PIAA gives green light on resuming high school athletics following state guidelines

Heat acclimatization football practice - Harrisburg High School

Harrisburg High School holds a heat acclimatization football practice, August 5, 2019. Dan Gleiter | dgleiter@pennlive.com

Student-athletes now have the green light to head back out onto the practice field with their high school team for the summer.

After Gov. Tom Wolf posted guidance for restarting sports in Pennsylvania, the PIAA issued a release saying that schools can start to have summer workouts and practices as soon as an Athletics Health and Safety plan is developed and approved by the school’s governing board and posted on its website.

The PIAA had previously stated that it wished to have “voluntary out-of-season activities” starting on July 1 when schools would be allowed by the state to reopen for in-person learning, but has since changed the policy to reflect the guidance from the governor.

--Pa. releases guidance for high school sports, other athletic competition to resume amid coronavirus pandemic--

“Technically if a school has their athletic health and safety plan in place and approved by their school board, they could start tomorrow. So yes, July 1 is gone if the school has an approved plan in place,” PIAA associate executive director Melissa Mertz said in an email.

Schools must be in counties that are in the yellow or green phase to restart sports, the governor’s guidance says, though currently, all counties are either yellow or green. Half of the state is in the green phase with 12 more counties, including Cumberland, set to join them on Friday.

The plans developed by schools should be structured to fit the needs of each individual school, the PIAA’s release said, and should not be a “one-size-fits-all” plan. The PIAA also said in the release that while schools can return to summer workouts, they still have to abide by PIAA out-of-season rules.

Wolf’s guidance on reopening sports mandates that schools must have an Athletics Health and Safety Plan approved before teams will be allowed to start practicing again.

The schools will all still be required to follow the gathering limitations based on their county, with schools in yellow counties being limited to 25 people and schools in the green counties being limited to 250. Facilities will also not be permitted to be at over 50 percent of total occupancy.

“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 Bob Lombardi said in the release. “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.”

-- Follow Ed Sutelan on Twitter, @EdwardSutelan

Thanks for visiting PennLive. Quality local journalism has never been more important. We need your support. Not a subscriber yet? Please consider supporting our work.

If you purchase a product or register for an account through a link on our site, we may receive compensation. By using this site, you consent to our User Agreement and agree that your clicks, interactions, and personal information may be collected, recorded, and/or stored by us and social media and other third-party partners in accordance with our Privacy Policy.