Dec 10, 2020 5 min read

Gov. Tom Wolf brought the winter high school sports season to a halt, at least for the next three weeks.

Wolf, along with Secretary of Health Dr. Rachel Levine, “implored” Pennsylvanians to take the next three weeks off to get a better hold of the coronavirus. High school sports will pause until Jan. 4.

“The problem we’re all facing is that this virus continues to rage in Pennsylvania, and over the past several weeks it’s become clear we need to take further mitigation actions to protect Pennsylvanians and stop the spread of COVID-19,” Wolf said during a virtual news conference. “We all hoped it wouldn’t come to this, and that’s the point. The current state of the surge in Pennsylvania will not allow us to wait. We need to slow the spread right now in order to save lives. If we don’t, we’re going to be in big trouble.”

The pause begins 12:01 a.m. Saturday and will last until 8 a.m. Jan. 4. Most events scheduled for Friday have been canceled.

{span}”Each of the last two days we have reported the highest number of deaths since the beginning of the pandemic,” Dr. Rachel Levine said. “In the past week, we have reported close to 1,100 new deaths from COVID-19 across Pennsylvania. The virus continues to strain our health care systems and the dramatic rise in cases among all age groups, including among school-age children, is alarming. Since the start of the pandemic, there have been more than 37,500 cases among children age 5 to 18, yet 9,500 of those cases occurred in the past two weeks.”{/span}

{span}The moves have left local athletic directors in a tizzy.{/span}

“We have to understand, and the community has to understand, that we are not the experts,” said Scot Moore, athletic director at Jefferson-Morgan High School. “It has been absolutely crazy around here scheduling and rescheduling, and scheduling and rescheduling. It’s been frustrating for the coaches. I feel bad for the kids but we have to get this (virus) under control. I’ve had my ear to the phone 24/7.”

Jefferson-Morgan was forced to cancel its boys tournament at Geibel, its own girls basketball tipoff tournament and a wrestling event at Hampton.

The Powerade Christmas Wrestling Tournament, moved to the Monroeville Convention Center, is still on, says tournament director Frank Vulcano, who is the athletic director at Canon-McMillan and the head of the WPIAL steering committee.

Vulcano will almost certainly move Powerade from is Dec. 28-29 date to late in the season. Approximately 45 teams have committed to the event. Vulcano said he will have more information on the tournament today.

Bill Simms, the athletic director at West Greene High School, said it was disappointing for the kids that the pause took place.

“I feel bad for the kids,” he said. We have a dynamite (girls) basketball team. There wasn’t a senior on the roster last year, we went undefeated (through the regular season) and made it to the WPIAL finals. And here we are where they might not get to play.”

Chartiers-Houston has a boys basketball game against Brownsville scheduled for Friday.

“We plan on playing but that could change once our administration meets,” said Kurt Kensneck, athletic director at Chartiers-Houston. “The one thing is you want to play and just start again in January. I see both sides. I feel bad for the kids. They had the ring in their hand to start the season and it’s gone again. That’s the tough part. You feel for those kids. My coaches and kids will be ready to go when given the green light.”

Trinity athletic director Ricci Rich said he felt this was coming the last week.

“Prior to this week, I’d say it was surprising,” said Rich. “We’ve had some luck. The kids have been pretty safe in school. The problems have been what they do out of school.”

The pandemic has struck college football hard and the pros even harder. Numerous college games have been cancelled because of the virus, the latest being Michigan and Ohio State.

In the NFL, teams such as the Tennessee Titans and Baltimore Ravens had games moved because so many of the players came down with the virus.

The Meadows racetrack will run its card today, then prep for races Monday and Tuesday.

“We’re having ongoing talks with the track manager, (Pennsylvania) racing commission and our (MSOA) board of directors as how to proceed,” said Kim Hankins, executive director, Meadows Standardbred Owners Association. We have a race card for Monday and draw for a Tuesday card (today). Racing Monday and Tuesday is still up for debate. We will race (today).”

The Meadows has a 13-race card set for today with post time at 12:45 p.m. The North Strabane Township track has another 13-race card set for Monday.

Earlier this year, the track was shut down three months because of the Covid-19 pandemic from the middle of March to the middle of June. The Meadows contested all of its stakes races this year, including The Adios.

John Sacco contributed to this story.