next couple months, and sets parameters for the future,” board member John Armato, Pottstown’s Director of Community Relations, former athletic director and longtime wrestling assistant, said. “It gives some degree of structure.”

Pottstown had already discontinued voluntary workouts at the start of week in anticipation of the official vote Thursday.

For Brandy Scherer, the cancellation of fall sports was a second blow to her coaching career this calendar year.

Scherer lost out on working with the Pottstown girls’ lacrosse team in the spring when the pandemic resulted in the close of school in mid-March. And now she won’t be able to coach field hockey as a result of the school board decision.

“As both a spring (lacrosse) and fall coach, it has been an extremely challenging few months for our student-athletes,” Scherer said. “The spring sport season was obviously more unique since we were not prepared, didn’t really know what was happening, COVID was new, while this is all still new.

“The health and safety of our students-athletes is our highest priority, and I truly understand it is hard to defend having school 100-percent virtual and still having sports.”

Like Delaney, Scherer decried a situation described as coaches not being fully aware of actions being taken to address the issue.

“I can probably speak on behalf of many coaches when I say the lack of communication has been frustrating,” she said. “Not knowing what the plan is, hearing ‘the plan’ for the first time in a board meeting, trying to filter through what the PIAA, PAC, Governor is releasing and not knowing if that changes things for us. We can’t communicate with our athletes because we don’t know any more than they do.”

In response, Armato described the circumstances as being subject to revision along the way.

“Across the board, it’s a very fluid situation,” he said. “Decisions and actions taken one day can change the next day. As information has become available, we get it out.”

The district’s new Co-Curricular Director, Me’Lisa Morgan, is working to set up a program of virtual workout challenges. Armato noted “nothing is hard and fast” on the program, one in which the sports teams’ coaches would be able to apply for positions as “workout coaches.”

“We’re figuring it all out,” he said. “It’s not totally defined in a lot of ways.”

“I can tell you that all coaches have been trying to keep something going for our athletes,” Scherer said. “We all know the value and support sports bring to our kids. There isn’t a coach that isn’t willing to do whatever it takes for our kids, and I hope the community knows that.”     

Pottstown’s alternative activities plan outlined coaches holding in-person interactions that must be outside, adhere to six-feet social distancing requirements, be 10 or fewer people and approved by administration.

“This is all a grand experiment. We don’t know how any of this will go,” Pottstown Superintendent Stephen Rodriguez said at the board meeting. “We don’t know if we’ll have too many coaches apply, if we have too many kids want to be involved. Maybe everybody will want to be involved and that to me would be a great problem to have.”

Pottstown senior football players Jahzeel Watson and Sincere Strimpel tried to stay optimistic as they went through voluntary workouts this summer, holding out hope that a season would shortly follow.

Then the workouts were put on hold and a text from Trojans’ head coach Jeff Delaney last Thursday gave them the news they’d been dreading since returning to the field.

On Aug. 6, Pottstown cancelled athletics through Jan. 1, 2021 after the school district had already approved an all-virtual return to school for the first semester due to safety concerns around the coronavirus.

The Trojans are one of the three Pioneer Athletic Conference programs thus far to opt out of the fall season along with Norristown and Phoenixville, which is allowing singles tennis, golf and marching band.

While the decisions have been made with health and safety of student-athletes in mind, they were no less painful for the athletes who hoped to share the field with their friends and classmates one last time this fall.

“We’ve all really had the same reaction,” Watson said. “It was really heartbreaking just knowing that our senior season was gone. It was just kind of hard to take.”

“I was disappointed,” Strimpel said. “ I thought I was going to lead a team, we were going to have a good season, going to win, but I guess there are other things to worry about. I’m disappointed though. I’m mad we can’t play, but there ain’t really much we can do.”

Norristown senior golfer Josh Ryan was hoping to compete one last time with his high school teammates this season. (Pete Bannen – MediaNews Group File)

Academy Park is the only other District 1 school to cancel its fall athletics thus far, while the Philadelphia Public League announced Monday it was postponing sports until 2021 as per the recommendations of Gov. Tom Wolf and the Pennsylvania Department of Health and Department of Education.

The Pioneer Athletic Conference announced last Thursday the delay of its fall sports season, beginning fall practices and heat acclimatization will begin Monday, Sept. 7 while competitions and games are allowed to begin Friday, Sept. 25.

The move gave school districts more time to make decisions on fall athletics as they also try to determine what kind of learning environment they will have available.

“I think sports are an important part of both physical and mental health for students,” Phoenixville senior boys soccer player Brendan Flick said. “I am definitely disappointed that as a senior we may not have the opportunity to play and compete this fall. It is my hope that over the next two weeks all parties involved will explore all possible options. Whether it be in the fall or spring, I just hope we get the chance to play.”

