Now what?

That’s the question on every high school sport fan’s mind.

On Aug. 21, the PIAA board of directors voted 25-5 to proceed with fall sports.

Though final decisions remain in the hands of local school boards, districts and leagues, it appears all four Perry County schools are going forward.

“As of right now, we are preparing for a fall sports schedule,” said Greenwood AD Adam Shaffer. “And, as far as I know, the Tri-Valley League and the Perry County AD Association are on board to move forward.

“I’m doing everything I can to ensure that our student-athletes — and all of our students who participate in extracurricular activities — have the opportunity to have a fall season. That’s my job.

“Of course, things can change quickly.”

Things can change quickly due to the elusiveness of getting COVID-19 under control, a primary concern of Gov. Tom Wolf who, on Aug. 6, voiced a “strong recommendation” to postpone youth sports until the beginning of the new year.

That announcement seemed to put an end to the discussion. But, a coalition of state legislators, athletes, coaches, parents and the PIAA, including its Sports Medicine Advisory Committee, pushed back.

Thus, the vote two weeks later.

“With the health and safety programs that the schools have, along with them being monitored by their local athletic trainer and health training staff, we believe that it’s worth the opportunity to try (to have a fall season),” said PIAA executive director Dr. Robert Lombardi on a video conference after the vote. “If it doesn’t shake out, we’ll go to Plan B, but we feel like we owe it to our schools to try.”

How far this effort will go remains to be seen.

As Shaffer put it, “If we go remote (on-line due to an outbreak in the school), all bets are off.”

Following are the basics of the current situtation.

Protocols

The PIAA has put together a 28-page “Return to Competition” publication with general and fall-sport specifiic considerations.

Each school is also following guidelines established by the PA Department of Health.

Those guidelines include temperature checks prior to entering school facilities and a second for athletes prior to practices and games.

Temperatures in excess of 100.4 will trigger a second scan. If there is no change, students/athletes will be sent home, to remain there until they are fever free (without the use of Tylenol or Advil) for 24 hours.

In addition, athletes, coaches and officials will be monitored for Covid-19 symptoms, including coughs, shortness of breath, sore throats, runny noses or congestion, chills, new lack of smell or taste, muscle pain, nausea or vomiting, headache or diarrhea.

Per the PIAA guidelines, this personal health assessment should be completed daily.

The general considerations also require masks (with certain exceptions) when on the sidelines and social distancing is not feasible.

Hugging, high fives, hand-shakes and fist bumps for support/encouragement are prohibited.

Frequently touched surfaces, including balls must be frequently sanitized.

Risks

The fall sports cycle may start … and end … suddenly.

Susquenita opened classes on Aug. 24, discovered several cases, then shut down for deep cleaning of its facilities.

An outbreak can occur at any time, putting a halt to activities.

Greenwood, Newport and Susquenita are particularly vulnerable given that they have cooperative agreements in football, golf and boys’ soccer (each Newport/Greenwood), and girls’ soccer (Newport/Susquenita).

An outbreak at one school could easily spread to another.

The PIAA punted on what happens should an outbreak occur, i.e.; how long a team will be shut down.

As explained in a Pittsburgh Post-Gazette story, “some schools have shut down a team for 14 days after a positive test. Lombardi said schools must work with district health departments and follow their own school protocals when an athlete tests positive.”

There is also the risk of liability.

Individual schools carry insurance and the PIAA has another plan that covers athletics. Neither plan covers communicable or viral diseases.

The PIAA looked into expanded coverage but, according to a story by Epic Epler at PennLive, the association found it would be cost prohibitive.

Though preliminary studies show Covid-19 in teenagers is less likely to be symptomatic, there is the possibilty that those who contract it could have long lasting effects, like myocarditis.

Here we go

The three county Tri-Valley League schools — Newport, Greenwood and Susquenita — opened formal practices on Aug. 31. That starts the 15-practice-days clock, meaning the first play date is Sept. 22.

Newport and Susquenita football, first-year members of the Mid-Penn Liberty, will begin formal practices on Sept. 4.

The late start means that MPC football programs, including West Perry, lost games and will be limited to six or seven regular-season tilts.

Susquenita will open with a Sept. 19 scrimmage with Camp Hill. Newport goes to Steel-High on the 12th for its scrimmage. West Perry’s website lists scrimmages for Sept. 12 (at Big Spring) and Sept. 19 (at Boiling Springs).

Schedules

County ADs are working overtime trying to fill open spots in their schedules to provide meaningful seasons for their fall programs.

The Heartland Conference and York-Adams are bubble-wrapping their schedules. They will play only teams in their league.

That will cost Greenwood field hockey traditional games like Selinsgrove and Midd-West. Susquenita’s field hockey program has lost its Bermudian Springs tournament and games with Brandywine Heights and Hanover.

Newport, which has played in the last two Milton Hershey tournaments, has to find at least two games since the Spartans have shut down all fall sports.

The other county sports teams are facing similar dilemmas.

“We lost a bunch of games,” said Susquenita AD Scott Acri. “We’ll keep plugging away, control what we can control and see what happens.”

County tournaments

Sheaffer, the dean of the PC AD association, is determined to preserve the tradition of county tournaments.

He had anticipated having the soccer tournament as scheduled. The three soccer schools were to meet at West Perry on Oct. 10, but a conflict developed forcing a change.

The ADs are now looking at an Oct. 24 date.

The Mustangs will play Susquenita in the 2 p.m. opener. The Blackhawks and Greenwood will go in the second game at 4 p.m. Greenwood and West Perry will close the event with a 6 p.m. start time.

The field hockey tournament, always played the Labor Day weekend, had to be moved.

Tentative plans are for Sept. 26 at West Perry.

Greenwood and Newport will go at 9 a.m. in the first semifinal, followed by Susquenita and West Perry at 10:30.

The consolation game will start at 12:30. The title game, at 2 p.m.

Postseason

In 2018, Newport, Greenwood and Susquenita each made it to the PIAA-A field hockey tournament. The Blackhawks were eliminated in the first round, but the Buffaloes and Wildcats made it to the semifinals, with Newport falling 2-0 to Wyoming Seminary in the title game.

That won’t happen this year.

The PIAA, which wants all of its championships decided before Thanksgiving, will only include district champs in its brackets.

In fact, there’s no guarantee that all four county field hockey teams will make it as far as the District 3 tournaments.

In keeping with the constricted time line, the district has reduced the number of tournament qualifiers.

In field hockey, the top eight teams in each class when power rankings close after games played on Oct. 31, will get slotted into a single-elimination tournament, which is a reduction of six teams.

In boys’ AA soccer (Greenwood and Susquenita), four teams will qualify for districts. In AAA (West Perry), eight teams make the cut.

The same numbers apply to girls’ soccer.

In football, two AA teams advance to the title game. AAA will take four teams.

Crowd control

Currently, the PIAA is holding to state guidelines, which limit outdoor events to 250 people and indoor events (volleyball) to 25, with no accommodations for spectators.

There has been pushback from the PIAA and its supporters to increase the limit and to allow for fans to attend.

Parents may be allowed, but screaming throngs in student sections are unlikely to make the grade.

Sheaffer is looking into purchasing the equipment needed to live stream games.