“The recommendation from the governor and myself is that all school sports be postponed until Jan. 1 and that would include school sports and also recreational sports and club sports,” Levine said. “I think the governor has been very clear about this recommendation, and we’ve been consistent in terms of how we are describing it as a recommendation.”

Levine also spoke about the upcoming PIAA meeting on Friday when the PIAA will vote on whether to move forward against Wolf’s strong recommendation not to have sports or to cancel fall sports.

Levine was asked if Wolf would possibly come back with a mandate to not play sports if the PIAA votes to go ahead with the seasons.

“The governor has been very clear about that,” Levine said. “There are no plans to do that.”

Levine also cited the recent postponements by major college sports conferences and schools.

“I think it’s really important to take the same lessons about COVID-19 that Penn State took, the Big Ten took, the Pac-12 took and that school sports be postponed as well as recreational sports,” she said.

High school teams throughout Pennsylvania have been practicing under COVID-19 restrictions, but the PIAA voted on Aug. 7 to delay the fall seasons for at least two weeks to review the situation and Wolf’s recommendation.

The Pennsylvania Senate’s Athletic Oversight Committee held a hearing on Tuesday morning after Levine’s news conference. The committee heard testimony from six people, including PIAA executive director Bob Lombardi and Sean McAleer from the Pennsylvania Catholic Conference.

Lombardi gave his annual report to the committee, mentioning what happened with COVID-19 forcing the cancellation of the PIAA basketball championships in March and the spring sports season.

He also testified that he has heard of no problems regarding COVID during offseason workouts. Several schools in most PIAA districts have shut down workouts because of positive tests.

Lombardi also mentioned the PIAA meeting on Friday as the time the organization will make a decision on fall sports.

“We will make a final decision on Friday,” Lombardi said. “We would like to move forward with fall sports. … This isn’t a political issue; this is a student participation issue.”

When asked if sports would be suspended if Wolf mandated all schools go to virtual learning, Lombardi said, “We would hope to continue athletics.”

Lombardi confirmed that the PIAA is looking into insurance coverage and protection over COVID but it could be cost prohibitive.

McAleer echoed most of what Lombardi said and added that private schools will have to make a decision on fall sports because they don’t have school boards to vote on those decisions.