US report: Bald eagle populations soar in lower 48 states

126693158_web1_Update-324

Times Leader P.M. Update: Wednesday, March 24

The PIAA is seeking to return to normalcy for the spring sports season. That means no truncated state playoffs if possible.
				PIAA executive director Bob Lombardi said during Wednesday afternoon&rsquo;s Board of Directors meeting that barring any setbacks there will be full state playoff brackets for all spring sports. The entire 2020 spring season was canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The public health situation has improved since then, making the PIAA comfortable with returning to full state playoffs.
				&ldquo;The rationale for that is twofold,&rdquo; Lombardi said. &ldquo;One, the students that played spring sports last year lost their season. We know we can&rsquo;t compensate for that because it&rsquo;s water over the dam, but we want to do everything we can to get them a full compliment of games and a full compliment of playoffs any opportunity we can.&rdquo;
				The board didn&rsquo;t push ahead and approve any state playoff structure for spring sports. Lombardi said during the February meeting that issue would likely be addressed in April. The board has a meeting tentatively scheduled for April 7.
				The PIAA tournaments in the fall and winter were limited to district champions only. That meant, for example, only seven teams in the Class 6A boys basketball state playoffs instead of 32. A return to a full bracket would mean 16 teams each classification for baseball and softball.
				&ldquo;That&rsquo;s our intention,&rdquo; Lombardi said. &ldquo;Consistent with the fall and the winter, there may be some consideration for champions only, but we&rsquo;d like to get a full bracket in if possible, especially being outside and the changes in the climate and the students missing their whole seasons last year.&rdquo;
				Lombardi, though, said some issues still need to be addressed for spring sports.
				&ldquo;The first thing is if you go to a full bracket we&rsquo;re going to have to have places that would host midway games,&rdquo; Lombardi said. &ldquo;If the schools and the memberships are not able to do that for whatever reasons &mdash; policies on their campuses &mdash; that&rsquo;s going to change the landscape.&rdquo;
				The PIAA will be holding meetings with each of its 12 districts where it will be able to gauge interest in schools hosting state games as neutral site facilities.
				&ldquo;That&rsquo;s why at this time if we could make that announcement we could put people on notice to see if they would be willing to do that and see if we could, in fact, host those games,&rdquo; Lombardi said. &ldquo;If not, then we might be proceeding the same way with (only) champions and home sites.&rdquo;
				Medlar Field, which is home to Penn State baseball and the collegiate summer league State College Spikes, has been secured to host the state championship games. Penn State&rsquo;s softball stadium hasn&rsquo;t been locked up yet as the host for the state championships, but Lombardi is optimistic.
				&ldquo;Right now I don&rsquo;t see any hurdles,&rdquo; Lombardi said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ll see how things go.&rdquo;
				There are some minor issues with using Shippensburg University once again for the state track and field championships, mainly the housing of the athletes &mdash; there will likely be one athlete per room instead of the normal two. There could also be some minor tweaks on how the two-day event is conducted.
				PIAA chief operating officer Mark Byers said he would be meeting with the Track and Field Steering Committee on Monday to discuss the championships.
				PIAA officials will also be meeting with the Hershey Racquet Club concerning the state tennis championships. Championship sites for boys and girls lacrosse and boys volleyball weren&rsquo;t addressed at Wednesday&rsquo;s meeting.
				Winter championships
				The winter sports season ends this weekend with the basketball championships and the team wrestling championships.
				Each team in the basketball championships was allotted 650 tickets. Any tickets not used will go on sales at 4 p.m. each day for games the following day. The championships are being held Thursday through Saturday at the Giant Center in Hershey.
				The team wrestling championships are Saturday with the semifinals and titles matches at Cumberland Valley High School. Each team was given an allotment of 75 tickets.

PIAA is optimistic spring sports will have full state playoff format