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| Bucks County Courier Times
One day before the PIAA meets again to discus the fate of the upcoming fall sports season, Cheltenham became the first Suburban One League and Montgomery County school to take matters into its own hands first.
In a letter to families and staff, superintendent of schools Dr. Wagner Marsielle said that the district was suspending fall sports due to concerns over the COVID-19 outbreak.
“While athletics is an extension of our students’ curricular experience, allowing fall
sports to move forward would be contradictory to our current stance of opening
school in a virtual environment,” he said in the letter. “I am not confident in our ability to mitigate the exposure and transmission of COVID-19 during interscholastic competition.
“With the health and safety of everyone involved at stake, I’m not willing to take that
risk. With that, I will announce the suspension of all CSD fall athletic activities,
practices and competitions at Thursday evening’s meeting.”
Cheltenham football coach Ryan Nase, who a year ago guided the program to a 14-2 record, the SOL American Conference and District One Class 5A titles, and the state final in Hershey, where it lost to Archbishop Wood, confirmed the news when contacted on Thursday afternoon.
More: Thorpe: Lombardi is championing PIAA’s push for fall season
“We’re obviously very disappointed that we will not get the chance to compete in 2020,” Nase said in a statement. “It’s not about defending a league or district title, it’s losing the ability to see the positive impact football has had on our student-athletes.”
Cheltenham was scheduled to play Wood in a state final rematch on Sept.12, as well as SOL foes William Tennent, Upper Moreland and newcomer New Hope-Solebury.
“My advice to them was to keep grinding, dominate the classroom and continue to take the lessons they’ve learned from football and apply it to life,” Nase said.
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