One of the most prominent school districts in District 3 has decided on its own not to play sports this fall. 

Harrisburg High School will not compete in athletics this fall, according to a press release from Harrisburg School District Acting Superintendent Chris Celmer. 

The decision comes the day before the PIAA is scheduled to vote on whether fall sports will take place. In the press release, Celmer wrote that the school district has the right to revisit the decision if the PIAA or Mid Penn Conference “determine Fall sports will be played as part of a future season.”

Celmer wrote that its his hope the PIAA will move fall sports to the spring of 2021. 

“While no one can accurately predict how Covid-19 will impact our communities in the Spring, I hope PIAA considers moving towards an abbreviated season in the Spring, which may allow for safe and equitable opportunities for all student athletes across the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania,” Celmer wrote. “We have a tremendous amount of empathy and compassion for how this decision impacts our student athletes, especially our seniors. However, the health and safety of our student athletes must be our first priority.

“There are still far too many unknowns about how Covid-19 spreads and medically impacts young adults in order for us to feel as though it is safe for our athletes to participate.”

More: Dallastown superintendent recommends no fall athletics and fully virtual learning

More: As the PIAA heads toward a decision on fall sports, here’s how we got here and what’s next

The decision comes 10 days after Harrisburg decided to begin the school year with fully virtual learning. Harrisburg is the third District 3 school to decide not to play fall sports on its own, along with Reading High and Milton Hershey. 

More schools could make that decision in the coming weeks, especially if the PIAA decides to move ahead with fall sports. Dallastown Area School District Supt. Joshua Doll recommended not playing fall sports on Wednesday and will present his recommendation to the school board Thursday night. 

While a number of states have made the decision to move fall sports to the spring, the PIAA has stated multiple times it does not want to do that unless it has no choice. Gov. Tom Wolf has recommended sports not be played until Jan. 2021, but has said he will not mandate that they be canceled. 

Harrisburg has been one of the top football programs in the state in recent years, wining the District 3 title and reaching the PIAA title game twice (2018, 2016) in the past five years. 

Matt Allibone is a sports reporter for GameTimePA. He can be reached at 717-881-8221, mallibone@ydr.com or on Twitter at @bad2theallibone. 

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