Norristown senior golfer Josh Ryan, the PIAA bronze medalist a year ago, has played individually throughout the summer and will have to stay that course during the fall. However, he laments the fact that Norristown didn’t make a decision like Phoenixville in letting some of its lesser-risk sports play this fall.

He also mentioned how exciting it was to get encouragement from neighbors, members of his church, people at Jeffersonville Golf Club and other members of the community during his successes the past several years.

Ryan, who has won the last two PAC individual boys titles and is the reigning District 1-3A champion, said he skipped on some big tournaments in 2019 to play for the high school and was excited to do so once again this season before heading off to Liberty University.

“I loved being part of a team,” Ryan said. “In golf, you’re usually by yourself. Being with a group of guys and playing is really special. Last year, I had a pretty big opportunity to play in a big tournament down south, but I decided to play the high school season because it means a lot to me to represent the community. You don’t have a lot of opportunities to do that.”

“I know decisions about safety are hard to make, but I just wish they let us play because it’s truly safe to be out on a golf course,” he added.

Pottstown’s Jahzeel Watson, right, hopes to find alternative ways to get recruited without a fall season. (Owen McCue – MediaNews Group File)

For some fall athletes, a missed season hinders potential recruiting interest.

Pottstown’s Watson ended his junior year with an injury and has no senior season to improve his stats and add more film to his highlight reel to send to college coaches.

He is trying to figure out other ways to generate interest from colleges.

“My main focus now is to get in contact with as many schools as possible,” Watson said. “I’ve been using this website Next College Student Athlete. Hopefully they can help me to really get in contact with as many schools as possible. … I’ve been talking with my coach. We’ve been sending emails out and trying to get some talks on the phone with college coaches too.”

Strimpel, who also has intentions of playing at the next level, is still trying to play football this fall.

This was going to be his first year at Pottstown after moving to the area from Detroit, where he was a standout defensive end at Detroit Central, earning all-city honorable mention honors from the Detroit Free Press in 2019.

He said he still has family in Detroit and has gotten in contact with his old coach along with talking to the Pottstown coaches about trying to figure out a way to play this year in Michigan, where football practices started Monday.

“Football, the game itself, it just teaches you a lot and for them to close up down here, it’s bad. I don’t even know what to say,” Strimpel said. “I just know I’m not going to be the person who just sits. If there’s a season somewhere, I’m going to go wherever I can go. I love Pottstown. I love everybody in the little town, but if I got the opportunity to play my senior season, I’m going to go take that.”

Phoenixville’s suspension of sports extends through the first marking period, which ends Oct. 31. Norristown will hold virtual-only learning through Jan. 11, 2021, but the school’s release noted only that there would be no athletics for the Fall 2020 season. Pottstown cancelled all athletic activities through Jan. 1, 2021.

Watson, who is also a member of the Trojans’ boys basketball and boys track & field teams, is once again trying to remain optimistic that he’ll have the opportunity to put on a Pottstown uniform again at some point even if it won’t be on the gridiron.

“I really hope so,” Watson said. “Basketball-wise I really haven’t gotten much recognition. Hopefully we can play this year, so I can get my name out there. And also for track because I lost my season last year, so I was really hoping to get it this year.”

The PIAA Board of Directors voted on Friday to permit fall sports to begin on Monday, based on local school decisions.

The Board agrees the decision to compete in athletics should be made locally, allowing for each school entity to decide whether to proceed and which sports to sponsor.

“I’m very happy that the PIAA decided to stay the course,” said Souderton Area football coach Ed Gallagher, who guided his squad to the playoffs a year ago. “COVID numbers in our area are very good right now — there’s no sense waiting until the spring.”

Added Gallagher: “I’m happy for our seniors to get the chance to play.”

The start dates for all fall sports were also updated.

Monday will be the first practice date for golf, girls tennis, cross country, girls volleyball, field hockey, soccer, football and water polo.

The first scrimmage date will be Aug. 27 for golf, Aug. 29 for girls track, cross country, girls volleyball, field hockey, soccer and water polo, and Sept. 5 for football.

The first contest date will be Aug. 27 for golf, Aug. 31 for girls track, and Sept. 11 for cross country, girls volleyball, field hockey, soccer, football and water polo.

The PIAA stated: “As the health and safety of students is paramount in moving forward with athletics, the Board believes that through each member schools’ adherence to their developed school health and safety plans and the PIAA Return to Competition guidelines, sports can continue.”

Not all news was good for all area schools on Friday, however, as some, including Cheltenham, decided to cancel their fall sports.

