For nearly 2 1/2 hours Wednesday night, the Southern Tioga School District discussed the positives and potential pitfalls of moving forward with the district’s fall extracurricular activities, including sports. Superintendent Sam Rotella gave the recommendation to move forward with those activities as planned, but in a tiered opening.

No vote was held by the board to approve the recommendation, so sports and other activities can begin Monday.

Golf, cross country, tennis and cheerleading without stunts can return to full activity Monday. Rotella said he recommended those sports returning to full activity because “they can match the same protections we have in the classroom.”

Higher-risk sports such as football, soccer and volleyball can return to sports Monday as well, but only for conditioning purposes. No contact and no sharing of equipment can occur in those higher-risk sports. The board was also going to explore a way to set up a practice facility outside for the state runner-up volleyball team because of the state limitations on gatherings of people indoors.

“This isn’t political for me and it’s not personal. If it were personal, we’d absolutely be playing athletics,” said Rotella, who has coached sports at both the youth and collegiate levels. “I’m trying to follow the science. I don’t want to shut down the schools. Our society and our community can’t handle that.”

Southern Tioga, which consists of North Penn-Liberty and North Penn-Mansfield High Schools, have a different set of challenges than other school districts because its students have to be shuttled between schools depending on which sport they’re practicing for. Rotella said it’s going to take some figuring out to determine how to get students from one school to the other.

“Competition transportation, we need to figure out. Practice transportation, I don’t see a path to that,” Rotella said. “We do not have enough contract drivers to run seven buses north and south for practices. I can’t see putting more kids on an athletic bus than I would on a bus going to school. Parents have said they’ll provide transportation, but to set up car pools is not something we can do. I’m not saying it can’t be done, I’m saying we’re not going to take that risk of setting it up.

“I’m not saying this is all a deal-breaker, it’s something we have to think about for activities and a competition standpoint. There are a lot of kids being transported.”

The board heard a presentation from local pediatrician Dr. Skip Clark who told the board he’s been asking himself if it was safe for students to return to sports?

“The simple answer to that question is no,” Clark said. “That does not mean we cannot go forward, but we have to take that into consideration. There are things out there we do not know about. That leads us to saying it cannot be safe.”

Clark pointed out 40% of the confirmed positive cases of COVID-19 in Tioga County have come since July 1. But he also pointed out they have not been able to get test kits for people who were asymptomatic, so the true number of positive cases is not known.

Clark’s position Wednesday night was merely to point out there were risks involved in playing fall sports. He never gave a recommendation as to whether or not the board should move forward, instead just presenting the information and answered the questions of board members.

But in the end, the district chose to move forward. Football coach Tom Dickinson joked his teams have been preparing for this situation for years. The PIAA’s Return to Competition guidelines suggest football teams avoid huddling. Dickinson’s fast-paced offense never huddles. Nor does his defense.

“I’ve played without players because of concussion symptoms before. It’s the same thing with this. If they’re showing symptoms, I follow the trainer and don’t let them play,” Dickinson said. “I talk with our kids every day about doing the right thing. Athletes can be the ambassadors. We can have them tell all the kids to do the right things. You can empower them with that ability.”

OTHERS MOVING FORWARD

Hughesville approved moving forward with fall sports at Tuesday’s board meeting, and Wellsboro and Loyalsock followed with similar declarations at board meetings Wednesday night. Wellsboro and Southern Tioga were considered probably the two most likely schools to not pursue fall sports, but in the end decided to give it a shot.

“We can’t lose sight of being an educational institution first and foremost and we have to be ready to do that. And we are ready to receive students on Monday,” Wellsboro superintendent Dr. Brenda Freeman said at Wednesday’s meeting. “I also appreciate the same patience in getting us through these extracurricular activities. We have followed a plan. We have safety measures in place. Now our focus must be turned back to our academic year.”

The Northern Tier League is set to meet early next week to figure out its fall schedule. It had been waiting on the decisions on Wellsboro and Southern Tioga before determining its schedule. It was also hinted the league may limit its competitions to only Bradford and Tioga counties to help mitigate further risks of travel.

“Currently, we are in a low transmission spread area,” Freeman said. “If we remain low but Bradford County goes to moderate or high, we would ask not to play schools in that county. We’ll ask to play schools only in the NTL and only in low community spread areas.”

Wellsboro, Loyalsock and Hughesville all said they are looking into plans to try and stream live video of fall athletic competitions on the internet because currently no fans are allowed to attend events.

“It’s something that we just have to work through as we keep moving forward and being understanding that look, we get it, parents want to see their children,” Hughesville superintendent Michael Pawlik said. “We appreciate that. We can do what we can to make that happen, if not in-person, at least virtually.”

A NEW HOME

The Lewisburg and Selinsgrove School Districts came to an agreement Wednesday night to allow the Green Dragons to play its home football games at Harold L. Bolig Memorial Stadium in Selinsgrove. Lewisburg lost its home site for football games, Bucknell’s Christy Mathewson Stadium, when the Patriot League chose to cancel its fall sports season and, in turn, Bucknell canceled all high school use of the stadium.

Lewisburg is hosting Central Columbia (Sept. 11), Mifflinburg (Sept. 18), Midd-West (Saturday, Oct. 3) and Loyalsock (Oct. 23) at Selinsgrove. Had Lewisburg and Selinsgrove not reached this agreement, the Green Dragons could have played all eight of its football games on the road.

“We are extremely thankful for the support of the Selinsgrove School District’s board of directors, administrators and athletic director for recognizing our need and supporting us in securing a consistent location for our home football contests,” Lewisburg AD Joe Faust said in an email. “While 2020 has provden to be less than ideal to insterscholastic athletics, this is a positive for our program as it is nice to be able to provide our players and coaches with a consistent feel for home games.”