Due to the new gathering limits imposed by Gov. Tom Wolf, the crowds will be sparse at the PIAA football championships this weekend in Hershey.
The PIAA decided Tuesday that each of the 12 schools in the six state championship games will get 386 tickets to sell. Any tickets that aren’t sold by 8 a.m. Thursday will go on sale to the general public through the PIAA web site and Ticketmaster.
The games will be played at Hersheypark Stadium on Friday and Saturday, and four WPIAL teams have made it to the championships — Jeannette (Class 1A), Central Valley (3A), Thomas Jefferson (4A) and Pine-Richland (5A).
The PIAA came up with the 386-ticket figure because Wolf’s gathering limit is 5% of capacity. PIAA executive director Bob Lombardi said Hersheypark’s football capacity is 15,623.
All six championship games will be televised live by PCN and also live streamed on PCN Select.
“We’re doing our best to finish the end of the season,” Lombardi said. “We think a lot of people have pulled together and have overcome an awful lot of things this season. We want to finish the season and whatever we have to work through, we will.”
Winter watch
As for winter sports, official practices started last Friday and many schools around the state started practices. However, some schools decided not to allow their winter sports teams to start practices until early or even mid-December because of spikes in COVID-19 cases.
The PIAA stated last week that winter sports competitions will go on as scheduled, starting Dec. 11. The PIAA board of directors has a meeting Dec. 9, when they will further discuss winter sports. But right now, there are no plans to delay the start.
“A lot of schools started practices last week. We have a hodgepodge of what schools are doing,” Lombardi said. “Each school is doing what’s in the best interest of their community and we’re good with that. We will meet Dec. 9 and take a look at a lot of things, just like we did for fall sports. We’ll see if we have to make any adjustments. But right now with many schools going virtual, you’ve got kids kind of in a bubble. Schools are keeping kids healthy and safe and we’ll make decisions as they come.”
Among the WPIAL schools that have delayed winter sports practices is Highlands, which decided Monday night to delay the start of all winter sports practices until Jan. 15. The Rams’ boys basketball team is the defending WPIAL Class 4A champion, but they won’t be able to practice until mid-January.
“I understand the administration pushing things back for the safety of everyone in our area,” Highlands boys basketball coach Tyler Stoczynski said. “But I disagree with it for our student athletes and others who need extracurricular activities for their well-being.”
Stoczynski said his team was already in quarantine until Dec. 2 because a player tested positive last Friday.
The delay until Jan. 15 will make it hard to have a season because, under PIAA rules, teams must have 15 practices before they can play a game. That means Highlands wouldn’t be able to play a game until early February, making it awfully tough for the Rams to get their section games in before the end of the regular season in mid-February.
“I hope our school is maybe willing to revisit this in the future,” Stoczynski said. “We hope that maybe the PIAA could suspend the 15-practice rule so we could have a season. We just hope that, moving forward, people are open to retaining the season because it’s really important to a lot of people.”
Mike White: mwhite@post-gazette.com and Twitter @mwhiteburgh
First Published: November 24, 2020, 8:14 p.m.