Football coach Ryan Nase learned of the decision on Friday.

“My hope is that no other coaches have to do what I had to do today,” said Nase, who guided the Panthers to the PIAA-5A State Final a year ago, “fight through the tears, anger, and disappointment of players who’ve done everything right and still won’t get a chance to play.

“It was the worst thing I ever had to do. I’m very nervous that, between virtual learning and a lack of sports and activities, our kids are really going to suffer mentally and emotionally. I’ll do everything I can to keep them engaged and working athletically and academically but I’m scared.”

Pottstown and Norristown also opted out of fall sports.

The PIAA stressed that football must sponsor heat acclimatization for five consecutive days if starting prior to Friday, Sept. 4.

Following the heat acclimatization, five days of practice must be completed before a scrimmage.

The PIAA also stated: “The Board of Directors has heard the thousands of voices of student-athletes, parents, coaches, officials as well as community leaders that have contacted us.

“We remind those individuals who have strongly advocated for athletics that they must keep strict adherence to school health and safety plans. All individuals involved in interscholastic athletic communities have a role in the health and wellness of all participants.”

The Inter-Academic League announced Wednesday morning that it will postpone all fall sports and instead look to have three seven-week seasons after Jan. 1, 2021.

The league is comprised of nine schools: Academy of Notre Dame, Agnes Irwin, Baldwin, Episcopal Academy, Germantown Academy, Haverford School, Malvern Prep, Penn Charter, and Springside-Chestnut Hill.

“The Heads of School and Directors of Athletics have unanimously decided to suspend any inter-scholastic competition through December 2020,” the league statement said. “This decision was made given the unprecedented concerns we face in our community and in consideration with Governor Wolf’s (Tom), strong recommendation to not play sports. Should conditions permit, the league intends to hold three seven week seasons for our student-Athletes in the new year.”

Malvern Prep is one of the six Inter-Academic League football schools and the Friars were getting ready for a fall season. The league had previously set September 14 as the first date of fall practice but Wednesday morning’s news has scuttled those plans.

Friars head football coach Dave Gueriera, whose Friars were expected to compete for the league title this year, spoke about the decision.

“I am heartbroken for our players, especial the seniors,” Gueriera said. “We will stay positive and productive as we look forward to the spring season.”

In Chester County, Malvern Prep joins Unionville, Bishop Shanahan and the Westtown School in skipping fall sports.

Another area high school league has fallen victim to the coronavirus pandemic. The Inter-Academic League announced Wednesday that it has suspended all athletic competition through Dec. 31.

The decision was made in a unanimous vote by the heads of schools and athletic directors and includes fall sports as well as the start of the winter season. The league announced its decision on its website.

“This decision was made given the unprecedented health concerns we face in our community and in consideration with Gov. Wolf’s strong recommendation, as well as updated policy recommendations from CHOP PolicyLab, the league said in the statement.

“The Inter-Academic Athletic League members are deeply aware of the importance of athletics to our student-athletes and communities,” the statement went on to say. “This difficult decision was not made lightly, and every effort was made to maintain our fall athletic season. We are deeply saddened that this was not possible.”

The Inter-Ac becomes the fifth league in Southeastern Pennsylvania to pull the plug on athletic competition, joining the Del Val, Catholic, Philadelphia Public and Friends’ School Leagues. The schools affected are Academy of Notre Dame, Agnes Irwin, Baldwin, Episcopal Academy, Germantown Academy, The Haverford School, Malvern Prep, Penn Charter and Springside Chestnut Hill Academy.

Among the sports involved are football, boys and girls soccer, field hockey, volleyball, girls tennis and boys golf in the fall, and boys and girls basketball and swimming, and wrestling in the winter.

“It’s obviously frustrating and disappointing,” said Episcopal Academy athletic director and football coach Todd Fairlie. “It’s crushing for a lot of people. We wish we could get going and do it right now, but it’s just hard given everything that’s going on. There are so many layers to everything and the information is changing constantly.”

The decision came three weeks after the league announced that it would delay the start of the fall sports season until Sept. 14.

“It’s disappointing,” Haverford School AD Mike Murphy said,” specifically for seniors entering their last fall seasons. It’s especially disappointing if they’re a one-sport athlete.”

Both Fairlie and Murphy made it a point to say that the fall sports season has been postponed, not canceled. The league has a plan in place to play all sports in three seven-week seasons beginning in the New Year that would consist of league-only competition. However, it has not been determined if that would follow a fall-winter-spring schedule format or if it would start with the winter season, then move to fall sports and then spring sports, like Delaware.

