By Matt Smith
As August nears its close, Pennsylvania is the only state without a concrete plan for high school sports in the fall.
That is finally expected to change.
The Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association (PIAA), the governing body of high school sports in the Commonwealth, will hold a Board of Directors meeting Friday to vote on the fate of fall sports. The Zoom meeting is scheduled for 3 p.m.
The PIAA and the governor’s office have been at odds since Gov. Tom Wolf offered his “strong recommendation” earlier this month to cancel organized interscholastic and youth sports until January. Wolf’s advice stunned PIAA leaders, who held an impromptu emergency Board of Directors meeting the same day. One day later, the PIAA announced no further update on fall sports, instead calling to have an open dialogue with the governor’s office for a plan to move forward with sports. Although Wolf reiterated his recommendation last week. Pennsylvania Secretary of Health Dr. Rachel Levine said Tuesday that there will be no mandate from the state ordering schools not to play sports, in the event PIAA votes to move forward with sports.
“The governor has been very clear about that,” Levine said in a press conference. “There are no plans to do that.”
