Decision time is fast approaching (if it hasn’t already hit prior to this Webb Weekly publication date). Major League Baseball is scheduled to ‘open’ their 2020 season this week, the NBA hopes to conclude their 2019-20 season under a bubble in Florida, the NFL is nervously approaching the opening of its training camps and the lords of college football are gazing out over their empire trying to determine how to milk their ‘cash cow’ without threatening the lives of their minions.

The sports so many of us love could never have seen have itself in its current state. Several MLB stars have already ‘opted out’ of playing in the league’s curtailed 60-game season. NFL players don’t want to play pre-season games, and doubt lingers as to what kind of season the league will have. The NBA’s seasonal renewal occurs in Florida, the state with the highest spike in the pandemic’s ongoing onslaught. Meanwhile, NBA players are bickering over what name they will wear on the back of their uniform jerseys pertaining to social justice. That hardly seems to matter as the one number we continue to be concerned with is the hyphenated number COVID-19.

Our neighboring hallowed ground of Happy Valley, along with the rest of their Big Ten brethren, have circled the wagons and pronounced to the world that they will only entertain themselves when and if there is a college football season. The PAC-12 has made a similar decision, and as time marches on, others will most likely follow. The Ivy League earlier this month announced the cancellation of fall sports, followed soon after by the Centennial League (Susquehanna).

Closer to home the Patriot League (Bucknell) has also cancelled all fall sports, The MAC (Lycoming’s home) has plans only to play conference games.

As the dominos continue to fall, Webb Weekly reached out to the Lycoming County public high school athletic directors to seek information as to how the local schools are handling their athletic programs. We thank Williamsport’s Sean McCann, Muncy’s Curt Chilson, and Hughesville’s Ken Tallman for their responses.
WW: What is the level of the current activity with your athletic program?

McCann: Our teams began their workouts on Wednesday, July 1, after the school board approved our resocialization plan on June 21. The fall sports teams of football, boys’/girls’ soccer, volleyball, and cheerleading have been going with good participation numbers for the students. The coaches have worked very hard with their plans to incorporate training and conditioning drills while maintaining social distance and providing a good, safe experience for the student-athletes. As an athletic program, we made the decision to not participate in any summer leagues or competitions with our students. Our focus is on conditioning and skill development for the current time frame until the pre-season begins. The winter sports of boys’/girls’ basketball and wrestling are doing the same thing right now as well.

Chilson: We just started July 6th, having our student-athletes workout. These workouts are being done with social distancing.

Tallman: Currently, our teams are moving to phase 3 of the return to play program guidelines.
WW: What are the expectations fall sports will start on time?

McCann: As of the moment, we are planning on the scheduled starting dates for the sports, August 10th, for football and August 17th for the other fall sports. The PIAA has stated they plan to start the fall sports season as scheduled, so that is what we are preparing for at this time. However, we do realize how dynamic this situation is, changing almost every day. We want to be sure we are prepared to do what is best for the student-athletes in our school and community, to keep them safe.

Chilson: If we have fall sports, I expect them to start on time. In my opinion, I think it will be an all or nothing decision that is made by the governor, the PIAA, or individual school districts. Recently, we have seen a few college sports conferences shut downfall sports in this manner.
WW: How are you preparing for the potential of no fans in the stands?

McCann: Unfortunately, that is a possibility at this point, having our sports played this fall without spectators in the stands. I think most people would accept that, knowing that the students will be able to have their games and events. We are hoping for at least limited spectators, with stands at 50% capacity. Our facilities at Williamsport would allow that to happen and allow parents and family to see the games and events if we can do that. We have already had discussions with our Instructional Technology (IT) department about live-streaming our events. We have done that at our football stadium, gym and pool already this past year, so the system is already in place if we need to go in that direction, to provide that service to our parents and school community.

Chilson: We will live stream events where fans are excluded from watching in person. I am hopeful that our competitors would do the same.

Tallman: With the current and constant changes going on daily with COVID-19, we are staying focused on the day-to-day plans we have in place. We will follow whatever plans are set forth when we reach that stage of play here in August.

Meanwhile, UPMC has developed some guidelines to help sports organizations return to play.

“We started as a team developing a plan,” explained Jeanne Doperak, a primary care physician at UPMC Sports Medicine. “We were able to come up with what we feel like are some inclusive guidelines to help the community take the next step to get back to sports.

“The youth playbook is meant for youth sports, travel teams, community rec leagues, and even has sections on tournaments, competition and practice, which obviously at the youth level looks a lot different than high school. So, we’ve written a specific set of guidelines for high school and collegiate athletes, which each step of the way looks a little different.”

For more information on the Return to Sports Playbook, visit UPMC.com(https://www.upmc.com/services/sports-medicine)