State championships on hold

The PIAA announced on Thursday that it is postponing its Basketball and Class 2A Swimming and Diving Championships for a minimum of two weeks, a decision that was made in the best interest of member schools, student-athletes, sports officials and the general public.

The Class 3A swimming and diving championships were truncated to allow for limited spectators, and were completed at the end of Thursday’s diving session.

Marian’s Maddie Dando, Panther Valley’s Erika Zimmerman and Emily Newton and Palmerton’s Carson Allen were all set to compete in the Class 2A event, which is held at Bucknell University in Lewisburg.

The 2A sessions were scheduled to begin this morning and continue through Saturday night.

The Tamaqua boys’ basketball team was scheduled to face Pope John Paul II tonight at 7:30 in a Class 4A quarterfinal contest.

“It’s one of those things where this is an unprecedented situation,” said Blue Raiders’ head coach Jim Barron. “No one has ever dealt with this before, and you can see that with the PIAA making its decision. And you see these NCAA Tournaments getting cancelled; the NBA has suspended its season. This is obviously bigger than the sports world. We support the decision from the PIAA. We have to look out for what’s best for our athletes, what’s best for our community. It might not be the most popular call, but I believe that by doing this they are looking out for the athletes.

“As far as what we do from here, we’ll practice right now. We’re not putting the students at any other risk, because they’re already in school and everything. If the school would decide to suspend that, then we’ll figure out where we’ll go.”

By enforcing the two-week hiatus, the PIAA believes the action “will allow schools time to perform self-assessments and make decisions to promote optimal health conditions in their communities.”

“The Board of Directors are committed to promoting an environment of healthy athletic competition that is consistent with current health department and the Center for the Disease Control guidelines,” PIAA Executive Director Dr. Robert Lombardi said in a statement.

The PIAA Sports Medicine Committee will meet this weekend for further discussion.

“Modifications to tournaments will include limiting team and spectator parties, health recertification by authorized medical professionals and changes to game day procedures. Additional direction to competing schools will be provided over the coming days in consultation with school administrators, local, state health and governmental authorities,” the statement read.

The decision comes in the wake of most major sports organizations suspending play or canceling events.

“I think it really started hitting (Wednesday) night when the NBA suspended its season,” said Barron. “And now you’re seeing everything follow suit. You worry about the students’ health, the community health, and everything along those lines. This is one of those things, I believe, that everybody is going to remember for the rest of their lives. For as long as I’ve been alive, nothing like this has ever happened before. It’s a huge thing, and there’s a lot of unknown out there right now, and until we can figure it out, it’s best to do what we can for our players and the community.”

Despite the uncertainty surrounding what lies ahead, Barron is trying to remain optimistic for whatever comes next.

“I’m getting ready to go to practice today,” Barron said Thursday. “We’re still having school so we’re going to continue to practice – as of right now. I’ve been in contact with Mike (Hromyak, Tamaqua Athletic Director) through text messages. I plan on sitting down with him; we have to sit down and talk to the team. It’s still very early in the process. We’re just trying to do what we can for right now, and we’ll see what decisions are made going forward that are in the best interest of everybody.

“Obviously, we’re hoping for the best. But we’re dealing with the same thing that everybody else is dealing with. It’s not like we’re put in an unfair situation. Every team that’s left is still going to have to deal with this situation, and we’re hoping for the players, who put their time and dedication in, we hope that we can spearhead this whole thing and figure out a logical ending to it. But all the information they need to collect in the coming weeks to see where they go from here instead of sitting around and waiting ... We just have to stay as prepared as we can.”