“There’s a lot of logistics and planning to consider,” Murphy said. “You have to look at schools that are coed having two seasons run together. That make things difficult because girls and boys tennis, for example, are in opposite seasons.

“We’re considering it more like three seasons rather than fall, winter and spring. Cross country usually runs in the fall, but we may move that into another season. We’re not there yet. Its three seven-week seasons and see what could work.”

In the meantime, member schools may maintain conditioning, skill development and sport practices from September 14 through November 20 in accordance with Gov. Wolf’s guidelines and CHOP PolicyLab requirements, according to the statement.

“We’re treating it like we treat our summer which is each school determines what works best for them while working within the guidelines that are out there to do so safely,” Murphy said. “With league schools being in different counties we didn’t want to set a one-size-fits-all type of things because of those variations.

“For that period each school will determine what works best for them from running conditioning workouts all the way up to if guidelines say you can have balls and practices, you can do that, allowing schools to determine what they’re going to do there. Then we’ll revisit after Nov. 20 looking to say if we’re starting a season, whatever it may be, Season 1, on Jan. 1, what makes the competitive balance most healthy we’re all going to adhere to those rules for the next month.”

A lot of people have their fingers crossed.

“As a league we will continue to evaluate and if things improve and we can move things up, people would be happy as heck,” Fairlie said. “It’s putting a plan in place and we had a good plan in place to start Sept. 14, but you have to be flexible. We do have a plan in place that we do feel good about. We worked hard on that and it is an effort to give every kid a chance for a season. But if we’ve learned anything, putting a plan in place two months doesn’t mean that’s how its going to be because things change every week.”

Fall sports will be taking place for nearly all Suburban One League schools this year.

Twenty-one of the 24 SOL schools voted in favor of the league’s fall sports recommendation during an executives meeting Friday.

On Aug. 5, the SOL Executive Committee recommended that low and moderate risk sports (golf, cross country, girls tennis, water polo, soccer, field hockey and girls volleyball) have a two-week delay from the first PIAA regular season contest date for each of those sports, and football has a four-week delay from the first regular season contest date.

“That recommendation passes with regards to moving forward with fall sports,” SOL president and Central Bucks West Principal Tim Donovan said after Friday’s vote.

Plymouth Whitemarsh, one of the 21 “yes” votes, voted in favor of all sports except football. Springfield (Montco) and Harry S. Truman abstained from voting while Cheltenham opted not to play.

This decision comes a week after the PIAA voted to permit fall sports to begin based on local school decisions and a few days after the Philadelphia Catholic League and Inter-AC announced they will not be playing sports this fall. Other area schools, such as Norristown and Pope John Paul II, also will not be participating in sports this fall.

For the SOL schools, low and moderate risk sports can begin practicing Monday, Aug. 31. Golf matches can begin Thursday, Sept. 3, tennis Tuesday, Sept. 8 and the other low and moderate risk sports Monday, Sept. 21.

For football, heat acclimation begins Monday, Sept. 14. Practices begin Monday, Sept. 21 and the regular season can kick off Friday, Oct. 2.

Following the vote, the SOL executives discussed schedules going forward.

Golf coaches will make their own schedules with the understanding they can start Sept. 3. Crossover games will be removed from the field hockey, girls soccer and boys soccer schedules.

Donovan said that because of the complexity of scheduling, input is needed from the individual schools. The schedules will be developed moving forward in working sessions.

“As we know with COVID this is a very fluid process,” Donovan said, “so things could change based on where we are with COVID and the fluidity of what we’re facing as well as the individual school districts as we move forward.”

The meeting concluded talking about gameday procedures and crowning conference and division championships, which will be further discussed in working sessions.

It took until the final week of August, but the final shoe has dropped for Chester County sports in the era of coronavirus.

The Ches-Mont League will not play sports this fall due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

On Friday afternoon, the Ches-Mont released a statement stating that it would follow the guidelines issued by the Chester County Health Department. Those guidelines recommend that no sports should be played under current conditions. The league hopes to play the fall season at a later date.

The Ches-Mont joins the Del Val League, Central League, the Philadelphia Catholic League, Philadelphia Public League, Inter-Ac League and Friends School League in cancelling the fall sports season.

“Based upon the current health and safety recommendations, the Ches-Mont League has voted to postpone sports competition at this time,” the league statement said. “The Ches-Mont has requested that the PIAA District 1 committee explore and propose alternate solutions that will allow our student athletes to compete at a later time.”

Multiple coaches who were reached on Friday declined to comment.

There has been talk of the fall season being switched to spring 2021 and playing three possible 10-week seasons: winter, spring and fall starting after Jan. 1, 2021.